Environmental awareness was abundant last week as the Environmental Club, Organic Garden Club and senior Environmental Chair Mabel Tsang hosted the first annual Gunn Earth Week.

Sophomores Environmental Club co-presidents Caroline Hodge and Emily Viggiano planned the week with the intention of raising student awareness about environmental conservation and action.

“Seeing as students are so intelligent and driven at Gunn, I feel that we have an obligation to lead the way as a very environmentally conscious student body,” Hodge said.

The week began with the showing of a film in the Little Theatre at lunch on April 17. The film was about the importance of recycling electronics, and what serious harm can be done by wasting such products.

Along with the film, there was an introduction of Earth Week given by Hodge and a talk by Green Citizen Inc. member Marci Reichelstein.

On April 18, Peter Drekmeier from the Palo Alto City Council came to the Student Activities Center (SAC) at lunch to give an inspiring talk about being environmentally conscious.

“I was trying to emphasize the importance of action as well as education,” Drekmeier said. “A lot of what we learn in school is based on traditional ways of thinking about the world that no longer work.”

The next day, the Environmental Club distributed cloth grocery bags, made from recycled soda bottles, provided by the City of Palo Alto Recycling Program.

In addition to picking up cloth bags Wednesday, students enjoyed free samples of organic and locally grown food in conjunction with the Organic Garden Club. Country Sun and vendors from the Mountain View Farmer’s Market provided drinks, fresh produce and other goodies for students to sample.

On April 20, the Environmental Club sold all of its 27 reusable Nalgene water bottles. They plan to sell Nalgenes on campus again in the future, due to the overwhelmingly positive response they received.

On April 21, Tsang organized a photo exhibit and an “Earth Day resolutions” activity.

On Earth Day, the Environmental Club co-hosted an electronics recycling event with GreenCitizen Inc., from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Club members helped to sort and process electronics brought to the event.

The Environmental Club received 10 percent of the profits made from all the recycling.