Earth Week

At the start of the 2018-19 school year, Jessica Cheng ’20 approached Dr. Peretz with an ambitious idea: a school-wide celebration of Earth Day.

Although Earth Day (April 22, 2019) fell on Peddie’s spring long weekend break, Cheng opted instead for a week of environmental service. Together with Dr. Peretz, who was critical to the entire process, they planned various activities, received grants, and coordinated with various faculty members and organizations, such as Meadow Lakes, the Hightstown Environmental Commission, the NJ Watershed, and the DEP, to plan meaningful activities for all students and faculty to participate in throughout the week-and-a-half that followed Earth Day. Dennis Zhang ’20 then facilitated the signing up of PEST members to lead various activities throughout the event.

Prior to Earth Week, Cheng announced the event to the community at the Earth Day chapel, at which Jad Daley ’86, president and CEO of American Forests, the first forest conservation organization in America, gave a speech and met with students for a Q&A lunch afterward.

The tentative schedule (with dates, the activity, and the maximum number of participants) is below:

Thursday, April 25

Planting and installing floating wetlands (40)

Planting lake buffers / Plant Something Campaign (100)

Meadow Lakes Assisted living activity (30)

Friday, April 26

Storm drain labeling (2-4)

Meadow Lakes Assisted living activity (30)

Making posters for dorm recycling (8)

Writing environmental poetry (unlimited)

Planting lake buffers / Plant Something Campaign (100)

Peddie campus and lake clean up (40)

Letter writing campaign to representatives (unlimited)

Saturday, April 27

Rocky Brook Park – clean and rebuild (10)

Stones on walking trails (20)

Planting lake buffers and trail cleanup (unlimited)

Hightstown Trail and Park clean up (unlimited)

Sunday, April 28

Beach Clean up (30)

Week of April 30

(Tuesday, April 30) Sheep fencing installation (10-15)

(TBD) Planting lake buffers @ Meadow Lakes (unlimited)

(Monday, April 29 & Wednesday, May 1) Hightstown Trail and Park clean up (unlimited)

Various associated organizations have already featured Peddie’s Earth Week effort. Clearly, there will be a lot going on soon at Peddie.*

*More updates to follow.

Media coverage:

Day 1:

Today was an incredible first day. Over 1000 plants were planted by students and faculty today. And four entire floating wetlands were constructed. Additionally, only two out of 80 total shovels were broken after nearly 2 hours of work!

Day 2:

In spite of the tempestuous rain today (hence, many outdoor activities were canceled), Earth Week continued. Today’s offers were (1) poster-making, (2) environmental poetry writing, and (3) writing letters to representatives.

Shout out to everyone (faculty and students alike) who participated today in spite of the weather and busy advisory dinners. (The huge letter writing turn out was amazing and the new posters are up near the dining hall stairs!!)

Day 3:

Meadow Lakes cleanup #2 and various trail cleaning happened today. The swim team impressed by planting another 400+ plants in less than an hour! Huge thanks to the JV Tennis team for their “clean-up” performance at Rocky Brook Park.

Day 4:

A fabulous day for a beach clean up at Ashbury Park! Some action from crew members and several other students and faculty members who spent their Sunday afternoon enjoying the beach and giving back to the Earth.