Every year, a new group of 8th grade students is invited to participate in the NL-S middle school YES! Team. This year, our team decided that the theme of our projects would be the community. We are the NL-S Middle School YES! Team.
Earlier this year our YES! team brainstormed clever ideas on how to bring awareness to community ecological problems. One project we wanted to tackle is an educational event for the middle school that included activities to get students involved.
Our team held a 5 day-long event for the middle school students from December 13th to December 17th. We chose this specific week because National Energy Conservation Day fell within the week (December 14th). This week Our team presented to over 500 students in classrooms grades 5-8! We planned events for every day of the week to engage students in ecological projects.
- Monday: Pajama Day and a clothing donation.
- Tuesday: wear green for no tech Tuesday
- Wednesday: Patriotic day and no waste Wednesday.
- Thursday: wear a hat day and solar energy day.
- Friday: Wear neon day and highlighter recycling day.
During this week we also held a shoe drive for Angel Bins, a cardboard box donation, and a fundraiser for Team Seas. Our team is also planning to bring this event to our elementary school!
We are currently planning many projects that we will be able to execute in the Spring. In the spring we are planning to fix up our current pollinator plot, and we are also going to help raise awareness of dumping in storm drains!
When asked, “why did you join YES?” some members of our team responded with these answers.
“I am interested in helping the environment.” -Kaytlen Delzer.
“I wanted to do cool stuff for our community!” -Harper Hoffman.
“I wanted to make the world a cleaner place!” -Asher King.
“I wanted to be a part of the team to help and be involved!” -Carson Smith.
“I wanted to make a difference in our future community!” -Addie Buboltz.
We are eager to present this year’s projects to try and make it to the State competition at a Twins game in the spring! We are aiming to be successful in our projects and our competition!
Written by Brooklyn Behne
Edited by, Jasmine Nieto West Central Coordinator
