Vision

We wanted to raise awareness on Climate Change and how we need to do more in our communities to curb the rise of Carbon Dioxide in our atmosphere and how we can lower our own Carbon Footprint. As an eco-group in our school, we wanted to show the importance of trees to our planet and how they are being deforested at alarming rates all over the world. We wanted to find a way we could help with reforestation projects in our own community and around the world.

Action

We decided to do a Plant-a-Tree Fundraiser in the school. For every dollar raised we will plant one tree through One Tree Planted, a nonprofit organization that funds reforestation projects all around the world. This includes areas in the West Coast that have been devastated by forest fires in recent years. Every dollar raised is another tree that gets planted!
Also with the help of Treecanada.ca, Churchill High School will be growing their own trees in the school and planting them in the spring around the school and community. As part of the fundraiser, we also sold White Spruce Tree Starters that we were able to purchase through Tree Canada. The Tree Starters were a great way to help raise the money for our fundraiser and ended up being a great success. We also held competitions in the different Grades to see who could raise the most money. We gave out Certificates and Pizza lunches to the winning classes and updated our fundraising on a fundraiser website.

Reflection & Celebration

This initiative made us care more, and even research on our own time about how we can help with climate change. When first starting the Tree Fundraiser, we had to strategize together about how to go about planning this and we definitely overcame certain obstacles involving COVID-19 and other issues. There were also a lot of protocols in place, but we found ways to work around it, to continue our fundraiser which is something we were particularly proud of. One thing we can specifically point out that we enjoyed, was spreading awareness about deforestation to lower grades and getting them motivated about raising money for this cause. One of our Grade 7 classes here at Churchill raised $125. We made sure to keep these kids motivated and educated about this cause. We don’t often learn about environmental issues in our schools, so it was very beneficial for the students to learn about what is happening on our planet. Personally, we believe the fundraiser went very well. As an eco-club, we had a lot of fun doing it, and so did the classes that raised money. The school will definitely benefit from this, even if only planting a small group of trees doesn’t do much for the environment, things like giving classes a “grad tree” to plant will leave behind much more than a year book, or a collage of their photos. All in all the tree fundraiser was a great thing for the school to do, and should be continued next year. About 1 trillion trees need to be planted in the next few decades to truly reverse what deforestation has done to our planet. Solutions like donating to organizations that seek to reverse the effects of deforestation (such as One Tree Planted) are an incredibly big step in fully combating deforestation. Whether it was through friendly classroom competition, or just the desire to help out the environment, the students of Churchill High School were really engaged in the fundraiser. This was just what we needed to get our peers excited about combating climate change, and to keep the eco club going for many years to come.

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