The Weekly Anchor
Monday, August 1st, 2016
By Mackenzie Burnett
Throughout this May and June the West Yellowhead Recycling Society, WYRS, launched a successful education program in Edson and the surrounding region. 300 students had tours of the Edson Community Garden, while 240 had tours of the Edson and District Recycling Depot. According to numerous teachers, the spring program was a valuable addition to their students’ environmental education.
In an email to the WYRS, Patty Redman, who is a kindergarten teacher at A. H. Dakin, reported “The garden education program and recycle depot tours were excellent! The children really enjoyed both experiences, and were excited to see how the depot works behind the scenes.”
During the depot tours, classes were shown around the facility and learned how the depot operates on a daily basis. Students helped with the bailing of some recycling as well.
The garden tours featured a variety of activities depending on the length of the field trip. Students had the chance to build a bird or bat house, paint a pet rock, tour the garden, learn about local critters & vermicompost, make seed bombs, and have a snack.
The vermicompost demonstration was a particularly popular activity. Vermicompost is a form of composting that utilizes red wiggler worms, which makes composting feasible indoors and in other small spaces.
Redman went on to say “The garden program activities were engaging for the students and they were thrilled to be able to take home items they made! I will definitely be booking my class to enjoy both learning opportunities next year!”
Wilma Knoops, who is the principal of Evergreen Elementary School, similarly told the WYRS in an email that “[…] I can say with certainty that every class that participated thoroughly enjoyed the experience and teachers said they would go again.”
Staff from the Edson and District Recycling Depot also traveled to Niton Central School, Holy Redeemer High School, Pine Grove Middle School, and École Mountain View School in Hinton in order to give presentations on recycling. In total 645 students benefitted from in school presentations this spring.
Next year, WYRS plans to build on this year’s success by adding several community garden education days throughout the spring and summer. Families would then have the chance to stop by, participate in activities, and learn about the topic being focused on that day. Staff from Alberta Environment and Parks will be at a few of next summer’s sessions as well. Some potential topics that might be covered include bats, bees & insects, large carnivores, fisheries, and forests & forest fire prevention.
On top of the community garden days, the Edson and District Recycling Depot will continue with school presentations and will be open to school tours 5 days a week in May and June.
In September of 2017 the community garden is planning a harvest day as well. Throughout the day kids would have the opportunity to help harvest plants from the Edson and District Recycling Depot’s plot, and the plots of those who request help. At the end WYRS intends to donate the food to the Edson Food Bank.
In the meantime, WYRS is planning another community garden activity day this August 12th from 1-3 pm.