Among the crises facing the modern world, perhaps the most daunting is climate change. Young people in particular face a future marred by soaring temperatures, violent weather, and rampant pollution. Junior Amanda Bilchick recounted the first time she was faced with this reality. “In third grade, I learned about microbeads [a type of prevalent microplastic pollution],” she said. “I was confused, because no one had told me about this before and this was really dangerous! I went around to all my neighbors, and I actually printed flyers. They said, ‘If the oceans die, so do we.’ And my neighborhood was no-soliciting, so you weren’t really allowed to go door-to-door.” Her illicit early brush with advocacy put Bilchick on the path that eventually led her to found the Green New Deal for Schools club at WAHS.
Bilchick founded the club (often abbreviated GND4S) this year, but the group has already completed numerous projects. “We went to the city council and crafted public comments about zero-emission school buses,” Bilchick said. Greener transportation is also the subject of one of two short documentaries produced in partnership with Light House Studios. “There are two five- to seven-minute documentaries, about zero-emission buses and about fast fashion,” Bilchick said. “Zero-Emission Buses for a Greener Charlottesville” and “F*** Fast Fashion” won Audience Choice and Honorable Mention awards at the Climate Film Challenge and will be screened at an upcoming international conference on the subject in Denver.
Club co-leader Violet Wiley is also a longtime environmental advocate. “I became a leader because the environment’s something I’ve been passionate about. Selfishly, I love the environment” she joked, but she said that ACPS has some serious work to do. “ACPS could improve in a lot of ways,” Wiley said. Thanks to GND4S’s work, some of that is already underway. “Charlottesville approved zero-emission buses,” she said. “And now we’re creating a petition for the school board on ways to create more sustainable schools, a more sustainable policy.”
“A quote I live by is ‘Speak up even if your voice shakes,’” Bilchick said. “Even just showing up to city council meetings shows that you care, that young people are watching.”
Wiley agreed. She said, “Maybe next year we could hit our stride with interaction with the school board, the community. It’s a great way to learn how to get involved, if you want to learn how to use your voice to change things.”
According to Bilchick, the key to change is for other young people to advocate and speak up, and she hopes that GND4S will help them do that. She said, “We could be a model for other cities, other states, for the world.”
