Earth, mankind’s only home, yet everyday we destroy it, piece by piece. Many choose to ignore this global devastation, yet a few North Platte High School students have taken it upon themselves to start to clean up mankind’s pollutants.

Junior Riley Dehr is putting his words into action by forming an Environmental Club. “In speech, I would always pick out bottles from the trash and put them into the recycling cans,” Dehr said. “I don’t understand why people couldn’t throw the bottles in the recycling; it’s literally three feet away.” Dehr’s passion for the environment has been felt throughout all of the speech team. “He would grill us every speech meet about picking up our trash,” said junior Breanna Patterson.

Starting up the club took a lot of effort, according to Dehr, because it requires an advisor and a certain amount of students. Luckily, Madison Middle School teacher Bobbi Dehr stepped up to fill the role as an adviser. “I don’t know if the club would have been able to start up without her,” said Dehr.

The club already has 20 members, all from a variety of backgrounds and interests. It really shows how that no matter how you look at it, any person can care for the environment. “I keep it light, and try to make people realize that what they’re doing is making a huge difference,” Dehr said. “The important thing to realize is that human life is destroying everything, not only on a national level, but on a global scale. For the first time in history, the natural world might not make it,” he said.

The group has started to set out recycling bins throughout the school. ”We made boxes to put into rooms to recycle every week,” said junior Samiya Alexander. Along with that, the group plans to help Keep North Platte/Lincoln County Beautiful with an electronic recycling event on Oct. 15th.

The Environmental Club meets up every Thursday after school in room 1401. “Anyone is welcome to come, and come in when you can. It’s not a big deal if you miss a meeting,” Dehr said. High hopes and goals have been set for the club. At the end of the day the only thing that’s going to be here is Earth, and that’s why it’s our job now to protect it.”This club has really opened my eyes,” Alexander said.