Chapel Hill High School Senior Kristen Powers is planting seeds for change.
Since founding the Green Tiger Campaign, an environmental club that works to make the school more eco-friendly, during her freshman year, Powers’ efforts have continued to attract attention on both community and national levels — most recently earning her recognition in a popular magazine.
In the November issue of Family Circle magazine, Powers was featured as one of the “5 Teens Who Are Making a Difference.”
“I’ve always been interested in social activism and volunteerism,” Powers said. “I saw that there was a problem at the school and knew there was something I could do to change it.”
With help from Matthew Jessee, a former Chapel Hill High science teacher, and six other students, the club made use of an abandoned greenhouse on the school’s campus and started a community garden in 2008.
Now three years later, the Green Tigers have about 25 members.
Powers said with the help of more than 300 volunteers from the school and community, the Green Tiger Campaign has donated more than 145 grocery bags of organic produce, such as kale, lettuce, arugula and various herbs grown in the garden to low-income families and food banks.
But she said these donations might not have been possible without a $600 grant from the Chartwells Garden Grant program, which Powers applied for this year.
“These kids are very environmentally conscious,” said William Richards, the club’s current faculty advisor. “They want to make sure they are making some sort of difference and not making it worse.”
