Showing that they care
Friday, April 10, 2009 (All day)
North Shore News,
Manisha Krishnan
That's what a group of kids in grades 4-6 from schools across North Vancouver will be learning over the month of May as part of the Climate Change Showdown, an initiative put together by the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association and Cool North Shore. The plan is to find 50 parent-child teams representing each elementary school in the North Vancouver school district and challenge them to reduce their carbon footprint by making simple changes in their daily lives.
"We heard about the Climate Change Showdown from a number of people and thought it was something that sounded good and that we could add some value by . . . tapping into the community network and the parent network, which is very strong on the North Shore," says David Thomson, founding director of Legacy North Shore and the Cool North Shore project.
The Showdown includes two workshops. The first, on April 29, will include a presentation, a video featuring Rick Mercer as a talking sheep and other activities to explain to kids and parents the tasks they'll be undertaking over the following month. Teams will be asked to keep track of the changes they implement each week, including things like replacing light bulbs with energy efficient ones, taking shorter showers, turning off the thermostat and other power sources, going car-free and eating locally-grown food. At the end of the month these behaviours will be tallied and the results will be shared at a pizza party June 3.
"We're going to get everybody together after the month is over to see what people did, what they learned, how they made it fun, how they made it easy and how they engaged their families," says Thomson, adding contest prizes will be awarded to the schools that reduce their impact the most.
Most importantly, organizers will be chatting with parents about bringing the program back to their school communities."That's why we're going to have parents from every elementary in (the school district). They're going to go out and in a way be ambassadors for this program," says Thomson.
Typically, the Showdown has been promoted through teachers in the school system, but they've already got a lot on their plate, explains Thomson.
If parents take the lead, the program has a better chance of spreading across the district. "We know the parent community is a really strong, engaged and passionate one and that if they get involved it's going to increase the likelihood of more of these climate change events taking place in school," he says. "Our vision is that every elementary classroom from Grade 4 to 6 in the district will be doing this."
By next year, organizers are hoping to roll out the program in West Vancouver as well.
To register you and your child for the Climate Change Showdown, send your names and your child's school and grade to registration@coolnorthshore.ca. Only three teams per school will be selected. Deadline for registration is Friday, April 17.
