Trisha Shanks
Arrow Lakes News
Nakusp Elementary School’s Grade 6 class was selected for one of the BC Green Games prizes in the 2015 contest. Students worked on three different projects: school-wide milk container recycling, hand built wooden bird houses and recycled beverage bottle bird feeders which were hung on school property. Their efforts paid off.
Teacher Megan Jamison explained, “We actually won two awards through the BC Green Games. Both are based on decisions made by the professional judges that they hired — as we didn’t win a Viewer’s Choice award but the prizes we won are even better.”
Jamison’s class has been awarded $1000 to support more environmental projects at the school, starting with a small garden on the school grounds. They will be discussing ideas for additional environmental projects. Each school in the competition was guaranteed free entry to the Telus World of Science in Vancouver, however the feat of getting there would have been prohibitive had they not won the second award of $1500 to help with the costs of a field trip to Science World in Vancouver.
“This is the prize that the students were most excited about the possibility of winning. I am happy to have a class full of very happy, and proud students. Their parents are also very excited,” said Jamison.
The Grade 6 class plans to be away from May 19 to 22 and are still working out details like accommodations. They will be going to Science World where there will be an awards ceremony for BC Green Games winning classes. In addition, Jamison is planning a trip to a beach with good tidal pools — about a third of the students have never seen the ocean.
Richelle Coates spoke to the Arrow Lakes News about her son Liam’s reaction to winning. “He was recovering from surgery at home when the winners were announced but his sister heard about it and came home to tell him. And he’s super excited about going on this trip.”
To assist with the additional cost of the trip beyond the funds that they were awarded, the class is hosting a bottle drive on Saturday, April 18 at Nakusp Esso from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.