This year, The Student Government Association (SGA) has stepped up its game. The student body has seen an increase in events, a spectacular homecoming dance, and a more unified Charter overall. For the last week of January, SGA was able to accomplish yet another annual environmental week focusing on bringing their community together.
Water Bottle Drive:
Throughout the week, Jaguars were encouraged to bring in any plastic water bottles, aluminum cans, and recyclable materials. This collection was ongoing in the cafeteria and was constantly being reminded by SGA and their committee leading this week.
Committee Lead, junior Xavier Reid-Morgan had a vision for the entire week and it began with this drive. With all of the bottles and cans collected, Reid-Morgan would further take them to a recycling plant by Miramar and Miami-Dade to repurpose them.
Member of the Committee, junior Isabella Serrano, comments on the struggles that it was for getting people to participate in this event. “The problem was getting people to do the events, but it was just all about promoting it well.”
T-Shirt Tote Bag Workshop:
Jan. 27th kicked off environmental week as the first event was a t-shirt tote bag workshop. Here, the main vision was to encourage the repurposing of items in most student’s households. For this, it worked best if items such as old t-shirts that sit in the back of most teens’ closets were used.
This DIY allowed students to not only unleash their creativity but also think about how there are other ways they can replenish items instead of throwing them in the trash.
Students met in Nancy Altimore’s room in the D building and rushed in to not only add to their tote bag collection, but also to design a bag in a way that many may have never done before.
Garden Cleanup and Planting:
Wednesday, Jan. 29th, SGA unleashed their inner gardener and marched into the River of Grass (ROG) for a chance to benefit the environment. Here, students were provided with materials like cardboard planters, soil, fertilizer, and seeds. With this, they were able to plant a little bit of love around the school.
After prepping the materials, students walked out of the ROG with smiles on their faces as they planted seeds all across the garden by the U and S building. In just a couple weeks, students and faculty at Charter will be met with the beautiful plants that were planted with care.
Beach Cleanup:
The biggest day of the week was the event that was held on Friday, Jan. 31st. Committee Lead, Reid-Morgan, took his peer’s advice and promoted this event to the max. Reid-Morgan went from person to person the entire week to promote their beach cleanup.
This beach cleanup was to be after school and at the popular Hollywood Beach. Reid-Morgan was extremely nervous about the turn up of this event, but once he entered the sandy beach, he was met with smiles and open arms to clean the environment.
Students came with music blasting, garbage bags in hand, and good energy which helped bring all the grade levels together. Not only was this a success in terms of cleaning up the trash, but some students were also met with marine life such as jellyfish that really amplified all the excitement.
After the week wrapped up with a perfect sunset and Charter students united, Reid Morgan was extremely proud of the turn out. Not only did SGA learn more about themselves as a club, but Reid Morgan found the leader inside of him.
He expressed, “just [seeing a vision] in my head turn into a reality and knowing that it was something that helped the community, made me really happy.”
As the year progresses and spring pep rally is on the way, SGA is only set for future success and more community involvement.
