Earth Day in the Columbia Basin: from food and fairs to fashion shows
Submitted by admin on April 20, 2011 - 21:12
Beyond Recycling classes each have something different on the go
Earth Day festivities are taking place before, during and after the big day of April 22, 2011. School classes that are taking Wildsight’s Beyond Recycling program—in Nelson, Kaslo, Erickson, Fernie and Salmo—are marking Earth Day their own ways.
“We’re excited to see the creative projects Beyond Recycling students have come up with to celebrate Earth Day, and to share what they have learned with their schools and the community,” said Dawn Deydey, Wildsight’s Beyond Recycling Program Coordinator. Beyond Recycling is a Wildsight Education for Sustainable Living program that started in 2004.
To mark Earth Day...
In Nelson, Ms. Gingrich’s Grade 5 class will host an All-School Earth Day Fair. Students are offering activities around composting, saving energy, garbage and landfills, and are doing a ‘trash art’ project.
In Kaslo, the Grade 3/4 class will plant and care for plants—and nurture them for the rest of the year.In Erickson, Ms. Boutet’s Grade 7 class at Erickson Elementary will host a Real Canadian Food Breakfast, focusing on food made with as few additives as possible, that is grown in Canada, and is organically grown.
In Fernie, students from Isabella Dicken Elementary will participate in the Trashy but Flashy Fashion show where students create runway-worthy costumes out of recycling or items that would normally go into the garbage. They fuse trash and fashion on the runway during an evening community-wide event.
In Salmo, Beyond Recycling students will write Earth Day articles and eco tips to be included in the school newsletter.
“We’re hoping our students will inspire the grownups in their lives,” Deydey said. “One of the main goals of Beyond Recycling is to inspire youth to take leadership and to create positive environmental behavioral change—in their families, in their schools and in their communities. So it’s amazing to see the students thinking ‘beyond’ simply recycling for effective and positive environmental actions they can share.”
Beyond Recycling is made possible through the generous support of Fortis BC, the Regional District of Central Kootenay, TD Friends of the Environment, BC Hydro and Waste Management Inc.
