Hundreds of students from 10 schools received special recognition from the Calgary Zoo for work helping wildlife and wild places.
An event celebrating the students’ fundraising and conservation awareness efforts took place at the zoo Wednesday.
All of the Grades 1-7 students took part in a week-long program at the zoo earlier in the year. Their time at the zoo sparked each schools’ conservation projects that included displays on single-use plastics.
“It’s about fishing and plastic and if the fish eats the plastic, they can rather get sick,” said Ryah Nhynes, a Grade 2 student at Pineridge School. “Maybe reuse some plastic baggies and try not to use as much plastic as possible.”
A cute critter with a cool name inspired a play and bake sale at another school.
“They wanted to get started with gathering pledges and sending money. They just fell in love with a story they heard about the mountain bongo,” explained Lianna Scherschel, a teacher at Earl Grey School.
Students participated in a parade of champions and shared their projects with each other. Calgary Zoo has run its classroom program for years but this is the first time it has added the follow-up conservation champion festival.
“In order to keep them energized and excited to do even more,” said Laura Glick, manager of outreach education at Calgary Zoo.
The zoo hopes to make the conservation celebration an annual event.
