Sustainability Spotlight: Clio Baird at Southeast High School
Our last Sustainability Spotlight of the school year is shining on Clio Baird, a junior at Lincoln Southeast High School!
Clio serves as the Vice President for the school’s Key Club and has most recently led an effort to plant trees on Southeast’s grounds.
On April 25, Key Club members and a few additional student volunteers planted four trees at Southeast High School. The Arbor Day planting is the first of two Clio has planned, and the club will add four more trees next year. By spacing out the plantings, Southeast’s Tree Team will be able to ensure the first four trees’ success and involve more Southeast students over time.
Key Club members focus heavily on service and leadership, and Clio decided that working toward Tree Campus K-12 recognition was a great way to meet these goals during her time at Southeast.
Clio said that club members were immediately onboard with the idea, and that the planting day was the culmination of effort spread out throughout the school year.
“We had to do a lot of fundraising work and put in a lot of effort outside of our officer meetings to make this planting possible, and I am so proud of our efforts,” she said.
The club’s fundraising efforts secured the money to purchase each of the trees, with members reaching out to local businesses and communicating their plans to the school community on social media. One of their business donors, Runza, even sent Runza Rex out to Southeast to deliver a check and pick up a shovel!
Clio worked with LPS Grounds staff and building administrators to ensure the new trees were the right species and planted in the right place. Assistant Grounds Superintendent Troy Gold helped Clio and the Tree Team with site planning and transporting the trees before giving a planting demonstration to the day’s student volunteers.
Southeast High School Principal Tanner Penrod said the school will benefit from these student efforts for years to come, and the dedication Clio and Key Club members demonstrated made the project an easy “yes” for school administrators.
“The best part about this process is that it’s been 100% student-driven,” Penrod said. “It’s really been a cool opportunity for us to watch some student-driven leadership and see them give back to our school and back to our community.”
After the initial demonstration, students worked in teams to plant each of the four trees in holes prepared by the Grounds team. With the trees in the ground and given their first watering in their new home, the students admired their work and reflected on the progress they had made.
"I'm glad that I was involved in this. I feel like even more a part of the school.”
Clio said that the additions of serviceberry, pine, and lilac trees to Southeast’s campus were a win for the club, the community and the environment.
“Every tree planted at LSE reduces our carbon footprint, and any positive impact made on the environment is worth celebrating,” she said. “I feel extremely proud to have had a part of this project!”
Updated May 1, 2025
