Skip to content

Nelson's high school striving for green grants

Nelson high school students’ committment to sustainability could see them rewarded
82839westernstar03_27LVR
You have a chance to help Nelson's high school with its sustainability efforts

Local high school students’ commitment to sustainability could see them rewarded with more than just the skills needed to do reach their goal.

The BC Green Games is in its last week of accepting votes for school sustainability projects and could be sending money in the direction of L.V. Rogers for their project entry.

Jeff Yasinchuk of LVR said that there’s a couple thousand dollars up for grabs for the top entries of the BC Green Games.

Schools around the province submitted an entry for a project that’s been underway for some time — like LVR’s sustainability project — or for a project proposal that has yet to begin.

“We’ve been working on making our school sustainable,” said Yasinchuk.

“We’ve got a community garden that’s been going for three years, a greenhouse and we’ve been growing our own vegetables and herbs that we’ve been using in our cafeteria.”

In addition, LVR also has their solar panel program, a feature film addressing climate change from a student’s perspective and will be beginning a compost component to their gardening program.

“There’s all these little different things that the school is contributing and it’s all about sustainability,” said Yasinchuk.

“They can take the compost, use it to fertilize the community garden and grow something and then on their [cafeteria food] will be herbs and vegetables from their own backyard. It’s the whole local movement of growing your own food and I think that’s what the school’s trying to get towards.”

Yasinchuk said that while there’s a teacher involved in each aspect of their sustainability program, they are student operated.

“The students have taken a lead on this for sure. There’s a growing group of kids who are recognizing the importance of sustainability… to the point where the kids want to educate themselves on how to do things better.

“[The students] seem very motivated to see change and the only way for them to do that is to take a project that they can manage and that can be shared,” he said.

In the voting stage of the BC Green Games contest, the public can vote on their favourite project and the winner of the voter portion wins an additional $500.

 

Those interested in voting can visit lvr.sd8.bc.ca.