Elementary school students throughout School District 47 met a challenge to see which school would save the most batteries from the landfill.
Lafarge Canada, Texada Quarry, made the call in honour of Earth Day, and children in kindergarten through grade seven had two weeks, until April 22, to collect as many used batteries as they could. When the tallies were in, students at Henderson Elementary School had collected the most, just as they did last year.
Also participating in this year’s challenge were James Thomson, Westview, Edgehill and Texada elementary schools, Kelly Creek Community School and École Côte du Soleil, as well as School District 47 head office.
Students and staff collected used batteries to divert the toxic heavy metals away from landfills. As well as schools being pitted against each other, so were students and winning classes from each school received a pizza party compliments of Lafarge.
Henderson’s winning class was Brittney Robinson/Karin Westland division three, who collected 11,508 batteries. In all, the school collected 21,175 batteries.
Jacqueline Robinson’s grade three/four class collected the most batteries for James Thomson. Overall, the school collected 1,980 batteries.
Caroline Hoekstra’s winning class helped Westview Elementary collect 1,530 batteries.
Kelly Creek’s school worked as a team and collected 1,500 batteries together.
Texada school, with only 35 students, also worked together to collect 1,400 batteries.
Mary Payne’s kindergarten/grade one class collected the most batteries at Edgehill. Overall, the school collected 1,260.
The school board office employees collected 110 batteries.
It being the first year of participation, École Côte du Soleil collected 17 batteries.
Total battery count for this year was 28,972. The challenge helps to inform students of the need to be careful what waste ends up in the landfill, and how much of it, particularly toxic metals contained in batteries, can be easily diverted.
All schools in the area are invited to prepare for next year’s challenge. Some schools have already begun collecting.
