Calgary students are taking the spotlight at City Hall for the 37th annual Mayor’s Environment Expo, an annual event that sees the municipal building overrun by young minds tackling a variety of pressing environmental issues.
A Day of Learning and Action
The event offers a unique opportunity for Calgary’s youth to explore topics ranging from conservation to climate action and sustainable living, while encouraging students to turn knowledge into action and develop connections to environmental stewardship.
Mayor Jeromy Farkas welcomed about 2,000 kids to city hall Tuesday morning and spent time engaging with presenters about their projects on topics ranging from sustainable food systems and biodiversity initiatives to hands-on environmental solutions.
Mayor’s Praise for Young Leaders
“I am so impressed by the talent of the projects on display here. We have so many amazing youth environmental leaders,” Farkas told reporters at city hall. “This is leadership in action.”
“It’s Calgary’s next generation showing that they’re not leaders tomorrow, they’re leaders today, tackling the tough questions around environmentalism, climate (and) resiliency,” he added.
Farkas said the annual expo is also an opportunity for officials like himself to learn from the ideas of Calgary’s future generations of leaders.
“(Youth) are dealing with these challenges here now, and they want to be part of the future, and they want to actually be part of problem solving,” he said. “Getting an extra set of eyes… a different perspective from Calgary’s youth is so important for us.”
“I have a lot to learn and they are here to teach me,” Farkas concluded.
Student Projects on Display
Farkas met with students showcasing their projects, including a group of Grade 6 students from W.O. Mitchell School, who were presenting their project that explores the practice of “forest bathing,” which is the practice of immersing oneself in nature as a means of self-care.
Student Addison Wallace said the project was inspired by a class visit to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary in southeast Calgary, and explores the question: “What are our rituals of care?”
“Our class was very inspired by (the visit),” said Wallace, speaking on behalf of the group that also included students Benjamin Araneda, Rafael Bellorin and Madison Scalzo.
The project saw the students make their own forest bathing trail in northwest Calgary and involved recording nature sounds specific to all four seasons, which attendees could listen to at the project booth.
Pelly Zannis, a Grade 3 student from Earl Grey School, showcased her project that looks at minimizing watershed contamination by reducing the amount of dog waste that doesn’t get picked up from public spaces. The project involved installing poo bag dispensers and signs near the school in southwest Calgary encouraging people to pick up after their dogs, and measuring how this intervention affects the number of dog waste occurrences.
