~ The Advocate Asks ~

Leaders of a student environmental club talk about how the group was formed, just in time for Earth Day

  Editor’s Note: Earth Day will be observed next Monday, April 22. And Earth Day week begins on Sunday, April 21 and will run through next Saturday, April 27. For this week’s interview, we set out with the hopes of focusing on local youth involved in environmentalism. So, we sat down with Zenera Shahu, 15, and Bella Vasi, 16, sophomores at Saugus Middle-High School and copresidents of the Saugus Middle-High School Environmental Club. Zenera was born in Albania and moved to Massachusetts when she was three. She and her family members have been residents of Saugus since she was nine. Bella’s parents are immigrants from Romania, but she’s been a Saugus resident her entire life. Donna Manoogian, co-president of the Saugus Garden Club, introduced us to Zenera and Bella on April 6 during the Annual “Books in Bloom” event held at the Saugus Public Library. The Saugus Garden Club and the New Friends of the Saugus Public Library sponsored the event. Last Saturday, the girls joined a cleanup crew organized by the Saugus Action Volunteers for the Environment that worked for more than three hours picking up litter that had gathered on the ground bordering the parking lot and facing Route 1 North. Highlights of this week’s interview follow.

  Q: Please tell me how the Saugus Middle-High School Environmental Club recently came into being. How did it happen?

  Zenera: It happened after we met Donna Manoogian. We were looking for a community service project at school. We went to Myra Monto, who is the associate principal at the Middle-High School, and asked her for help. Ms. Monto said her mom had a ton of paper that needed to be organized, for the Garden Club and at St. John’s Episcopal Church, so we got in touch with Donna and we began helping her to organize the papers. We spent about five hours during a couple of trips to organize the papers.

  Q: Bella, do you have anything that you would like to add?

  Bella: After we finished the community service, we decided we would start an environmental club at school. We started it on Feb. 29.

  Q: What are you doing here today at the library, at “Books in Bloom?”

  Bella: We just came to see it and decided we would help Donna.

  Q: But what about “Books in Bloom?”

  Zenera: We think it’s good to meet people in groups who are already doing things we’re interested in doing. All of the exhibits we looked at are beautiful. The people did a good job in creating them.

  Q: What do you think about “Books in Bloom,” Bella?

  Bella: I love all of the exhibits. This is a really cool concept. Participating in something like this gives us a chance to engage with the community – something we don’t really get a chance to do, except for Founders Day. Until now, we weren’t really aware of “Books in Bloom.”

  Q: So, obviously, you’ve had an interest in science and the environment.

  Zenera: Yes. We take AP [Advanced Placement] Environmental Science. It introduced us to the problems of the environment, and that got us inspired.

  Bella: Miss Dawn Comproni teaches environmental science, ecology and anatomy.

  Zenera: I really love books. And I really love plants and flowers. I’ve been loving books since I was a child. This whole concept of books and flowers is very cool and very engaging.

  Bella: Books and flowers are my favorite things – something that two people can bond over. Somebody who likes books and somebody who likes flowers can bond over an event like this. It’s really inspiring.

  Zenera: At our first “Books in Bloom,” there’s been a lot for us to see. Maybe next year we’ll make an exhibit and enter it. It seems like a lot of fun.

  Q: Okay. So you both love flowers, books, science and have a desire to get better connected to Saugus with an interest in learning about and caring for the environment.

  Bella: Yes, this club we recently started, one of the main goals is cleaning up Saugus. And we got about 20 kids in the club, and we meet in Room 112 on Wednesdays, right after school.

  Zenera: And we’re doing a fundraiser. We’re looking to collect anything, from old books to CDs to DVDs to vinyl records and cassettes. People have a lot of stuff that they need to get rid of. You know, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

It is a Used Physical Media Fair where we will be selling used physical media like DVDs, books, CDs, vinyl records, cassettes, VHS tapes and game disks to raise money for our native garden that we are planting. The fair itself will be on June 1st, location is TBD. We are accepting any donations of used physical media at 300 Central St. in Saugus (First Congregational Church) and 605 Broadway in Saugus (Eastern Bank) until May 24. Students are also able to drop off donations at the school at room 112.

  Q: Anything else that you would like to say about the club?

  Bella: We definitely want to get more involved with the community, organize some cleanups and connect with people who care about the environment.

  Zenera: The club members are Deirdre McVoy (Teacher, Club Advisor); Nari Lam (Grade 9); Josephine Pepper (Grade 9); Aiyana Cruz (Grade 9); Jennifer Tran (Grade 10); Evelyne Meas (Grade 10); Annabella Tum (Grade 10); Mason Ranno (Grade 10); Addy Spinney (Grade 10); Gus Spinney (Club cat); Jeff Trinh (Grade 10); Madelynne Leonard (Grade 10); Diego Silva García (Grade 10); Gabriel Menendez Rosa (Grade 10); Zahra Ghaouta (Grade 10); Pamela Maturano (Grade 11); Anoki Greer (Grade 11); Sylvia Ahmed (Grade 11); Micheal Cella (Grade 12). For more information, people can email us at SMHS Environmental Club – smhs.environmental.club24@gmail.com