Osseo Senior High junior Claire Baglien wants her school to clean up and turn off. This year, the Green Club's mission is to ask teachers to put recycling bins in classrooms, the cafeteria and hallways.

Just about the time you think all high school kids care about is shopping and video games, you meet someone like Claire Baglien.

Claire, a junior at Osseo Senior High (OSH), is passionate about saving energy and cleaning up our planet. Her enthusiasm has fueled the rebirth of the Environmental Club at OSH.

The club got off to a modest start last year, but Claire's drive, coupled with her friendly, outgoing personality drew a core group of 15 students to the newly named Green Club's first meeting Oct. 6.

Last year Claire and a couple of friends put up posters in the halls and placed stickers on classroom light switches. This year, the Green Club's mission is to ask teachers to put recycling bins in classrooms, the cafeteria and hallways.

Claire said she would like her fellow students to recycle cans and plastic bottles, and not use the bins for garbage.

The Green Club will also ask teachers to turn off some of the overhead fluorescent lights and use the natural light pouring in from classroom windows. Claire's advisor, Ann Johnson, helps with the Green Club.

"Miss Johnson is using just two of her rows of lights to use less energy," Claire said. The practice would save the school money and is also healthier, she added.

It all started with her ninth grade teacher, Mr. Mullin, Claire said. "I pretty much owe it all to him. We watched the film, 'Inconvenient Truth' in class. It's the most famous and referred-to movie in the whole environmental movement," Claire said. "Al Gore did it. Ever since then, I started talking to Mr. Mullin about it."

Claire said her parents always recycled. But Claire's zeal, inspired by her teacher, motivated her to enforce "extreme recycling" in their home. "We already did recycle," Claire said, "But we started recycling cardboard, and we did composting, too. We reduced our trash from two bins to one bin per week. Most of the stuff we put on the curb is recyclables."

Claire's environmental interests motivated her family to visit Greensburg, Kan., last summer. Greensburg was nearly destroyed by a massive, 2-mile wide EF5 tornado May 4, 2007. The town is dedicated to rebuilding all city buildings to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum standards.

The LEED Green Building Rating System is a certification program and nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, according to the US Green Building Council.

The goal is to encourage global adoption of sustainable green building and development.

The first Green Club meeting at Osseo Senior High draws 15 students who share Osseo Senior High junior Claire Baglien's passion for environmental issues.

The town is still rebuilding. "I know they have 105 FEMA trailers still standing in Greensburg," Claire said. "They have an art center that they rebuilt within a year after the tornado which is the first LEED Platinum building in Kansas. It's a really cool building," Claire said.

After Claire's family returned from Greensburg, her parents, Joel and Jody Baglien, decided they should tour Great River Energy (GRE) in Maple Grove since the company built a LEED Platinum building.

GRE's communications person was so impressed with Claire's research on Greenburg and her desire to grow the Environmental Club that it invited her to speak to the senior staff.

"It was kind of terrifying at first, but real exciting, too. I did a PowerPoint presentation," Clair said. "I went over how Greensburg is educating their town on different ways to be a sustainable community. There were 10 to 15 people in a big conference room - really fancy and crazy looking - it was cool!"

The presentation went so well that Great River Energy donated $500 to the Environmental Club at Osseo Senior High.

OSH junior Jami Reichert was drawn to the Green Club through the Activities Fair. "It seemed like they had more opportunities this year because they had funding. I would like to see lunch get more bins so we can recycle cans and not just throw them away," she said.

Eleventh-grader Caitlin Wutschke agrees. "It's crazy how much goes to waste that could be recycled! Now that we have funding, we can do bigger things, and maybe some field trips to learn more about energy," she said.

To her peers, Caitlin adds, "Even though it may seem like a waste of time to recycle that bottle, really, it can all add up in the end and make a big difference."

Although she has a big vision regarding changes she would like to see at OSH, Claire said, "I like my school, and I just want it to recycle and use natural light and have people be more aware."

She's off to a good start.