They say the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and that the second-best time is today. Students and teachers at Linwood Public School have taken that saying to heart every spring for the past five years.
Thanks to their annual spring plant, the playground at the school has been transformed from dirt and grass into a veritable ecosystem under the guidance of Grade 7 and 8 teacher Ed Piva, and on Wednesday that tradition continued.
“There is a difference between fake play, and real play. I’m going to call this real play because so many kids are disconnected from nature and this is a way for them to reconnect,” said Piva. “The whole point of it is we have an ecosystem here now that wasn’t here before.”
To help fund their spring plant, the school raised more $900 at their annual ‘barage’ sale (a combination of a bake sale and garage sale), they received a $2,500 donation from Home and School, and Piva was awarded the $500 Tim Walker Memorial Award for environmental leadership by the school board in April.
That $3,900 was used to purchase an additional 10 mature trees, 12 native shrubs and more than 20 other perennials to be planted in the school’s nature area, adjacent to the playground.
“I think it’s important to have this place because all the younger kids, when they’re growing up, it makes them understand what we should be doing to help our planet,” said Brady Gerber, a Grade 8 student and a member of the Green Team at Linwood – some 25 students at the school who take the lead in the school’s environmental initiatives.
“I think it’s important to leave our legacy on Linwood and I think it’s a great thing that Mr. Piva is doing for the school,” said Sally Drummond, another member of the Green Team. “It’s neat how this started as just grass and now we’ve almost got a forest growing.”
The area has developed into a ecosystem for a wide variety of species. While working on Wednesday, the group discovered a nest of about eight baby rabbits at the base of one of the trees, they witnessed a humming bird building its nest, and Piva said he counted at least 20 different species of insects on one bush alone, not to mention the frogs and other creatures found lurking through the grass.
On Tuesday the school was also recognized by earning their second gold EcoSchool accreditation at the Doon Heritage Village at the Region of Waterloo Museum. Schools must achieve a grade of 75 per cent or higher in six categories in order to be gold certified: environmental stewardship, environmental literacy, waste minimization, energy conservation, school ground greening and environmental curriculum.
This was the schools third consecutive accreditation, earning a silver last year and gold in 2009.
“We were one of the first schools to actually be involved in the EcoCchools event, and it seems like overall we’ve just embraced the idea of becoming greener,” said Grade 8 student Ryan Lumgair.
The green space has become popular not only among students, but within the town of Linwood as well. Students said that people from town often come to sit in the green space to enjoy the surroundings and to enjoy the shade, much like the students during their class breaks.
“I just think it’s awesome, because just a few years ago this wasn’t even here – it was just a couple of shrubs,” said Grade 8 student Alex Ratthe.
