Last spring, senior Matthew Evinston and senior Claire Rolf decided they wanted to help the community be cleaner and have fun while doing it. With this idea, they created the Play for Green Club. Around once a month, the club will pick a park or community space to clean up. Once all the cleaning is done they get to play games like kickball or tag and enjoy the space they just cleaned.

Play for Green Clubs centers around building a more environmentally friendly community. They focus on building strong community connections while maintaining a clean environment. 

“We realized within Stillwater, there was no environmental club working towards bettering the overall Stillwater community, and we took it upon ourselves to go and clean up trash at local parks. We decided to make it interactive, and that’s where the play part of the club comes from,” Eviston said.

Also the Play for Green Club helps educate the community and of our environment. They also help show and teach environmentally sustainable practices. By showing these practices they help bring the community together to do good in our environment.

When talking about the reason why the Play for Green Cub was an idea it is because “it was created to kind of bring the community together in ways that the school normally doesn’t provide.” Rolf explained. Also “We thought that a good way to clean up the environment while also building new connections within the school would bring growth to both the environment and the community within,” Rolf added.

Some roles that are present in a Play for Green club are preserving and protecting the environment. It is also helping maintain the community’s environment by cleaning them. After the club is done cleaning them the opportunity is given to get to play games with fellow clubmates in the freshly cleaned space. 

Rolf said, “It was created to kind of bring the community together in ways that the school normally doesn’t provide.”

As they go to a park for fun and to play, if they are dirty we can not enjoy them to their full extent. It also strengthens bonds with the people in our community while picking up trash. The club helps build community because they get to play in their now clean facility Enviston explained. 

An organization like the Play for Green Club can help bring awareness to the environment. It also can help people’s mental health while creating a strong, friendly community of people one may or may not know that well. It allows people to get to know others. 

“I think a club that promotes mental health awareness as well as cleaning up the community is two things that are impacting our society, especially our young people. And I think to have two elements in which we can focus on this is a big part of what we want to strive to build here at Stillwater Area High School. So I think having this club brings two different ideas together that are hot-button issues that I think are just as important,” history teacher Jason Caballero said.

With this, the future of the Play for Green club looks like they hope to expand and be more well-known. With not many people knowing about it, it is not as big of a community as current club members would like it to be. With the hope to expand they want to be able to clean bigger community spaces.

“We would like to broaden our horizons a little bit, maybe move to a bigger facility to clean up, and kind of get to the point where they have enough people and enough people willing to clean up that we can kind of expand further,” Rolf said.

“You would regret it in your life if you don’t try to do something because you’re feeling like you don’t want to. But take a chance and come check this club out,” Caballero said.

 The club gives students the opportunities to build relationships with fellow students and help create a clean community environment.