The list of clubs at the high school is expanding with the addition of the City to City Club, started by senior Heidy Coronel.

Members will focus on the big picture of the environment and education locally and globally.

Not only are these issues discussed, but members say they hope to actively make a change through fundraisers and awareness.

“In Ecuador, we are going to sponsor 40 children with educational supplies,” Coronel says. ‘I’ve met all of the children before; they’re lovely and we communicate through Facebook.”

Coronel met the children after a trip to Ecuador and is sending money for textbooks, notebooks, stationery, to name a few, through RiEcuador — a non-profit organization that provides school supplies to children in Canton Gualaceo.

In helping these students abroad, Andrea De Lotto, club adviser, said, “We hope to run fundraisers and take the initiative to collect supplies for students so that they have the tools they need to be successful.”

Members debate and analyze man-made impacts on the environment, including water disparities and the standoff in the Dakotas over an oil pipeline.

The U.S. Corps of Engineers this week announced it was temporarily halting work on the Dakota Access Pipeline, which is threatening sacred Sioux tribal lands and sparked protests to stop construction.

De Lotto, an English teacher, related the dispute to the days of the Age of Exploration.

“Christopher Columbus is responsible for the annihilation of the entire Indian tribe of the Arawak people,” De Lotto said at a recent meeting. “Not only did he take the land but he took the dignity away from these people.”

She continued, “This is not an issue that is new, this is an issue that has been happening, this idea of people trying to stake a claim where they might not have claim.”

Members of the club, Camila Ochoa and Alyssa Mondia, agreed that if students care about the environment and education, they should join.

“This club has definitely taught us about unclean sources and what we can do to save water,” Ochoa said.

“We joined the club so that we could help out Third World countries and we are excited for hands-on fundraisers that we are about to start,” Mondia said.

Coronel stresses that, “The world is so much bigger than us and we need to address how everything is interconnected.”

Other than the educational supply donation to Ecuador, the group is busy preparing a cookie fundraiser that will last until Dec. 15.

Through waterproject.org, Coronel is planning to use this money to help install well pumps in rural villages, including western Kenya, western Uganda and Sierra Leone.

The club meets every first and last Thursday of the month in D484.