Nolensville High Seniors Avery Noe and Jack Hoeffler pursue sustainability through Mill Creek Watershed project

Written by Gretchen Bayless Anderson

A famous Lebanese-American philosopher who grew up on the streets of Boston in the late 1800s, Kahlil Gibran, described children as “the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself…For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, where you cannot visit, even in your dreams…  You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you, for life goes not backward.” 

Look out world! Nolensville High School is unleashing its   graduates from its sought-after school of the future. Rising  seniors Avery Noe and Jack Hoeffler are perfect examples. Gibran’s words ring true a century and a half later as Avery and Jack get up on Saturdays at the break of dawn to set up their farmer’s market booth. A patron meandering through the booths will find Avery and Jack there promoting their Green Nolensville project with reusable bags, buttons, and t-shirts for sale. Their goal is to raise at least $1,000 for the Mill Creek Watershed. You can view those products on their Green Nolensville Instagram page. The bags, buttons, and t-shirts are reasonably priced, providing local stakeholders with an efficient  means of contributing to our community. The inspiration to actively contribute is free!  

 Avery and Jack say they’ve learned that people of all ages  care. “I’ve talked to a wide range of people who care about the  environment in different ways, said Avery.” She recalls one customer stopping to say, “It’s so cool to see younger people  involved in this, …and, I was like saying, ‘It’s so cool to see older  people involved in this!’ It always brings a smile to my face  when someone comes up to me and says, ‘Oh! I saw you on Instagram, and I’ve always wondered what these bags were about, but I really wanted one.’ So, I said, ‘since you came for  the bag, do you want to hear the spiel?’” 

Avery’s concern about the environment started in seventh grade as she read about unintentional human impact on our planet. “I’ve always kind of been a little environmentally conscious, always handled my family’s recycling…I would gather plastic bottles at baseball practice, and put them in my bat bag, and take them home to recycle. The team teased me and told me I would never drown, because if the water came up, my bat bag would float.”   

“I got the idea for Green Nolensville on a trip to Boston in January,” said Avery. “No one had plastic bags.”  Noe explained that in Boston, you won’t  find single-use plastic bags. Biodegradable bags are five cents each at the grocery store. “When you’re walking around Boston, everyone is  holding reusable bags, like in the subway and everywhere.” Noe was impressed with the cleanliness there  compared with the extensive use of plastic bags here in her  own community. “It’s kind of wasteful, and you always see  plastic bags glowing in the parking lots… It’s very disheartening  because it’s horrible for wildlife, and they never decompose,  ever.” In Boston, Noe’s Mom arranged for her to speak with the Director of the Environmental Science Department at the  Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Noe was delighted at  the opportunity. “This was the guy Congress calls in to confer with on environmental stuff… he was very intelligent.” Noe said this environmental scientist told her the most effective way to get people to change is to nudge them. “If you ban fossil fuels, Americans are just going to get mad… You have to propose policies that nudge people, for example, from single use plastics… I thought, well, if a city like Boston can get rid of these things, then we can nudge people away from single use plastics in Nolensville.”     

Avery’s idea gained further momentum after meeting with  Dr. Kathleen Dennis, Director of the Mill Creek Watershed  Association (MCWA) following publication of a story Dr. Dennis  wrote about the Watershed in Avery’s Mom, Audrey Noe’s, quarterly Nolensville Shiny Sheet. Avery said she had no idea  the MCWA even existed before talking with Dr. Dennis. “I know they wanted to put up the little Monarch [Butterfly] gardens along the creek to basically have another outlet of community engagement. I went with [Mom] and I talked to Kathleen, and  Kathleen is just brilliant, and it was really cool to talk to her. I  was thinking that in Nolensville, we have a vital natural resource right next to us, and I got to thinking, well maybe I can raise money and work on the plastic bag thing too.” 

 So began the Green Nolensville project. “There are two parts to it,” said Avery.  “There is one part of raising money for the Watershed that is really important, and the other part is educating people on these issues, and getting them involved with their community environmentally.” Soon after the decision to raise funds to support the MCWA, Avery determined she would need a partner in the project. Her friend, Jack Hoeffler was first in mind, as he has started and is leading two school organizations  already and is equally passionate about the environment. “We all breathe air. It’s our world, and we’ve only got one, and I’m really glad that Avery has given me this opportunity to help the environment and, you know, do something good for this world,” said Jack.      

When asked what he would like to see change in Nolensville in the next 20 years, he speaks from his heart about the connection between Mill Creek and his hometown, built around its headwaters. “I think the biggest thing different would be giving more adequate room for the [natural] erosion patterns in the waterways in the Mill Creek Watershed, because Mill Creek is such an integral part  of our town, and it needs to be protected. It  needs to still be here, because it’s such a  defining part of our town. You know,  Nolensville isn’t Nolensville if no creek is here.”  

Although Jack and Avery aspire to attend schools away from home in the fall, their goal for the Green Nolensville Project is to keep it going, continuing to offer Green Nolensville products online, and passing the local mission to Nolensville High School Juniors and Seniors and members of the Environmental Club. “It’s fairly easy to talk to my peers,” says Avery. “I think that the drone club and the engineering club, and stuff like that sets Nolensville High School way into the future. I think it makes it a hotbed for students who want to do something for the environment… I know it’s a big task, but I think it’s a labor of love.” Avery states emphatically that “Kids care!… Gen Z grew up in a world where we see a lot of things that are wrong, and I think now finally we’re realizing that we can have an impact on things… I think that finding someone to take over for me and Jack won’t be as hard as it seems.” Kahlil Gibran most likely never imagined today’s children with a world of information at their finger tips. In an hour and a half, Jack and Avery spoke of concern for our own “house of tomorrow.”

Avery expressed her worries about the finite water supply in the aquifers of the Great Plains, used for crops we depend on. “When we use that water up, the most arable land in the country will be in the Southeast; however, with the development in the Southeast, we’re destroying a lot of it. It’s leading to a lot of damage, and Nolensville is definitely a part of it… The economy demands it… because you know, it brings in a lot of money. You don’t want to be an alarmist, but at the same time it’s like, well, this is a big issue. Not only are we not making any progress to stop it, well, we’re making it worse.” Jack and Avery also worry that misinformation campaigns conducted by special interest organizations that allow those organizations to avoid accountability for harming our environment. They worry about development next to Mill Creek affecting erosion patterns, which ultimately leads to increased flooding. Attesting to these worries, Avery and Jack have made sacrifices, not only in time and effort, but in their way of life. They are both pescatarians. “It costs thousands of gallons of water to just get that steak on the table,” said Jack. Jack notes, however, that you don’t have to give up much to make a big difference. He says beyond reusable bags, he hopes to nudge people to make other small changes that would collectively make a big difference for years to come, “Like just cutting down on the amount of meat you eat… in the winter, or summer turn your thermostat down or up, respectively. Just affecting your energy usage can really help the environment in a very personal way.” Avery agrees… “You don’t have to change the world to change your little slice of it… This is my home. I just want to make it a better environment for everyone who lives here. Animals too!”

You can help Avery and Jack build Nolensville’s “house of tomorrow” by purchasing a reusable bag, t-shirt or button at the Nolensville Farmer’s Market every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon, or follow them on Instagram at @greennolensville. You can also donate directly to the Mill Creek Watershed Association.