For several years now, the ECO Club has been a popular and admired club at Patriot. Its fun, interactive and environmentally-friendly activities have always made it a fan favorite. Even with the new obstacles now causing everyone to stay inside, this outdoorsy-based club will still continue to spread its message virtually!

“ECO Club is a place to inform and educate about the environment and the climate crisis in a way that is enjoyable to the public,” said ECO Club President Teresa Thornton. “Right now we are promoting individual activities for members to do and focusing more on the education aspect of environmentalism.”

Similar to most clubs and organizations at Patriot, ECO Club is also currently staying virtual to guarantee safety to its members. But as most challenges with online learning come, the new virtual system makes it difficult to interact and engage with others.

“We are planning to engage our members with discussion boards via Canvas, having discussions with the members during the meetings, and creating ECO TikToks,” explained Thornton. “We are using Canvas, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok to interact with the members.”

This unconventional school year has also made it particularly hard for new students and freshmen to get involved in school activities. Most clubs include point systems for members, usually to collect a cord or achievement once they have a specific number of points. ECO Club is one of these clubs and it is now offering different and safer ways to earn these points.

“We do have a point system, and some ways to earn the points are by going to the virtual meetings, completing the point opportunities, and joining the organizations that ECO Club is affiliated with,” said Thornton.
Some exciting news that ECO Club is ready to share this year is a new project, “we will have a major overarching project that will be yearlong. It is on single-use plastic and the effect of marine debris,” Thornton explained, “this is really big because we will be interacting with other students and teachers outside of ECO Club, along with county-wide organizations.”

Despite the challenges and unusual circumstances this school year, ECO Club will continue to offer enjoyable and informative activities to its members and they should be excited for what’s to come!