By Ella Kate McCord
When looking at the list of clubs that Lovett offered, I was intrigued when I saw one that was not at the club fair earlier this year. I had never heard of it and definitely wanted to find out more, especially since its name sounds so unusual: LERIG.
When I spoke with senior Bennett Cauwenberghs, one of the two leaders of LERIF, I learned that this is more than just a club.
Lerig stands for “Lovett Environmentally Responsible Investment group.” The group manages about “$150,000 of Lovett’s endowment and a sustainability-centered portfolio,” Bennett told me. Their goal is to support Lovett projects.
“It’s different from most clubs,” he said. Instead of going the club fair route, they send out an application form to the entire school in the spring. Then they review each application that comes in. ”We vote on who we think would fit best,“ he said.
They fix small but very helpful things around campus and even take in requests to add in new items. “We also conduct a grant for sustainable projects on campus so people can apply for it, and we will either approve it or make some corrections to it,” he said. “Then, they will get money to do whatever they want to do on campus.”
One of the many new additions to Lovett that LERIG has been able to add is the electric car charging stations in the deck. They also grant money for class projects. For example, Bennett told me that last year Mr. Reynolds had a project that was approved by the club that funded money for the green roof.
Mr. Reynolds came up with this idea when his botany class was using the garden. He thought it was “a great opportunity because it’s not being used and so that is what we did. We were proposing for the middle school green team and the sponsors to take more ownership of that space and give them a place on campus to work with plants directly.”
He also got the Lovett cafe involved to try and let the students eat the plants that they are growing. He described to me the whole layout of his future plans and all of the new plants and crops that will be added with the use of the money from LERIG. He cannot wait to execute his ideas and for future classes to be able to use this!
Since LERIG is in charge of all of this money, they meet with the Lovett Board of Trustees to make sure that they are doing the job in the best way possible. This takes place at an annual meeting where they discuss adjustments that need to be made to the portfolio.
Just like other clubs, they meet once a week. Bennett said that generally this club consists of 12 students: 6 seniors, 4 Juniors, and 2 sophomores. But the number can vary depending on the quality of applications.
The earliest year you can enter this club is as a sophomore, but it’s challenging to earn one of those two spots. Bennett has been a club member since sophomore year and now teaches all of the underclassmen how the club works.
Overall, I was very impressed that they do this much for the Lovett community. Since Bennett has been in the club so long, I asked him to share a highlight.
“The best highlight is probably the grant because you get all of the teachers coming up to you and thanking you for all of the stuff that they have been able to do,” he said. “It’s nice to see that we can actually make a difference on campus.”
