This article was written by Adrian Peralta Diaz, Madeline Vang, and Gaojia Xiong, with support from Green Team Advisor Brionna Harder
This school year, the Henry Green Team, also known this year as the #WhatsMyName Green Team, continues its work to clean up and green up our classrooms, campus and community, with big plans for next year as the school year comes to a close. We hosted a Household Hazardous Waste Collection waste at the end of last school year and we are bringing this event back this August. Last year, our event location was the most successful in Hennepin County, with 650 residents attending and over 35,000 pounds of waste collected! The target dates for this year are August 11 and 12 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. This event is open to the public and there is a significant amount of household waste to dispose of properly and safely. If you are interested and want to know more info visit hennepin.us/collectionevents. Look for flyers in your favorite neighborhood locations later this summer.
We were excited to introduce our community to our Mesonet, a weather tower in collaboration with Hennepin County Emergency Management and since its installation, it has collected a ton of data. Using the Mesonet, we have learned about the vast differences in temperature during the month of April. During the month, the temperature dropped to 20.3 degrees, with the highest temperature recorded being 87.5 degrees just 7 days later. The average daily temperature has more than doubled between the months of January and April, with April being the wettest and windiest month this year. This shows the uses the Mesonet can provide to the Camden neighborhood and to aspiring student researchers within our community.
On April 22, our Green Team sponsored the Earth Day Clean-up at Creekview Park in coordination with the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board, collecting a great amount of trash and recyclables on the park grounds. Volunteers began by cleaning out the playground and alongside the outskirts of the recreational building. Community members later began cleaning areas of the creek, cleansing the area of wasteful and hazardous substances such as glass containers, and a variety of metal and plastic items. We even retrieved the hood of a stove and three tires from in and around the creek. Following this, students examined and sorted the garbage from recyclable materials. The final result was over 20 bags filled, that were to be picked up by the Minneapolis Waste Management, and taken to the proper landfills and recycling centers.
Looking ahead to the 2023-24 school year, we are planning to work on starting organic recycling within the school, adopting more drains for the community, restoring the Oak Savannah plot destroyed in the construction during 2018, and exploring the possibility of installing solar panels at our school. If you will be attending #WhatsMyName, soon to be formerly known as Henry High School, in the fall and are interested in cleaning up and greening up your community and environment, join our Green Team! Just look for the Green Team hi-visibility work vests. We would love for you to be a part of our club and as we always say, bring a friend or two or 10.