Gracie Schutz, grade eight student at G.F. Kells, took on a tremendous amount of responsibility throughout the month of April organizing Eco-Month.
"It's a SaskEnergy initiative," Carly Broberg, teacher at G.F. Kells, explained.
"There's three weeks, the first week was water consumption week, so paying attention to how much water we use on a daily basis... the second week was no waste week so every lunch hour we'd do something new... on the Monday all the kids brought their empty bottles and they could but their name in for an eco-prize..."
"The one that was most popular, which I was kind of nervous about was the kids bringing their compost to the front entrance so there were tons of banana peels and apple cores."
Involved with the Student Leadership Team's (SLT) Eco-Committee, Schutz became the head of organizing the event which was dedicated to raising awareness around doing one's part to help the environment. Though she had a committee of approximately 10 others in grades 7 to 10 who were a great help, Schutz planned and organized much of it simply requiring some input or help with various projects throughout the month from the committee.
"This year she's shown a ton of leadership and brainstorming what we could do for prizes and different activities for Eco-Month and she just did all of the work, all of the planning; I was there to guide her, but she had it all organized, was making notes, made a calendar, then dispersed that calendar to the other girls on the Eco-Committee," Broberg stated. "It was amazing to watch, I was so proud of her and all of the committee."
Throughout the month Schutz and her committee organized a multitude of activities which SLT Leader, Amy Rutten, was also impressed with. Being eco-friendly isn't always the most fun, but Rutten explained that Schutz and her team handled the project well as they presented each activity to the student body with resounding reception.
Students were entered to win various prizes throughout the event depending on the day's activities. People were encouraged to shorten their showers, use reusable water bottles, use less water pressure, recycle cans and bottles, and utilize composting in the school.
Other fun ideas included "No phantom power Monday" which used hand delivered notes for announcements as opposed to the intercoms, with the notes being written on paper from the recycling bin. Students were also able to learn how to make their own soap, and the final day saw the school turn down the heat leading to "Willy wacky warm sweater day."
"We recycled bottles and cans, we've composted, then we had a Wednesday activity where we had to bring recyclable bottles into the gym and whoever's homeroom had the most won a prize..." Schutz said.
Schutz and her team, under the supervision of teacher Carly Broberg, brought the entire school together in this month of awareness focusing each week on a different aspect of being eco-friendly.
G.F. Kells has also been working on becoming environmentally conscious in general since last year as they have a compost program in place for students to utilize, will be planting a mini-vegetable garden as they did last year at the school, and have switched to biodegradable dishes instead of paper or plastic ones for the events they hold such as the Mother's Day and Father's Day pancake breakfasts.
With the participation in SaskEnergy's program of Eco-Month G.F. Kells may now be able to win prize money to help the school become even more eco-friendly, which Broberg, Schutz, and the Eco-Committee are currently waiting to hear about.
