Jonathan Alder High School’s new nature club, run by seniors Anna Engle and Addison Schumacher, is for students who want to get outside and enjoy nature. They meet on Fridays right after school in the courtyard. 

This club will help students be with nature more and really just help the school and environment.

“I mean, it’s just taking time to just get kids outside,” Schumacher says. 

While the club is just getting started, the plan is that nature club will go on hikes, help make a garden, plant trees, keep the courtyard nice, and help monarchs. They also have a compost program they are going to start and help clean up around the school. 

Engle was inspired by thinking about her legacy as an Alder student. “I was just just thinking about what I could do to make the school a better place,” she says. “I thought that our school needed more clubs, and I think we were experiencing spring fever [when we came up with the idea]. And we wanted to get outside, and I also just always loved hikes.” They were nervous and almost didn’t start, but since they have started, they have been happy they did. 

In order to start the club, Schumacher and Engle first needed to find an advisor and get approval on it. Nature club’s advisor is teacher Kathy Marshall. 

“[Starting the club] was actually surprisingly easy,” says Schumacher. “And I was really surprised by the turnout.” says Schumacher.

So far, the club has had three meetings. They had seventeen people at their first meeting, and the numbers continue to increase.

Because founders Engle and Schumacher are both seniors, they won’t be here to continue the club next year. Instead, they will have this year’s other club officers, juniors Caitlyn Yates, Estrella Flores-Villanueva, take the lead. 

Their first event this year is October 14 at Inniswoods. Anyone is welcome, and club members will meet in the parking lot near the wooden entry gate to the gardens at 11 a.m. for snacks and a walk.