Letter to Canadian Tire eGreen School Contest

French Immersion students from Harry J. Clarke care about the environment.

The following letter was written by students in a Grade 7/8 French Immersion class at Harry J. Clarke Public School.

October 10, 2008

Dear Canadian Tire,

We, the Undersigned, are writing to you today to submit our class to your eGreen School Challenge. The following are reasons as to why our class is a solid submission.

When you walk into our classroom, it looks like any other. Yet, if you take a close look, you can see our environmental awareness. First of all, we don't have a garbage can in our classroom. Students bring any non-recyclable garbage and containers back home, in effect making our class garbage-free. Instead, we try to bring reusable plastic containers. Our parents are increasingly onboard as they try not to buy over packaged food products.

Secondly, we take the time to use a composter. Compost is better suited at enriching soils than regular store bought soil. Throughout the day, we collect the organic waste we produce, such as, banana peels, apple cores, orange peels, etc. At the end of the day, two students take what we collect outside to the composter. Our aim is to mix our compost in the school flowerbeds soils by the end of the school year.

Thirdly, we are reducing large amounts of waste by using recycling boxes. However, before recyling, we try to reuse as much as possible, especially paper. Rather than using a piece of paper once before recycling it, we use both sides. In doing so, we use less paper altogether while helping the environment and our school budget. In fact, our teacher has been giving us less handouts, and is giving us more notes to take, furthering our note taking skills, knowledge and the improvement of the environment simultaneously.

In conclusion, all of these green measures such as, composting, reusing and our no garbage policy are simple, manageable tasks that help our environment. They are not at all difficult to do and are now part of our daily routine. We also encourage our parents to be environmentally cautious when buying food for our lunches. Ultimately, we hope to set an example of how easy it is to go green, and we wish to eventually spread our ways to other classes, schools, and hopefully the entire system.

Sincerely,

The Grade 7/8 class of Monsieur Derasp
Harry J. Clark Public School
Belleville, Ontario