The third annual Environmental Service Day is on Saturday, October 12th from 8 a.m – 12:30 p.m. at Niles North.

Volunteers will meet at Niles North to check in, learn where they will be volunteering, and eat breakfast provided by the Green Committee for School Improvement. Afterwards, the volunteers will begin working. This will be NARWHALS club third year participating in the event. They were the first club to introduce the environmental service day. Other clubs have participated in the past as well, including APES students from both North and West, WHO Club students from North, and honors biology students from West.

“It’s more fun when more friends go together and gets more work done.  It’s killing two birds with one stone, both doing good for the environment while having fun,” , one of last year’s participants and senior Esther Yim said .

The event is divided into three parts. From 8:30 – 9:00 AM,  volunteers will travel by bus to their site. This year, volunteers will be working at The Grove, River Trails Nature Center and Watersmeet Prairie Grove.

From 9:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m. volunteers will perform natural areas restoration work. This work may include cutting and burning invasive species that have a negative impact on the environment and/or collecting seeds to be used to help introduce native plants back into local environments and improve their health.

From 12 – 12:30 p.m.volunteers will travel by bus back to Niles North.  Once they arrive back at North, the event is over and they are free to go home.

Science teacher Thomas Jodelka says that participating in this event was a great experience.

“It was my idea for the NARWHALS to participate in this activity,” Thomas Jodelka, NARWHALS sponsor said. “I have been doing natural areas restoration work for over 5 years and it has been an incredibly rewarding experience for me, so I wanted to share those experiences with students and anyone else in the D219 community.  The work that we do allows participants to get outside, get active, and give back to their community.  It also ties-in quite nicely with the honors biology curriculum.”

A couple of new staff members will be participating this year such as science teacher Michael Nocella.

“I have always had an interest in nature and doing more to give back or be conscientious when it comes to the environment; however, this is the first time I have taken advantage of an organized opportunity to engage in environmental stewardship. So, my desire to participate stemmed from former interests as well as my desire to try something new, says Michael Nocella, Chemistry teacher.

If you are still interested in participating, see Jodelka to see if you can still fill out the Sign-up sheet.