In hopes of broadening student volunteer opportunities and promoting environmental stewardship, NHS launched Project Gloves at the start of the school year, focusing on supporting local farms and gardens with diverse service opportunities, junior Sean Tessone, NHS vice president and project lead, said.
Through engaging gardening service activities, officers hope to instill students with a sense of environmental responsibility, Project Gloves junior officer, sophomore Mishti Doshi said.
“It’s really important to preserve your environment and do what you can to make sure it’s good for future generations,” Doshi said. “I love how Project Gloves is helping with that impact through volunteering.”
The project partners with local environmental organizations and provides assistance through matching student volunteers to any events that need help, Tessone said. While finding places that accept high school volunteers can be a struggle at times, Tessone said Project Gloves was able to book certain locations by forming long-term relationships with them.
“A really important part of building stronger connections with [organizations] is that I’m [at the events] because they see a name that they keep on emailing back and forth like 20 times,” Tessone said. “I asked the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve if they want us to come again, and they said they don’t usually take volunteers, but they would accept us again.”
To find meaningful locations and volunteer programs, Tessone said planning for the second-semester activities began in November. Instead of the organization’s typical clean-ups or small-scale events, Tessone said the team gravitated toward local gardens, which provide more extensive, hands-on experiences.
“For example, we worked with Hakone Gardens,” Tessone said. “Something I thought was pretty cool was that they gave me a water suit and let me go into the koi pond and work with the fish there.”
The initiative also provides opportunities for socialization while still having a focus on gardening and environmental efforts, which was something junior Isabella Wu said she enjoyed. Project Gloves offers unique events that she had not seen in other organizations, Wu added.
“For the Hakone Gardens volunteering, we had to help set up and clean up the tea festival,” Wu said. “It was really cool to see everyone dressed up for the ceremony, and it was a beautiful landscape.”
Likewise, Tessone said he is looking forward to upcoming events involving collaboration with establishments that do not typically provide opportunities for high school volunteers.
Building on the 500 volunteer hours earned collectively by students in the first semester, Tessone said he hopes Project Gloves can reach a service goal of 1000 volunteer hours by the end of this year. To accomplish this, Tessone said he plans on boosting engagement through Instagram posts.
Furthermore, Tessone said he wants to continue helping gardens, specifically elementary school gardens like the ones at Montclair and Cumberland Elementary School. Through Project Gloves, he hopes to grow fresh vegetables and fruits in their gardens, offering healthy produce to elementary school students.
“I want to be able to leave a lasting impact that isn’t just two hours of volunteering, but a permanent positive change for students,” Tessone said.
