Breaking ground is usually considered a bad thing for the environment, but the groundbreaking measures that Farmingdale students have taken for the school district's first recognized Earth Day can be deemed completely successful. Led by Farmingdale High School's Team Kramedawg's Recycling Program, named in honor of their teacher Steven Kramer, the Go Green Club will hopefully start a new trend for the town to be environmentally sound.

"Because one of our groups opened a recycling program, the district allowed us to start an after-school group called the Go Green Club, and this Earth Day project was something we've been working on since November," Kramer said.

The students held an Earth Day celebration, April 20 in the Village Green, which offered an opportunity to make the community aware of various environmental issues. The day included entertainment such as a live student band in the Village Green's Gazebo and face painting to add to the fun. The Long Island Falconry Association was there, which specializes in rehabilitating animals, in addition to the Farmingdale Federation of Teachers, which was planting apple seeds. Many other companies and associations attended, including the Town of Oyster Bay recycling group and other various environmental associations.

"We had a very good showing," Kramer said. "It was a beautiful day and a lot of different people from different parts of the community came down. All the companies said they wanted to come back next year, so that alone was a big success."

The event was one phase of the Scholastic/Lexus Environmental Challenge, the competition in which Farmingdale students were involved for the first time. The students received a cash prize for succeeding in the first round of the competition, and that money will go toward the Contemporary Global Issues elective class taught by Kramer at the high school.

"The class deals with issues from all sorts of areas: economic, political, social and environmental issues. We have talked about the gap between rich and poor in countries, industrialization, terrorism, conflict and scarcity...it is really a cross between a social studies class and a science class," Kramer said. "It mixes scientific problems with social reasons for why these things are happening."

The group was on display at the most recent Farmingdale Community Summit Expo a few weeks ago in the high school gym. The Lexus Environmental Challenge is "a nationwide education program and contest about the environment that empowers teens to create a better world," according to Scholastic.com, which is sponsoring the competition. The site claims that over $1 million in scholarships and grants will be awarded throughout the program.

The competition makes teams of students and one teacher/advisor define an issue, make a plan to address the issue, implement the plan, and report the results within an online Action Plan. The successful recycling program was phase one, and the most recent community event to raise public awareness of environmental issues was another phase. Had the students made the finals of the competition, the challenge would have put them in position to "change the world," not only their community. But the club was so successful that it received honorable mention on the competition's web site.

"[The students] were really the catalyst behind all this, most of the things were their ideas," Kramer said. "They are a very active group of kids, and truly concerned, too. They did not do this just to join a club, they are concerned about recycling and global warming and things like that."

Earth Day has been a nationally recognized holiday since 1970, when the April 22 celebration date became official. The day is used for citizens to become aware of global issues threatening natural resources and to encourage action against environmentally harmful practices.

The Go Green Club will continue its quest for a more environmentally sound community and is hopeful for more community-involvement like it received at its celebration.

As the club has stated on its website, "we are encouraging our local community to think about things environmentally...you never know what could be learned, and what this could spark."