This spring, Severna Park High School Leadership Institute students, led by seniors Maggie Mullervy and Cooper Powell, worked alongside the Good Neighbors Group to promote, organize and assist with running the 21st Annual Severna Park Earth Day Festival.
Each year, the Leadership Institute fosters various senior-led community service projects working to benefit a specific cause or organization. Mullervy and Powell, who assisted with the Earth Day Festival project last year, chose to take charge of it this year. Not only did they choose the project itself for their previous experience with it, but also due to their shared love of nature and passion for making positive community changes to better the Earth.
The students’ project supported the Good Neighbors Group, a local non-profit dedicated to supporting charitable causes and preserving the environment. Good Neighbors Group works every year to host the festival in Severna Park.
Powell and Mullervy and 16 junior Leadership students recruited 36 volunteers to assist with the festival itself. The team also created 12 social media posts to promote the festival and share sustainable tips, earth facts, and nature pictures. As a group, they created a booth to contribute to the event, which included a school-supply collection for underprivileged schools in Kenya and take-home coloring sheets. On the event day, at the Earleigh Heights Volunteer Fire Company, Powell and Mullervy directed volunteers to assist with set up, parking, donation drop-off, clean up, and assisting the vendors with anything they needed.