PICTOU LANDING – Instead of going home after school, some students of Pictou Landing Elementary School spend their afternoon picking up garbage.
The after-school activity is part of a month-long project the school is undertaking to promote respecting the environment.
Angie Campbell, math and science adviser said a month of events grew from the school’s Earth Week activities last year.
“I realized the kids got so much from that one week by doing different environmental activities,” said Campbell. Last year the children were brought to the Dalhousie Wind Farm, and they picked up garbage around the shore and community.
For the month of April each week is dedicated to a different environmental topic; last week was Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, this week is Respect Mother Earth and the following weeks will be Power Conversation and Water Conservation week.
During Respect Mother Earth Week the students spend Monday to Friday from 3 to 4 p.m. picking up garbage in a different areas in the community. Campbell said the garbage pick-up is also part of the school’s effort for Pictou County Go Clean Get Green.
During Power Conservation Week Nova Scotia Power gives tips to students on conserving energy and for Water Conservation Week Project WET will make a presentation to the students.
The grade 5 and 6 students have become eco-reporters during the Earth Month at the school, producing a newsletter for the community educating them about the environment. Campbell said the school is one of five chosen to have the their eco-reporters featured on www.earthday.ca.
Fox Thomas, 11, is the editor for the newsletter and joined to help out.
“It would be very helpful if everybody would help out to clean Mother Earth,” said Thomas, adding she wrote a questionnaire for the newsletter testing the readers’ recycling efforts.
“Everything comes from the kids, it is the children who are educating the adults,” said Campbell. “They know how to reduce, reuse and recycle so they helping to educate the community.”
On April 23, the school will host a celebration at the school’s gymnasium, featuring sculpture out of recycled materials, speeches from the students, mural painting, a barbecue and the elders of the community determining who has the cleanest yard.
