Earth Day more than one day at this Hamilton elementary school

It’s celebrated by more than 140 countries around the world. Earth Day is a day to raise awareness about environmental issues and look at ways to save the planet.

A student-led movement at Cootes Paradise Elementary School in Hamilton is doing just that.

“We are very eco-friendly here at Cootes Paradise,” says Jennifer Hogan, school principal.

“Our goal today is to have everyone come out, have fun, be safe, clean up our school environment so that we can leave it better than when we found it,” says teacher Madeline Whelan-Moriarty.

Student leaders at Cootes Paradise came up with today’s plan to mark Earth Day and clean up their school yard. But according to Principal Hogan, there wasn’t a lot to clean up.

“They get it. To be quite honest with you, there wasn’t much clean up that had to happen here because our kids are so conscious of the earth and how responsible they are with it,” she says.

As a school, they’ve been celebrating earth month. With ‘waste-free Wednesdays’ and a lights’ out event where no power was turned on for an hour in favour of low-energy activities.

“Right now we’re cleaning up garbage to help protect the earth, and it also helps people to take care of it better,” says student Mia Wright.

“What I really don’t like is when there is a trash can very close to you and some people just don’t want to go all the way to the trash can and just throw it on the ground instead,” adds student Hannah Yassin.

The Cootes Paradise Eco Club says there’s another thing you can do at home. They say say why not just turn off the water while you’re brushing your teeth.

These future leaders get it. No one is telling them to do it for a better grade, or because Miss Moriarty said so. They do it for the love of the planet.

“You can take a shower instead of a bath. A bath uses 250 litres a day and a shower only uses 50,” says student Nora Murray

“You could plant a tree or a flower and you could also get together with your neighbourhood and go to a local park and do a nice clean up,” says Lilajune Muir.

“When we clean it up we can form a more sustainable earth for our future generations,” says Guoming Zhu.

With these future leaders in charge, the planet is in good hands.