Grade 5 and 6 students at École Ste-Marie (Azilda) were recently rewarded with a national recognition by claiming the first prize of the 2022 Empowering Youth Climate Action initiative for their Active Transportation project named “Roulons marchons Lions.” No less than 300 action projects from across Canada took part in this initiative presented by Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF) and Environment and Climate Change Canada, which encourages schools across the country to take additional sustainability and climate action in their schools. As a result of the students’ recognized efforts, École Ste-Marie was awarded a prize valued at $3,000.
Since September 2021, grade 5 and 6 students along with their teacher Ms. Anne Quesnelle benefited from training offered by the Academy of the Guardians of the Planet, Take Me Outside and LSF before putting forward the Active Transportation project due to its sustainability benefits for their school, community and planet. As part of their efforts, students spoke at an Azilda Community Action Network town hall meeting to show their support towards an initiative aiming to create bike paths in their community.
Through their efforts, which included weekly follow-ups and a motivation and participation system, nearly 45% of the student population of École Ste-Marie contributed in this climate action project by taking a green mode of transportation to school daily since the beginning of May. By accessing funds received from LSF, the school was able to add a bike rack to the school grounds to support students and staff who travel to Ste-Marie by bike or scooter.
Building on the success of their Active Transportation project, the students plan to pursue their efforts in 2022-2023 and dedicate the $3,000 prize to supporting additional sustainability and climate actions for École Ste-Marie’s school community.
