Lockview Grade 9 students projects cover vast array of subjects from keeping our water safe to helping homeless
FALL RIVER: Making a difference in the community has left students in Jennifer Montgomery’s Grade 9 Citizenship class with an “eye-opening experience.”
The groups projects ranged from helping protect the Shubenacadie River and assisting in the push to stop Alton Gas; to students volunteering with Feed Nova Scotia; to making a bee garden with a teachers help; and making up 10 backpacks full of supplies for those less fortunate, which the students then delivered to Beacon House in Lower Sackville on a hot sunny June afternoon.
Andrew Hare said their group volunteered three hours each of their time with Feed Nova Scotia. It showed them just how many people are in need of food.
“We did it because there was food insecurity for some across the province,” said Hare. “We thought that would make a difference if we helped out.”
The group of five sorted 5,720 pounds of food on that day.
Oliver Horne said there was way more food than what he thought there would be.
“It’s a surprise,” said Horne of the amount of food he saw. “It looked like I was walking in a Costco there was so much food. That’s just a fraction of what people need in the province.”
The trip to Feed N.S. has left an impact of the five.
“There’s probably a lot more students at our school than we can see with food insecurities and need help with it,” said Horne.
Piper Jones; Cora Johnson; and Mahala Wile created a bee garden so they can help the bee population. They had assistance from Mr. Rankin, who they thanked for his guidance.
“I always see and hear that bees are very important, they help us with a lot of things like growing food,” said Wile. “They’re going extinct so we want to do whatever we can to help them live on.”
Jones said it was important for them to actually build a bee garden.
“I thought it was very key that we stepped up and were active to build a garden,” she said.
Matthew Simmons said they raised awareness about the plight of the Shubenacadie River and the outcome that may be after Alton Gas dumps salt into it. They have a website which can be located at https://savetheshubenacadie.wixsite.com/home.
“It was important to us because we want to stop the destruction of a habitat and save the bass that live there,” added Nickolas Kuttner. “The salt brine going into the river will impact the environment and the Mi’kmaq people who live around it.”
The fourth group of five students did their project to help out those less fortunate. They filled 10 backpacks to deliver to Beacon House. They even had a snazzy name for their project “We Got Your Back.”
“We wanted to give back to the homeless community to help them have a better life,” said Stan Tonin.
“I liked being able to give back,” said Mady Cox.
Ainsley Forrest said the project opened their eyes to a lot of things.
“We’re very fortunate to take these items for granted in our day-to-day life,” said Hillary MacIsaac. “It felt really good being able to give back.”
They wanted to thank a few businesses that helped them collect the backpack items, including FW Office Environment; McDonald’s; the Municipal Group; and Hirtle Promotions.
Autumn Graham echoed her schoolmate’s comment.
“That’s what gave us the motivation for the project,” said Graham referring to people taking for granted what they have. “It was an eye-opening experience just to see how many people do need your help.”
