The only environmental club at MHS is gone; the Surfrider Foundation no longer calls MHS its home.

The Central Long Island Chapter of Surfrider would not allow the club to use the name “Surfrider” unless members paid dues. Students would have to pay a membership fee of twenty-five dollars to join the club, according to surfrider.org. Additionally, the club’s budget would limit it to about two trips for the entire school year, whereas in the past, they went on up to ten trips a year.

Many students were saddened to hear the news. “I didn’t think it was true when I heard about the club shutting down,” former club member senior Rachel Pereira said. “Cleaning up beaches was actually a lot of fun. It hardly felt like work at all.”

The Surfrider Foundation, founded approximately twenty-five years ago by a handful of surfers from Malibu, California, was created to protect and preserve the beach and ocean. The money from donations goes to beach cleanups, education about recycling, and the maintenance of water, to name a few of its many relief efforts.

Former club advisor Mr. Ernest Kabelka dedicated much of his time to this club and motivated students to help the environment. They went on numerous trips including the Seal Walk and a cleanup at the Town of Oyster Bay.

Mr. Kabelka hopes that another environmental club will be created, but has organized other environmental activities in the meantime. He has already committed the tenth grade class to Dune Grass Day and plans to arrange some other environmental trips.
With so many problems in the environment today, the creation of another environmental club should be a number one priority for MHS.