Sackville High Green Team are high energy and keeping busy!

Engagement Officer Colleen joined the Green Team for their usual Thursday lunch meeting before the holidays. They talked about Green Schools, Efficiency NS, and the RSI/RP&C programs, as well as renewable and nonrenewable sources of energy, and the importance of using less energy as a way to save resources, reduce greenhouse gases, as well as money.

The meeting also included ongoing efforts to work on the World Fisheries Day project which involved a campaign at the school to raise awareness. The promotion of the event included posters with trivia on them, which were the answers to the quiz they held on World Fisheries day. The trivia topics were generated out of the lovely book provided by Oceans 11 teacher Kim Croft. The day before the event the Green Team was sure to take down the posters, and after they even gave out candy prizes for the trivia game, a tried and true motivator for all ages! The students also handed out colour printed/folded responsible seafood guides, which you can see here: http://www.seachoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/SC_alertcard_2016_5p…

Here is some information on World Fisheries Day:     

    –http://www.gdrc.org/doyourbit/21_11-fisheries-day.html

    –http://www.wiseoceans.com/event/world-fisheries-day/2017-11-21/

    –https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyv2sudQhZoORllpK66GSAh9tjyw2rKum

The teacher who leads the Green Team is Karen Trenholm, along with new addition Kim Croft; they are dedicated and active, especially with leading a twitter account for the SHS Green Team: https://twitter.com/SHSGreen_Team

But this team is an impressive student led-group, with Logan at their head, he can be seen speaking in front of the group in the photos below. One of the secrets to their success is splitting into groups, accomplishing different tasks that they volunteered for. It was great to see the volunteerism and engagement!

Colleen met Learning Centre teacher Nick Crowe who heads up the school’s garden efforts, and talked about the typical difficulties keeping the garden cared for over the summer.

Colleen also met Mr. John Miller, principal at SHS, and along with Ms. Karen Trenholm they discussed the ongoing waste sorting issue at the school; an important lesson for all of us is that just because waste is sorted initially doesn’t always mean it stays sorted. Ideas they came up with included following up with Marcel from Divert NS to find better solutions, and fundraising to buy new waste sorting bins or green bins for areas of the school where there are only garbage bins.

The visit ended with a walk through the garden, and although there were some weeds there was a lot of perennials, which will thrive this year under the natural mulch of fallen leaves. Some vegetables and herbs had been grown in raised beds with frames made of wood, and many flowering shrubs and a whole lot of trees are planted in this area. It is a great spot from which you can see First Lake through the trees, and there is a park there with a great trail that goes all the way around the lake. A wonderful way to extend the green space!

Sackville High has lots of great green initiatives, but there is always more work to be done! Keep up the great work Green Team!