Members 1990's
    Representing the transition into the 1990’s, Juliet Berman (BHS
’95) was a member for three years and president for her senior year. (It
should be noted that over the years the leadership titles changed from
chairman and vice chairman to president and vice president.) “At the time
I joined the club, efforts to close the Town of Brookhaven landfill were
being made by the community. [The landfill] was causing dangers in people’s
backyards, and members of the community wanted it shut down.”
    Berman mentioned that in her first year of SEQ there were roughly
fifteen to twenty members. After that, the club membership declined
and the club reportedly “disbanded” for almost a year. According to
Berman, it was the issue of the landfill that recentered the club: “The club
was really organized around the landfill. We brought the club back to its
lasting legacy… getting people aware of the environment’s role in the
community was a major accomplishment… on a large scale everything was
new, even recycling.” Berman is presently a grant writer, living and working
in Manhattan.
    Another key was the club’s association with the Post-Morrow
Foundation (“Post-Morrow”). Started in 1969, Post-Morrows’ mission
statement is “to preserve and conserve the rural, cultural, and historic
character of the Hamlet of Brookhaven and surrounding areas in Suffolk
County, New York.” Not only did SEQ share in Post-Morrow’s concerns
regarding the landfill, but SEQ continues to share in their mission statement
by maintaining its “stewardship” responsibilities regarding a piece of
Post-Morrow-owned land located on Bellport Bay at the western end of
Bay Road. This stewardship started in the 1990’s and continues today.
     Sean Pilger (BHS ’98) was a member of SEQ for his four years at
BHS, and vice president in his junior year. He recalled growing up in
Brookhaven Hamlet and always loving being outside “in nature.” His
memories of SEQ include “everyone in the group being totally involved.”

The group then consisted of a core of eight to ten members and they often
met weekly. His recollection of the most interesting projects of SEQ
included a reinstitution of paper recycling at BHS and throughout the
South Country School District, hosting the South Shore Estuary
Symposiums at BHS and starting a flower garden, vegetable garden and
compost site in the northern courtyard (the present day Atrium). Pilger
expressed his appreciation of then-advisor Mr. Marv Loewen for encouraging
him to participate in a great program sponsored by the Student
Conservation Association (“SCA”), which works with our National Parks
Service. Pilger ended up spending a month in Washington State living in
the woods and clearing trails with his team of fellow volunteers from all
over the country. Today, Pilger lives locally and manages the Hamlet
Organic Farm (“HOG”). He has been a guest speaker for SEQ and SEQ
members have visited the HOG on Beaver Dam Road in Brookhaven Hamlet.
    Another member and BHS class of 1998 was Bridgid O’Connor.
She was Vice President of SEQ her first two years and president for her
junior and senior years. She joined as a freshman because she “always had
a fond interest of and growing concern for the environment”, and she was
“anxious to finally get
involved with other people
my own age who had the
same interests.” This common
theme of combining
expanding knowledge and
activism continues to exemplify SEQ.
  According to O’Connor, “Overall we
were very impressed by our
predecessors’ projects that
impacted all of New York State,
but we were overwhelmed by the scope of
such a big task, so we tried to start small,
with Bellport High School, and
gradually increased our radius.”

    Between 1994 and 1998, O’Connor recalls that SEQ advocated
for and started a program in the BHS cafeteria “reusing non disposable
flatware, plates and other table products to decrease the amount of plastic
and Styrofoam garbage.” SEQ also promoted an increased, school-wide
recycling of cans, bottles, and paper. Additionally, SEQ participated in a
school-wide competition, co-sponsored by the Parent Teacher Student
Association (“PTSA”), to design what is now referred to as the Atrium courtyard by
helping with gardens and a composting site. Today, this Atrium courtyard also
contains a pond, a gazebo structure with seating, and brick pathways.

                      Mashomack Nature Preserve, April 21, 1996

    O’Connor described other highlights that included two overnight
field trips to the Mashomack Nature Preserve on Shelter Island hosting
guest speakers, including Mr. Art Cooley and Mr. Dennis Puleston, and
what O’Connor termed our “biggest accomplishment,” the South Shore
Estuary Symposium. “We created and hosted the First and Second
Annual South Shore Estuary Symposiums, which provided a forum for
individuals and environmental groups to discuss current issues facing our
local South Shore Estuary. Other high schools environmental clubs
throughout Long Island were invited to participate to learn about and to
voice their concerns for the South Shore Estuary.”
Today O’Connor is an Associate Corporate Counsel for Plug
Power Inc., a hydrogen fuel cell company in Latham, New York.

                                        BHS, East Commons, Spring 1997

    

Return to SEQ Index