Ecology Club honored with national award

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Gazebo Photo by Sabina Ajjan

Stratford sophomores (L-R) Varnika Guduri and Esha Panse

Stratford’s Ecology Club is the recipient of the Keep America Beautiful Award for Youth for 2020. 

The awards ceremony was held Thursday evening at the National Conference in Memphis. Sophomores Varnika Guduri and Esha Panse accompanied the head of upper school Ms.Theresa Ferrari and Ecology Club advisor Ms. Candace Bridges to the ceremony. 

The club has actively tried to reduce pollution and improve the environment in Macon in many ways. They participated in the Adopt-a-Spot project, led many trash pickups on Peake Road, participated in a Christmas tree recycling event, and organized a river cleanup.

I think it was our diversity of projects. The community is noticing that we’re cleaning up, that we’re keeping the area more clean and the poundage of trash has gone down.

— Mrs. Candace Bridges

“I think it was our diversity of projects (that helped us win the award),” Mrs. Bridges said. “The community is noticing that we’re cleaning up, that we’re keeping the area more clean and the poundage of trash has gone down.”

The Ecology Club has many leaders. Varnika and Esha are officers of the Ecology Club. Junior Maddie Fackler and senior Haley Hendricks are co-presidents of the club and Junior Om Patel is vice president. 

“It’ll be really good for the school and Ecology Club because then it’ll probably lead to more awareness of the Ecology Club and more people will want to participate in activities,” Varnika said.

Mrs. Bridges hopes this will encourage more students to become active members in the club and show students that their hard work does pay off.