Students at SAGE and Strathcona elementary schools (which share the same building) have embraced Tonnes for Trees with a passion.

It all began at a meeting in the community, where Lee Baxter, Ian Warren and Jen Dawson, who all live in the area, heard a presentation about Tonnes for Trees. Before long, Lee and Jen began planning how to bring the program to their children’s schools.

Principal Gary Poot was enthusiastic too, and within a couple of weeks Jen put together a student booklet that covered 9 weeks – one eco-friendly topic for each week. The idea was for the kids to learn about ways to help the environment – based on the actions on the Tonnes for Trees website – and for them to encourage their families to sign up to make those lifestyle changes.

The actions include inviting adults to turn off rather than idle their car engines: and to save energy by using cold instead of hot water when washing laundry.

Each week, achievements are assessed, and for every pledge to reduce a half tonne of greenhouse gases, the students stick a paper leaf with their name onto a “tree” picture, displayed in a school hallway.

Lee, Jen and a group of dedicated parents go into the classrooms at least once a week to explain the next action, and to keep everyone on track - and while the initial goal was set at 50 tonnes, to date the tree already has over 100 leaves on it – and there’s still several weeks of the program left to go.

Meanwhile outside in Victoria Park – where the students go for recess – Ian Warren painted Hamilton’s first Tree Tonne Tally, so that the community could keep track of its tree-earning progress. With help from Councillor Brian McHattie, permission was granted to fix the tally onto the wall of the park’s pool change room building (as featured in our last issue).

In recognition of the schools’ hard work, a tree will be planted next month outside the school’s entrance. In recent years, the school lost five of its own trees, so with help from the kids, the city and Tonnes for Trees, replacing them will begin. The rest of the trees won by the schools’ hard-earned efforts will be donated to community areas that need them.

Part of the weekly pledge sheets used by the students.
They’ve also sold 180 compact fluorescent lightbulbs!