Ava Hendrix ’26 Receives $5,000 Climate Grant

On October 4th, 2025, Oakwood Friends School senior Ava Hendrix (Class of 2026) with members of the Oakwood Climate Club orchestrated a climate action clothing swap in Collins Library – an incredible culmination of several months of organizational work and coordination with local climate groups supported by a $5,000 grant from Partners for Climate Action Hudson Valley. The event made available thousands of items of clothing for the local community, free of charge, as a way to bring awareness to the costliness and waste of fast fashion practices as well as provide a forum for area climate groups to table and educate about their work.

Hendrix, a committed activist, was helped by many student volunteers, a number of community parents, and scores of individual donors. When the six hour event completed, half of theclothing had been re- and -upcycled back into use and kept from a landfill. Most leftover items will be donated to the Vassar College Environmental Club for use in similar future events, though the remaining formalwear was donated to an organization in NYC that provides support and services to victims of human trafficking.

About the Climate Club at Oakwood, Hendrix had this to say:

“The Climate Club usually works on small projects to help make Oakwood a more sustainable place! Things like helping our school switch to reusable markers, and helping with the composting program have been our goals. We like to focus on things that will help our campus move forward, but we also would love to get our community more involved in the education aspect of climate action. We can not do anything without the support of our community, that’s why education is so important, and why this event is so significant for the growth of our club.”

The event also featured local organizations that shared information and success stories about their environmental work. These included:

• The Poughkeepsie Public Library

• The Poughkeepsie Farm Project

• Center for Environmental Economics and Policy (CEEP)

• The Poughkeepsie Climate Smart Task Force (CSTF)

• The World Affairs Council of the Mid-Hudson Valley

• and the Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Dutchess County Master Gardeners program 

Hendrix’s work on bringing a focus to climate initiatives at Oakwood is one marked by perseverance and hard work. Facing challenges head on, Hendrix comments: “The past two years for this club have not been entirely easy. We have switched advisors twice, and struggled with being able to accomplish as much as we hoped for due to the size of our club. But we have always had the support of the community, which helped us push forward to help our community grow into a more sustainable place, and I am very grateful for that. I have always had a love for the environment and a passion for climate action, but it really started to develop in 5th grade, when I organized a Climate March at my elementary school, and it has only grown since then. Being able to run a project like this event is a big dream for me and I am so appreciative that we could make this happen.”