Roughly 40 Grade 1 and 2 children at St. Francis Xavier school received tree samplings this week as part of Alberta Forest Week. From left are Eunice Fermin, Chatum Clarke, Bennett Smith, Leni Lybbert.-- SUBMITTED PHOTO
ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com@@kellentaniguchi
Hundreds of trees are finding new homes in Medicine Hat this week. More than 300 Medicine Hat Catholic school students took home tree seedlings which they can plant at home.
Grade 1 and 2 students from St. Francis Xavier, Mother Teresa and École St. John Paul II each took home a seedling as part of Alberta Forest Week.
Around 40 students took trees home at St. Francis Xavier and the kids were excited, says principal Jaimie Van Ham.
“They were a little surprised because we didn’t tell them in advance, but they were excited to take them home, show their parents and find a special place for them,” said Van Ham.
She says the school was able to involve older students as well – they separated the seedlings into individual bags for the younger kids. This year’s seedlings were either White Spruce or Lodgepole Pine.
“It’s really important to show the kids the value of taking care of the environment,” said Van Ham. “We look at it from the perspective of it’s our environment and we have to do what’s best for it in the future, as well as our values at Catholic schools.”
This is Van Ham’s first year as principal at St. Francis Xavier and she says she intends to continue with the seedlings giveaway next year.
“With the excitement of the kids and the way they really took to it and all the environmental activities and excitement built up this week, we will definitely try to continue this,” she said.
Events and activities ran throughout the week as part of Earth Day and Alberta Forest Week awareness initiatives at schools across the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education division.
Alberta Agriculture and Forestry began the program more than 60 years ago, aiming to teach the value of trees. Since the program was created, millions of seedlings have been given out, including an estimated 70,000 delivered across the province this year, says a release on the MHCBE’s website.
