The Botanic Gardens Support Club is a first–year club focusing on volunteer work led by Daniel Choi ‘25. Meetings will be held in 42R at lunch every other Friday.
Through regular community service at the Conejo Valley Botanical Gardens, the Botanic Gardens Support Club emphasizes the value of maintaining natural spaces.
“Our goal is to help support the botanic gardens in our community by volunteering and raising funds,” said Choi. “[The main effort] is to go to the gardens and help them with any physical work they need done.”
Along with volunteer work, the club also brings awareness about the availability and the state of botanic preserves in the WHS area and how students can help those facilities.
“The club was started to raise awareness about the botanical reserves in our area and bring that awareness back to [the student body],” said vice president Anna Lee ‘25. “We volunteer every other weekend to help the people who maintain the botanical garden.”
Choi aspires to gather a large workforce to aid the preservation and maintenance of the botanic gardens in the local community, particularly the Conejo Valley Botanic Garden which he is already familiar with from time spent working there on his own.
“I started last year by personally volunteering at [the Conejo Valley Botanic Garden], and it was very peaceful and serene and calm,” said Choi. “However, when I went there to start [removing weeds], I realized how much work there actually was.”
In the process of giving back to the local area, Choi also hopes to create a close-knit group of members.
“It’s a good bonding experience because we’re all there together,” said Choi. “We’re all working, and not only do we get to get to know each other better but also we get to do something really positive for our community.”
Eco Schools is a returning club at WHS that strives to integrate eco-friendly practices into students’ everyday lives. The meetings take place in 61C every other Thursday.
“In our club, we do presentations [to educate members] on sustainable practices,” said co–president Calvin Kissell ‘24. “We discuss native plants and native animals, and [we] teach our club members about the environmentally friendly ways to do things in their daily lives.”
In a new development, Eco Schools is branching out in partnership with Art Club and Physics Club to develop the new Wellness Garden project on campus.
“This year, the main thing [Eco Schools and Physics Club] are doing is working on the Wellness Garden, which is an environmental engineering project,” said Miriam Tong ‘24, Eco Schools co-president and Physics Club vice president. “Art Club will also be doing a mural [for the garden.]”
Aside from the Wellness Garden, Eco Schools is also maintaining its practice of getting members involved with volunteer opportunities in the WHS community.
“Previously, we’ve had recycling days,” said Tong. “We also have gardening days where we invite students from all across the campus to come to garden in the three gardens around the school. We also organize trash pickups and send out information about external beach cleanups.”
Through their work, Eco Schools hopes to promote not only collaboration between students but also a better understanding of why their mission is so important for students to invest themselves in.
“[Eco Schools] is a great way to learn about the world you live in,” said Kissell. “You just feel good when you get to create projects with people who are helping the environment and helping other people themselves.”
