Aquaponics Club is an amazing club here at Chatfield that is student run but supervised by Mr. Svaldi. The funding for the program comes from fundraisers the club does and donations made by several generous people and companies. There are about eight students in the club and this is the second year  Aquaponics has been at Chatfield. Mr.Svaldi was asked by Nick Brooks, a former Chatfield student, to manage the club but had no knowledge of what Aquaponics really was, so he read two books and went to three seminars on commercial Aquaponics.  It’s Brook’s goal to do commercial Aquaponics to improve the methods of growing and supplying food. So Mr. Svaldi asked if he could turn that idea into a club here.

There isn’t really an overall main goal for the Aquaponics Club. It all depends on the individual and what they want to achieve. But one of the big goals is to supply food to the school and help less fortunate people by supplying them with food also. Some side goals are to be able to supply fish to the science department for dissections and intertwine other classes with each other. Two girls in the program  have tried to improve their understanding by going and doing volunteer work at the Botanical Gardens and help with Jeffco green houses. They’ve also gone to Aquaponic Commercial Companies programs at Colorado State University. Mr. Svaldi has designed his own greenhouse at his home that he uses to supply food for him and his family and even some of the other families in his neighborhood. It’s an awesome club and everyone is welcome to join. Go check it out!