A New Leaf

By: Annie Mott '16

When April rolls around, everyone on the Severn campus is excited about two things: warm weather, and Prom (and, if you're a senior, the fact that this is your last month of high school -- ever). With flowers blooming and prom dress registries booming, the last thing on anyone's mind is Wednesday, April 22nd. Or, as it is more widely known, Earth Day. 

Earth Day, born out of a response to a ravaging oil spill in 1969 in California, has been a remarkable testament to the changing attitude towards the environment in the last 50 years. Just five decades ago, we Americans were sucking up lead gas like we were dehydrated marathoners, pouring smoke into the atmosphere from factories with little regard for consequences, and marring the Earth's surface irrevocably with deforestation and displacement of wildlife. Populations of species decreased at a rate never before seen, and to this day 16,928 species are still faced with the threat of extinction, while 785 species are extinct. 

Earth Day has come to represent America, and the world as a whole, turning over a new leaf (so to speak) and starting the modern environmental movement. 

This year, Severn School is taking full advantage of Earth Day, turning it into an "Earth Week," with a separate activity for each day to make the school more aware of the environment and what is being done to combat the effects of pollution in our ecosystem. 

Specific details of each activity will not be revealed until April 10, during a Morning Meeting presentation, but each day will be something new and different than what we have seen in past years.
For those students who have not yet completed their service-learning hours, a service opportunity over that weekend may prove to be exactly what you're looking for. 

The Earth Week festivities will prove to be a fun way to celebrate and protect our Earth, as well as a showcase for a new, greener, Severn School.