The Eco Club’s thrift shop has been a hit with the students at FHS, and has made over $200 in profit. According to junior Audrey Navin, people keep wanting to donate to the thrift shop.

“A friend of mine helped buy the sleeveless turtleneck and a white belt for me,” said Felix Melvin. Melvin describes that the thrift store was a very unique idea, and that he had never seen a thrift store in a school before.

Navin was looking forward to showing that students can find cheap, trendy clothes without contributing to the damange that fast fahsion can cause the environment. “Students don’t have to pay that much for on trend things. Trends come and go, you want more versatile things that you can wear everyday in basic pieces that you can just constantly wear and they don’t go out of style,” said Navin.

The idea to start the event began with the concept from VCU’s thrift store and student-run organizations. “It’s a great cause they have on the campus,” Navin said. The Eco Club members all worked together to create this event. According to Navin, the event was created “to inform students about the causes of fast-fashion and how bad it is for the environment [and] to show kids how easy it is to up-cycle your clothes and bring down consumption rates.”

This year was the first year that the Eco Club ran the thrift shop. In the past, the club has done events to celebrate Earth Day and created a hydroponic plant system. “Back in 2016, before COVID hit and everything, we informed people of the importance of farming, and how easy it is to do it at home even if you don’t live anywhere with land,” Navin said.

Navin said that she would like continue to do similar environment-focused work in the future, saying, “I would love to have a conservation plan as I get older. I do want to do more environmental programs, and help out with my town and just the county and do everything I can to make the Earth greener and bring down consumption rates.”

During regular Eco Club meetings, students spend time talking about various topics such as the environment, the community, what they can do, what they know and who’s on board with the topics. “We talk about big topics that are far beyond our reach, like ice caps melting, sea levels rising,” Navin said. They watch movies, talk together, make a lot of posters to inform people, and post on their Instagram. “I know it’s very hard for some people to go from plastic to complete zero waste and all reusable stuff,” Navin said.