PENHOLD - The environment is getting a helping hand thanks to innovative, hard-working students at Penhold Crossing Secondary School.
Several months ago students came together to research, plan and build a pollinator garden and hotel on school property.
An official ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on June 20.
“People are becoming more aware about pollinators and the importance of pollinators,” said Carmen Christie-Bill, humanities teacher at the high school. “Seventy-five to 90 per cent of our fruits and vegetables worldwide come from a pollinating source.
“Most people focus on honeybees but they’re actually a very small percentage of the pollinating population,” she added. “Pollinators come in many different forms. In Alberta there’s 200 to 400 different types of native bees alone. You also have butterflies, months, ladybugs (and others).”
Grade 11 students Kati Steele and Joelle Horning spearheaded the project from start to finish, while other students pitched in to help build it, noted Christie-Bill.
“About 30 kids in the school participated in the building of it, but there were two students (Kati and Joelle) that brought (the project) to fruition, ” she said. “They have been participating in and leading school environmental initiatives for the last two years.
“It takes a lot of courage to be able to create something like this,” she added.
The garden consists of a variety of flowers, plants and vegetables that will benefit pollinators of all kinds. The pollinator hotel consists of vegetation native to Alberta, such as pond reeds and raspberry branches, places where pollinators can rest, lay eggs and nest.
“Inside (the field) they have vegetables planted from seeds and there’s also some annual flowers in there too,” said Christie-Bill. “In the garden beds themselves around the pollinator hotel and the triangle beds are all perennials.”
This is the first pollinator garden and pollinator hotel built in Penhold and in the Chinook’s Edge School Division, noted Christie-Bill.
It is also one of the first built in a schoolyard in Alberta.
“We hope it will serve as both an educational medium while also being aesthetically pleasing,” she said, noting many local businesses donated products or provided discounts for this project.
“It was not just about creating a pretty garden for humans but about helping the environment,” said Christie-Bill. “(Students asked) how can we reverse some of those impacts or be a positive contributor towards pollination instead of a negative one.”
