With a new sponsor, new members and a new attitude, the Save What’s Left club at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is looking to make the campus a more eco-friendly place. 

After being less active for the past few years, Save What’s Left is welcoming back its previous sponsor, Tammy Orilio. 

In the 2017-2018 school year, the club was inactive and during the 2018-2019 school year, they started back up again, collecting recycling weekly. 

However, they have bigger plans for the 2019-2020 school year, aspiring to make a greater effort within not only the school community but in all of Parkland as well. 

“We’re talking about things we can do in the garden, and also some ideas for something called ‘Plastic-free Parkland,’” Orilio said. 

“Plastic-free Parkland” is a movement being introduced to the community, initiating eco-friendly environments in local businesses. 

“[‘Plastic-free Parkland’] is allowing us to step out of just MSD in order to make a difference in the community,” Co-President of Save What’s Left Emily Wolfman said. “We are working with the mayor and the City of Parkland to implement more of these initiatives.”

One of their main goals for this school year is to educate the students and faculty at MSD in an attempt to make the campus more eco-friendly.

“I’m hoping that our club will spread some awareness throughout the whole school this year, and get more people on board with becoming eco-friendly,” Orilio said. 

The name of the club itself, Save What’s Left, defines the problem that this student organization is trying to correct. According to The World Counts, a website that informs the public about environmental issues, “At the current rate of deforestation, 5-10% of tropical forest species will become extinct every decade,” while “2.12 billion tons of waste is produced per year.” 

Save What’s Left understands this issue and is trying to preserve what the world has left. 

Save What’s Left’s doors are always open to volunteers; every second and fourth Thursday of the month, students can help the organization after school by collecting recycle bins from classrooms.

Anyone interested in making MSD more environmentally friendly by joining Save What’s Left can speak to Orilio in room 633.

This story was originally published in the December 2019 Eagle Eye print edition.