If I can do it, then you can do it, too!!

by Harnoor, Grade 7 student  — Stewarttown Middle School, Georgetown, ON

April 2011 — I am the founding member of the Green Team at Stewarttown Middle School (Stewarttown). With regards to establishing a Green Team at Stewarttown, I also contacted many professionals as well as doing my own research so that I would have adequate background to ask important questions when the opportunity arises. It took me a lot of personal volunteer hours to do this but it got paid off because as a result the Stewarttown Green Team was established.

I had a meeting with a teacher and a few students at the Brookville Public School located in Brookville. There I visited their green project called Brookville’s Living Classroom Garden. It was a great learning experience with awesome professionals and students that showed me around. Our Green Team is trying to be an Eco-School this year. Recently we did a Waste Audit to examine ways how to reduce garbage. We approximately reduced 25% of garbage in our school that was later composted or recycled.  

I am also a part of two environmental groups in Halton Hills. The first environmental group is called the Willow Park Ecology Centre (WPEC) which is located in Norval, Ontario. This past family day, the WPEC held an event called the Family Winter Fun Day. At this event I volunteered for three hours by playing historical Native Indian games with children that attended the event. We played games like snow snake, making snow sculptures and playing hopscotch in the snow. My favourite Native Indian game was snow snake. The object of the game was to throw a pole or stick really far on a snow track.

The second environmental group that I volunteer for is an organization called P.O.W.E.R. that is located in the heart of Halton Hills. P.O.W.E.R stands for Protect Our Water and Environmental Resources. I am the leading member of the youth caucus for the ages of 8-15. P.O.W.E.R. was formed by the citizens of Halton Hills because citizens were concerned about a plan to use the Acton quarry as a landfill in 1987. This plan was stopped because people wanted to protect the Niagara Escarpment because they didn’t want it to lose its environmental charm to a landfill site.

Recently I volunteered for P.O.W.E.R at Nest Box checking a wetland area in Caledon. Nest Box checking is where we planted nest boxes to provide a habitat for ducks to live in throughout the winter. Later we checked on each nest box to see if the duck had adapted into its new environment. We planted four nest boxes last summer and when we went to go visit them, three of the nest boxes were inhabited by ducks. I was very pleased with these results. The fourth nest box was not inhabited by any kind of animal which I thought was very peculiar. It was a fun experience and I hope to do it again next year. Maybe next time I will get one hundred percent success!

Stay tuned for my next article on “How I Celebrated My Earth Day!”

Leave a comment