Canada

Alternate Acrylic Field Marking Paint Campaign

2019, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Keanna Bailey and Jenna Myskiw are students at Garden City Collegiate in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They noticed that the field marking paint that their school division used on school sports fields was made of a material that could leach into their watershed and cause problems. They found an alternative that was much more eco-friendly. They approached their school division to see if they would support a change in the paints they were using, and the division agreed to change all their paint over to eco-friendly options! The division made the change on their own without any additional funding, and they plan to continue to use it in the future. Sometimes, all it takes is letting someone know there is a better way!

“Encouraging more youth to take precautions and rethink how their lifestyle is impacting our watershed. By creating this conversation, along with educating each other on Lake Winnipeg watersheds current situation allows the topic to be exposed to more people. Ultimately try to get everyone switching their ways to ecofriendly products. At last, we are concerned for our watershed and want to help fix the chemical flow into Lake Winnipeg. Because it is devastating to see, our lake portrayed as a harmful body of water, mainly due to human activities that can be fixed. We want to be able to enjoy Lake Winnipeg for years to come, and that starts with recognizing our actions, and revising to more sustainable options that will benefit our watershed and overall environment.”

ROBBIE’S RIVER RESCUE

2019, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Renee and Odessa of St. George School in Saskatoon created a children’s book that shows a rubber duck named Robbie accidentally getting lost down the bathtub drain. Robbie then experiences going through the water treatment plant. Along his journey he makes a connection with a girl rubber duck named Penny. His owner, Jack, and little sister, Emily, are searching and doing anything they can to find him, and in the end they rescue both Robbie and Penny from the River.

They want to print off 15 books for their school library and classrooms grades 1-3. The girls also want to put one book in each Catholic school in Saskatoon and surrounding areas of Warman, Martensville, and Humboldt. Eventually they would like to put a book in every Public school in Saskatoon as well.

Renee and Odessa are excited to share their knowledge gained through the Caring For Our Watersheds program, especially to the younger classes, as they were not educated on where the water goes after entering the storm drain system when they were younger. They are proud to spread awareness of the water treatment and sanitary sewer drain systems and how they affect the health of our watershed. The girls are already thinking of writing a sequel focusing on storm drains.

The Soda Tap!

2019, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Shaun of Montgomery School in Saskatoon is concerned with the amount of water wasted from letting a household tap run all day. He has a personal connection to this problem: He was born in South Africa and the country experienced severe drought in 2017-18. The City of Cape Town was on the verge of running out of water completely, so the residents there became very innovative about ways to limit water usage.

Shaun saw an online video of a similar project someone in South Africa had made and decided to create his own Soda Tap in order to save on water consumption in his home here in Saskatoon. It is a 2L soda pop bottle with a hole drilled at the bottom and a plastic tube in the hole. When it is squeezed, water comes out of the tube. When you let go of the bottle, the flow stops. If you want continued flow, you can open the cap. To stop the flow, simply close the cap again. Because the bottle is not pressurized, the flow rate is significantly lower than a normal faucet.

Shaun is hoping to make several Soda Taps to take to the lake, the park, and anywhere a small supply of water is needed. He will be showing others how they can make their own as well. This project shows that personal experiences can often pave the way for meaningful projects. “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

No Plastic Is Fantastic

2019, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Rafay, Josh, and Saabir of Greystone Heights School in Saskatoon were concerned with the amount of single-use plastics contaminating and creating dangers in our environment.

These students planned a community cleanup to reduce the amount of garbage and single-use plastics ending up in our river, and they have planned a single-use plastics phase-out in their school. To eliminate the use of single-use plastics in their school, they created a competition to see which class was bringing the least amount of single-use plastics to school for lunches and snacks. The winning class at the end of the month wins a pizza party. To encourage the elimination of these plastics, the group will be providing paper straws, paper bags, biodegradable utensils, and paper cups for the students in the school to use instead. They have already created a website so that students and others can learn how to phase out the use of plastics at their schools and in their homes.

Rafay, Josh, and Saabir feel that their project is economically feasible, easy to replicate anywhere, and has huge environmental impact potential.

No Plastic is Fantastic SK Implementation Student Action

Tainted Paint

2019, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

Abrianna, Ella, and Mary of St. Kateri Tekakwitha School in Regina, Saskatchewan were concerned with paint (and other environmental contaminants) not being properly disposed of. They were alarmed that when paint doesn’t get properly disposed of, it can end up in our water sources. They came up with a plan to make it easier for people to properly dispose of these items, and also to make people aware of the dangers of not disposing of these items properly.

Tainted Paint Implementation SK 2

These girls have already collected numerous paint cans, as well as old nail polish bottles. In addition to placing collection bins for nail polish bottles at Sally Beauty and paint collection bins at 4Cats Art Studio, they have gone door-to-door in their neighbourhood collecting these items to ensure they get disposed of properly.

Abrianna, Ella, and Mary have already seen the impact of their project by collecting old paint cans and nail polish bottles and taking them for proper disposal.

They have also been able to donate paint that is still usable to organizations that can’t afford to purchase such items.

Waste Free Lunch

2019, Warren, MB, CANADA
Waste Free Lunch

Katelyn LaCombe from Warren Collegiate in Manitoba wanted to encourage her classmates to bring waste free lunches to school. She noticed that so many of her fellow students were bringing food in plastic bags, plastic wrap, and other disposable items. She held three contests throughout the school year where students could bring lunches in reusable containers to get their name entered to win environmentally friendly phone cases and zippered cloth snack bags. She provided a poster with different options to replace single-use plastics to educate everyone to continue packing waste free lunches even after the contests were over.

Waste Free Lunch

Hydrology Education

2019, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Holy Cross School grade 8 students Carliana and Vrinda wanted to make a change in the way their peers use water, so they came up with the idea to have an assembly to educate students and teachers about conserving water. Thinking of the future means thinking of our youth today. They explored themes related to the importance of freshwater, why it is important to conserve water, why it is important to keep our water resources clean, and what they can do at home and at school to make a difference.

“Educating other students on water and why it is important now means that they will have that knowledge as they grow up, making positive changes become habit early on.”

Watershed Art Mural

2018, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Rebecca Knapp, a student from Miles Macdonell Collegiate, wanted to educate her fellow students about the damage that improperly disposed waste can have on our watersheds. She came up with idea to turn trash into art to get her message across. This mural and plaque have been put up in her school to remind everyone who sees it to help keep their watershed free of garbage and plastic.

watershed art mural

SCHOOL YARD CLEAN-UP

2018, RED DEER, ALBERTA, CANADA
School Yard Clean up
Four years before this project, the garbage bins at the two main entrances to Glendale School were torn down by vandals and were never replaced. This led to a lot of unnecessary garbage being dropped on the ground by students eating their snacks and then having no place to put their garbage.

In 2018, a group of students and teachers wanted to make a change on this issue as they could see the harmful effects of all this garbage being blown around. They proposed installing multiple garbage bins in high traffic areas outside of the school so that there would always be a bin close by to properly dispose of any garbage. It was also proposed to add picnic tables and benches at these locations to encourage people to enjoy the outdoors more often.

In the spring of 2019 these dreams became a reality with the purchase and installation of 6 garbage bins, 3 benches, and 11 picnic tables. The amount of people enjoying these spaces has gone up while the amount of litter has gone way down. The simple act of having a garbage bin in sight at every location has encouraged parents and students to use them rather than dropping their garbage on the ground and harming our Red Deer River Watershed.

We want to thank the Caring for Our Watershed sponsors for their contribution to this project. The amount of litter going into the river has gone way down due to the installation of garbage bins in front of our school.

School Yard Clean up

Begging for Air (Song)

The inspirational song, Begging for Air, was submitted in the 2017-2018 school year by Manitoba finalists Alexander Clemis and local singer-songwriter, Faouzia Ouihya. The ballad is written from the perspective of a tree, with the intention to motivate others to create change in their community.

“The most important aspect of our solution is it can help inspire humans of all ages all over the world to protect and even promote their own
watershed for the future generations to come.” -Faouzia.

Participating teachers received a Caring for Our Watersheds USB with a copy of the song and an informational poster.