December 4, 2007

Waste not, want not

Branham High School club masters art of turning trash into treasure

Campus recycling group a model for participation, awareness, and real-time results

By Candy Richter
Staff Writer

What do you get when you combine a campus filled with teenagers, a liberal sprinkling of litter and multiply by five years? If the campus in question is Campbell Union’s Branham High School, then the answer is SPARE – Students Promoting Awareness of Recycling and the Environment.

Members of the Go Green Schools Initiative tour are given a first hand look at Branham’s Adopt-a-Garden program by SPARE co-officer Amanda Baker, (pictured left). The campus visit, held on Nov. 2, was part of the Earth Summit Conference co-hosted by the city of San Jose.

Previously known as the BHS Recycling Club, the 60-member strong SPARE is the brainchild of social studies faculty member Matt Zehner, who started the club with little more than a good idea and a lone member.

“The first year, it was me and one student,” said Zehner. “By the second year we had 10 people and by the third, we had 30 solid members and had started the adopt-a-garden program. Now we have at least 50–60 active members.”

Picking up trash is hardly a glamour duty, yet SPARE boasts one of the largest member populations of the campus clubs. This is in part due to the “mantra of independent action” evoked by faculty advisors Zehner and social studies instructor John Salberg, and the fact that students get to see the tangible results of their efforts on the Branham campus.

Proceeds from collecting and recycling the school’s can, bottle, paper, ink and toner cartridges and other recyclables has funded a campus beautification “adopt-a-garden” program. Since this program’s inception two years ago, over a dozen landscaped plots have been established and maintained at Branham. Various groups or departments on campus work with SPARE to set up and then maintain each plot. There is currently a waiting list for new gardens.

“[SPARE offers] instant gratification” said SPARE co-officer Amanda Baker, a senior at Branham. “When you come on to campus, you can see right away what’s going on. Who doesn’t like to walk in and see blooming flowers? And it is for such a good cause.”

Second only to the BHS Key Club in popularity, SPARE’s membership recruitment takes place at the beginning of the school year along with the other campus clubs. Members attend meetings; help with the various SPARE supported projects and most important, sign up for trash pick-up shifts.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, senior Stephen Hogan explained that trash shifts are not easy to come by. “The shifts are always full,” said Hogan. “You really have to fight if you want one.”

As a member of the Go Green Schools Initiative, part of SPARE’s commitment to a green campus has been re-educating the student body. Now recycling containers dot the grounds next to standard trash bins and in other high-traffic areas. Over time, these efforts have paid off, and Branham has emerged as a model program for high school level recycling in the San Jose area.

A model program
Deb Bogart, associate environmental services specialist with San Jose’s Go Green Initiatives program sees efforts like Branham’s SPARE club as “Cultivating the next generation of environmental stewards.”

During the Earth Summit Conference held in San Jose Nov. 2 and 3, Branham’s SPARE program was one on the tour stops for visiting Go Green Initiatives members.

SPARE Club faculty co-advisor, Matt Zehner, (pictured center) speaks with group of student volunteers on Saturday, Nov. 10. The day’s activities included Our City Forest tree planting, campus garden maintenance, an e-waste fundraiser and work on the group’s long term project – the Dent Avenue Memorial. About once a month the Branham campus sees approximately 60-70 student volunteers.

“Matt and his team have many creative ideas,” said Bogart. “[Like] redeeming bottles and cans and plastic, and then putting that money back into gardens that are then adopted by campus and student groups. Matt is extremely creative and resourceful”

As a result of the recycling efforts, Branham’s solid waste expenses have been reduced over 20 percent. SPARE has recycled over 24,000 pounds of e-waste and 1,300 pounds of scrap metal over the past year. The school was also awarded a $10,000 “A+ for Energy” grant from British Petroleum for their plans to make Branham a “carbon neutral” school. This grant money will also be used to design lessons on climate change that will be taught school-wide, across the curriculum.

Senior Valorie Guillett, co-officer of SPARE, is confident that the same student-level dedication that brought the club this far will sustain it into the future. “It’s hard to get students motivated to do something,” said Guillett. “But people just do this, out of the goodness of their hearts--for the environment. It’s kind of surreal that this is the second largest club on campus.”

Long-term goals
Beyond the gardens, the work with Our City Forest and the Guadalupe Creek adoption, Salberg and Zehner have set the club’s sights on long-term projects that will offer the dual opportunities of positive environmental impact and community partnership.

One of the most extensive of these projects is the tentatively named Branham Memorial Garden. Stretching along Dent Avenue, this 450-foot by 45-foot strip will be landscaped with native plants and will commemorate CUHSD graduates that have fallen in war. The grove will also feature a walking path with tables and seating. Funding for this project will be secured through grants, donations and fund-raisers with volunteers donating the manpower.

Although this is a tall order to fill, considering the list of accomplishments SPARE has racked up over the past few years, this goal looks to be well within the club’s reach. And as Zehner is fond of saying “It took only 56 people to sign the Declaration of Independence, and that didn’t turn out too badly.”