Wellington Heights Secondary School is a runner-up in the annual Jack Layton Award for Youth Action in Sustainability.
The school was recognized for the efforts of grade 10 students in the Community Environmental Leadership Program (CELP) who built a boardwalk at Luther Marsh.
Established by Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF), the award honours Jack Layton’s optimism and hope for creating a more sustainable future.
As a runner-up to the award, the CELP program at WHSS will receive a certificate and $250 towards a sustainability-related action project.
Twenty-one students were involved in the boardwalk project, assisted by CELP teachers Dave Griffiths and Annalee Carberry. It was constructed over a two month period in May and June of 2012.
A key feature of the boardwalk, designed by Griffiths, is a viewing platform for safely viewing and accessing the marsh. WHSS students are regular visitors to Luther Marsh during the school’s second semester. In May the marsh is also visited by Grade 4 students from Mount Forest, Arthur, Alma, Fergus, Elora, Salem and East Garafraxa.
This year LSF selected one winner, four runner-ups and 11 honourable mentions from over 150 successful sustainability-related action projects that utilized at least one of LSF’s resources offered through Resources for Rethinking.
Carberry and Griffiths secured funding for the boardwalk project through a $3,000 Project FLOW grant from Resources for Rethinking.
LSF is a national charity committed to promoting, through education, the knowledge, skills, perspectives and practices essential to a sustainable future.
