The City of Airdrie in partnership with Fortis Alberta has handed out $3.000 in financial aid to some great ideas from young people to help the environment.

The 2019 Eco-Youth Awards were recently presented at a meeting of the city's Environmental Advisory Board, the group that selects the award winners.  Education Coordinator with Airdrie Waste and Recycling, Mara Pratt said the awards provide recognition and financial help for youth with projects with an environmental focus.  The youth can propose a new project or existing one on any environmental topic like climate change, water air, waste and recycling, soil, transportation, food or energy.

Due to the ebbs and flows of the awards, this year just nine projects were received for judging, compared to 30 in 2018.  Pratt says while the numbers may be down, people on the Environmental Advisory Board commented that the submissions are getting stronger each year.

"They've noticed how the award continues to get stronger with the applications.  As much as we look at the numbers that come in, or don't come in, or what have you, the quality of applications are great.  Seeing the ideas that youth are coming with are phenomenal.  Also, we're getting individual applications, not just schools and groups, so looking at how the individual youth want to make the impact."

Pratt said that individual who entered was a grade ten student named Megan Machan who is striving to have more trees in Airdrie to start a group she calls 'Airdrie Tree Huggers' to increase awareness, funds and therefore, more trees for the city.

"She thought about her past, about being up in Red Deer with her grandparents and walking around, having more trees in the community and she wanted to bring that to Airdrie," Pratt explained.  "She is wanting to do more fundraising, like Adopt-A-Tree or delivering plant fundraisers or memorial trees or something like that.  She wants to potentially create a birthplace forest in Airdrie very similar to the City of Calgary or other municipalities that have this type of initiative."

Machan wants to work with local experts and the City of Airdrie to get more trees in the city and contribute to air quality, the esthetics of the community and the overall environmenal impact. 

Below is a synopsis of the projects of the rest of the Eco Youth Award Winners:

HELOISE LORIMER SCHOOL- SUSTAINABLE FARM PROJECT Applicant: Jill Quirk (Grade 5 instructor) Seed growing Project Overview This project is connected with the RVS Farm program. Students first created a ‘mock farm’ using Minecraft, to help learn more about farm systems. Students then learned about farming practices and started growing a variety of crops (tomatoes, basil, bok choy, lettuce) in the town garden at school. This contributes to ongoing learning about soil chemistry and growing conditions. This has expanded to engage other grades and more crops such as carrots and potatoes growing in buckets. Continuing to grow the program students will grow more plants that will be transferred to the RVS Farm program in the spring. They will create a large compost outside and a worm vermi-composting. They will get a grow light to help advance the process of growing the plants. This initiative is in partnership and continues the STEM learning with ‘school to farm’ initiatives.

WINDSONG HEIGHTS – GRADE 4 CLASS Teacher: Ms. Wall Blow dryer Project Overview To reducing waste in Windsong Heights School is replacing a paper towel dispensers with air blower/ dryer. In Grade 4, they studied different ways to improve communities, with one focus being waste during a Science unit. Recognizing the waste and mess the paper towels have in the bathrooms and then sent to landfills. The focus is to reduce the amount of waste produced as a school and learn to be responsible people for our tomorrow. 

ATLAS ACADEMY SCHOOL Grade 5 Students Waste Diversion Bins Project Overview Atlas Academy is implementing a composting system and improving their recycle program. Adding to the current recycle bin program, they are placing additional bins to decrease contamination. Students are starting a compost program and are looking to have bins in each classroom that they can then dispose of in their schools' bigger compost bin outside. This material will hopefully be utilized in their schoolyard garden. The students are implementing an incentive-based program. Students who currently forget their utensils at home are provided with a plastic one. They are looking at purchasing a small set of reusable metal utensils to eliminate plastic waste from the school. Awarded:

TRENDAI – GRADE 7-8 ENTREPRENEURS Grade 7-8 Students from Francophone School Clothing Company Project Overview TRENDAI’s overall mission is to produce environmentally friendly clothing and accessories for Airdrie youth and adults. 25% of profits from this program is designed to be given back to various non-profit organizations. Students have started by producing personalized t-shirts with an ultimate goal of producing t-shirts using sustainable and local materials. This entrepreneur program at the Francophone School is considering and learning about upcycling and utilizing other materials to create grocery bags. They are creating grocery bags and handbags by recycling t-shirts.

A.E. BOWERS GRADE 4 CLASS Teacher: Kelly Friesen Vermi-composting bin Project Overview A.E. Bowers have a wonderful courtyard garden that houses great planters that need fertilizer. They often grow flowers and things like tomatoes to share with kids who need a snack. They will be able to put the vermi-composting, worm poop to good use and will be able to grow even bigger, better vegetables. As environmental leaders, they will be able to share our worms with other Grade 4 classes, their reading buddies and anyone else at the school who is interested in learning how easy it is to turn food scraps into fertilizer. When they take care of our worms well, they will reproduce and will be able to set up more vermi-composters. Students are seeing and experiencing the hands-on nature of these worms. In turn, gaining respect for nature, learn to appreciate and take care of it.

Airdrie Tree Huggers Individual Application Grade 10 student Megan Machan Trees in Airdrie Project Overview Megan is striving to have more trees in Airdrie and wants to start Airdrie Tree Huggers to increase awareness, funds, and trees. In the coming weeks, Megan will meet with Airdrie Parks Department to consider various opportunities that she has outlined such as “adopt a tree, delivery/ planting fundraiser, birthplace forest, memorial trees” and other ideas. Megan will be working with the City’s Parks team and a few local experts/ non-for-profit groups that already do ‘Tree’ work in the community. 

WASTE RACE CHALLENGE Instructor: Stephane Theoret Waste Audit Project Overview The grade 7, 8 and 9 Student Leaders class have undertaken workshops to draw awareness to “the waste challenge”. Since April 2019 the ‘eco class’ has been working on a pilot project to divert waste through more awareness specifically through audits. Last year they organized the "Waste Race Challenge" for Earth Day in April. This involved mobilizing all students to do a big clean up around the school district, collecting waste, recyclables, and compostable material, sorting and weighing the material and then compare the results to other participants in other schools. Last year, their school won the waste-free trophy (made by students, with recyclable materials) against 6 other francophone schools in Calgary.

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