Two Powell River schools have been awarded $1,000 to go toward green initiatives after creating innovative projects that improve their schools and the environment.
Brooks Secondary School and James Thomson Elementary School both won $1,000 in the fourth annual BC Green Games, a province-wide contest by Science World.
Ryan Barfoot, manager of Outdoor and Ecological Education for School District 47, said the students made their schools proud. “The teachers and administrators are inspired by the dedication of our students to shape their world in positive ways,” he said.
Brooks students created a video about waste created by plastic water bottles. “Students recognized the need to deal with the fact that there was a lot of plastic water bottles being used at the school,” said Barfoot. “We have these water bottles that are being used but we have perfectly good taps and the school is selling water bottles to people.”
The money won from BC Green Games will go toward supporting more green initiatives for the students, Barfoot said.
Jessica Koop, a grade one and two teacher at James Thomson, said it was her first year teaching in Powell River and the children started a recycling program and had a compost container built.
“One of the initiatives was to find ways to reduce our waste,” said Koop. “That was our theme this year. So we built a compost out back that’s bear-proof. We used rocks from the beach. The kids had a process in it. They picked out all the rocks for us. We hired someone to build it but the kids were there for the whole process. Then we got a parent who knows a lot about composting to come in and teach us how to make it.”
Koop said the money for James Thomson will go toward making a new garden or another compost container.
