St. Johns Academy is throwing down the gauntlet to other schools in the South Cowichan area.
On the heels of Earth Day St. Johns Academy middle school teacher Bradley Myrholm and other staff members took a group of students to lead by example as they did a community clean up in South Cowichan filling 38 trash bags and making a world of difference. Myrholm hopes that other schools will follow suit.
“I want to challenge Kelsey, Evergreen School, Brentwood College, and Shawnigan Lake School to try to pull out at least 38 large garbage bags of litter from the ditches of South Cowichan as well,” said Myrholm. “I would like to see this as a yearly challenge between the schools to clean our area and to teach our students about community contribution and responsibility at the same time. Partnerships and challenges like this can tangibly change the world for the better. Eventually, it would be great to scale this up across the province, but let’s start here in our backyards first.”
Myrholm, who teaches middle school English and is the director of Teaching and Learning, notes that St. John’s Academy is a platinum certified Eco-School that shares in the International Baccalaureate’s mission to create a better world through education which means community service and contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals are paramount to their educational program. The focus for their recent clean-up included climate action, life below water, and life on land.
“The goal of education is to help students become self-reliant while helping our students find belonging and significance within our school and wider communities. These type of experiences certainly help our students to feel a sense of contribution and belonging,” said Myrholm. “Each year we celebrate Earth Week by having the students participate in multiple outdoor and environmentally focused activities. Josh Hart, our environmental education coordinator, plans the Earth Week events each year and also participated personally in the community clean-up alongside me. Since its inception, highway cleanup has always been a part. This was also heavily supported and inspired by Kim Bernard, who is the leader of the Shawnigan Rotary Eco-Club. Ms. Bernard also spearheads the Shawnigan Community Clean up which took place April 20 this year. Ms. Bernard has been instrumental in supporting our community clean-up through donating tongs, gloves, and even gingerbread cookies.”
Myrholm and Hart took out groups of 10 to 14 students over the course of three days and students Max Merritt and Charles Chang attended the community clean-up all three days. Chang was bestowed the St. Johns Academy Young Eco-Warrior Award for his unwavering enthusiasm and participation.
The staff and students cleaned the entirety of the Shawnigan Lake - Mill Bay Road from Shawnigan Village to Cliffside Road, as well as Shawnigan Lake Road, Baldy Mountain Road and Sylvester. Myrholm adds that they have officially adopted the Shawnigan Lake - Mill Bay Road with the Ministry of Transportation and will take responsibility for the cleaning of it in the years ahead.
“All of our students agreed at the end of each day that it felt very good to make an impact and contribute to our community,” said Myrholm. “The community was very supportive with people slowing down, shouting ‘thank you’ from their homes and cars while honking their horns in support. I hope to start a trash-picking movement in the Cowichan Valley and inspire our students to always take responsibility for their communities through action and contribution. I started picking trash when I was a young kid with a 4H club in Alberta — that sense of contribution and pride has stuck with me ever since.”
