HHS Earth Club thrift store pop-up partners with The Tree Trust non-profit

In such a fast-paced world, the public can easily be divided on their opinions about climate change awareness. While some make conscious daily efforts to preserve our world, others don’t give their actions a second thought. The HHS earth club not only advocates for consciousness but additionally takes action to support a move towards a healthier earth.

On February 15th and 16th Earth Club held a thrift store in the HHS commons. After taking donations from students, they arranged the clothing by categories and sold the merchandise to HHS students.

While thrifting is a popular activity amongst teenagers, the true goal behind this effort was to both advocate for and fight against fast fashion in addition to raising money for the TreeTrust Non-Profit.

“Early on we knew we wanted our profits to go to a non-profit instead of just our club funds” said Ava Stahl, Senior and Vice President of the HHS earth club. “We decided to donate to TreeTrust because they are a local Minneapolis non-profit that work to create a better environment and also to better the community and people around them”.

The Tree Trust non-profit combines educational and career initiatives with action within the Minneapolis community. They fight against unemployment by financing programs to teach their employees about living a sustainable life as well as career skills. This experience and set of connections work to place people into environmental careers.

Additionally, the Tree Trust plants and sells trees, does lawn care in any climate and works on landscaping projects for a variety of local green spaces. The goals of this organization align clearly with the values of the HHS Earth Club. 

The idea for this specific thrift store fundraiser spawned when Earth Club Presidents Allison Butz, Kenna Brandt, and VP Ava Stahl attended the Greater Twin Cities High School Environmental Coalition (GHEC). There they were able to converse with other High School environmental clubs about sustainability topics and ideas for future events. 

“Most people are well aware of the immense fast fashion crisis the world is facing with most items in the landfill being clothing excess,” said Stahl. “We had shown documentaries in Earth Club but believed that this was an issue that we would not be able to directly address ourselves. At the GHEC we were able to get insight, support, and motivation to push forward on our pop-up thrift store idea”.

Aside from raising money for the Minneapolis community through Tree Trust, this pop-up thrift store also directly benefitted people in need in and around HHS.

Everything that was not sold at the event was given to the Hopkins Student Closet which provides clothing to students of the entire Hopkins School District who may need clothing throughout the school year. In addition, what wasn´t donated to the Hopkins School Closet was given to the organization PROP which provides free clothing and household goods to local families in need. 

The HHS Earth Club meets other Tuesday at 8AM in S245. This club is unique in that they are not only spreading awareness but they’re actively taking initiatives to better our global health. In a typical meeting, they will do anything from pick up trash, to watching educational documentaries or making posters.

“I love that it is a very diverse community of students from many backgrounds and social groups as environmentalism does not target a specific audience and affects everyone,” said Stahl. We also have a great committed group of students who love to help in any way they can”. 

The work the HHS Earth Club does is not only behind the scenes but has also impacted HHS by teaching our students important lessons such as giving clothing a new life is one simple way that we can turn repur pose clothing and keep it from ending up in landfills.