St. Thomas Aquinas High School Focuses on Water During Catholic Education Week
St. Tho
mas Aquinas High School took a different approach to Catholic Education Week by focusing on something all human's need to survive, water.
"Water is so imperative to a healthy society and the world. The message of sustainable, clean water is significant and we want youth to be involved at a young age and prepared to make a difference during their whole lives," said Matthew Favreau, Grade 12 Student and Student Trustee.
Favreau helped organize the WE Walk for Water walk-a-thon, a school-wide event that raised money and awareness for accessible clean water.
"We were just one of the Catholic schools in Ontario participating in the province-wide Christian Service Project to raise awareness of the importance and access of clean drinking water in Canada and around the world. Our school organized a walk-a-thon. Pledge forms were provided to students so they can raise money to support the cause. For every $25 raised through this initiative a person in need can have clean water for life," said Favreau.
The walk-a-thon raised over $600 which provides 24 people with clean water for life. The Ontario-wide initiative is in partnership with WE, a development charity and youth empowerment organization. He said the walk was a big success with almost the entire school participating.
The lessons on the importance of clean water continued throughout the week with another initiative that saw high school students work with students from Pope John Paul II School.
"My Grade 8 students have been working for a week or so to learn about what a watershed is. Today they're giving their presentations on watersheds to a Grade 4 class from Pope John Paul," said Grade 8 science teacher Ashley Shouldice.
The students were put into groups mixing up the Grade 8 and Grade 4 students and were asked to put together a model watershed. Chloe Herr was one of the Grade 8 students and she spoke about bringing in the younger students to see St. Thomas Aquinas.
"It's really cool because when they get older they'll already know how the school works and how friendly everyone is," she said.
After the models were complete Shouldice used Jello powder to symbolize pesticide so students could see what happened to the water when the pesticide was introduced to their watersheds. She explained why this was a great exercise for all the students involved.
"It's awesome that my Grade 8 class can share their knowledge with the Grade 4 students. It gives them an audience and a purpose for what they're doing. I've seen them take more ownership over their work and be proud of what they're doing. It also gives the Grade 4 kids an opportunity to get familiar with the building and to see the awesome things they can do up at this school," she said.
Catholic Education Week culminated at the school with a Build Your Own Sundae Bar on Friday with all of the proceeds going towards the WE Walk for Water walk-a-thon.