They say the future belongs to the next generation but a School District 43 high school grad and her younger colleague aren't waiting.
They're making a difference now.
Victoria Wee, 18, and Jennifer Allott, 15, are joint editors of the Green Generation News which is being distributed electronically to schools in SD43.
The project is the brainchild of Wee, an environmental activist who graduated from the International Baccalaureate program at Port Moody secondary school in June. Working with then-energy manager Mark Clay, Wee wanted to produce a newsletter that would showcase all the environmental sustainability projects in local schools.
"We wanted to highlight them, there are so many activities in schools and they happen all the time," said Wee, who added she hoped they would be inspirational to other students in the district.
But for the newsletter to be "sustainable" it couldn't be produced using paper and Wee needed a partner who could take on the project for a few years to make sure it didn't fizzle out. Enter Allott, 15, who took on the job of co-editor as a project with Gleneagle's Talons education program.
The two have spent months putting together the first issue, which was published in December.
Wee designed it and wrote and edited some of the submissions and Allott also wrote articles and encouraged contributions from other students through her participation in SD43's Student Leadership Council.
"It's been a crusade but a good crusade," said Wee, who said the project has taken up a lot of time over the last few months.
The result is a well-written, inspiring collection of articles about school environmental projects as well as student perspectives on issues such the Kyoto Protocol and the recent climate change conference in Durban, South Africa.
Wee said she hopes Canada will do a better job in the future in reducing carbon emissions and wrote in her article that the country has another opportunity to become a leader at the United Nations Earth Summit in June 2012.
Wee hopes to participate in the Earth Summit as well. As the youth engagement director with We Canada, Wee attended a youth conference on global sustainability in Indonesia and was in New York last month to participate in a special session leading to the Earth Summit this summer.
Her younger partner said she hopes to follow in Wee's footsteps, but for now is content with encouraging her fellow students to participate in Green Generation News. "What we want is voices from people who are passionate about these issues," Allott said.
To contribute, SD43 students can email [email protected]. To read the newsletter, paste this link http://bit.ly/sydLW6 into your web browser.
