Group photo of Ms. Maxwell, Ms. Justice, and Ms. Morton’s Grade 8 classes from Shoreline Community Middle School!
Group photo of Ms. Johnston and Ms. Hemus’ Grade 3/4/5 classes from View Royal Elementary School!
What a fun day we had connecting people to one another and nature, all while restoring habitat! Keep on reading to find impacts, highlights and more from the day…
Impacts
- 92 enthusiastic students, 5 teachers, and 8 teacher aids & parents engaged
- 144.25 hours contributed to habitat restoration
- 20 students removed invasive plants for the first time
- 6 cubic metres (37.5 bathtubs full) of invasive Himalayan blackberry and English ivy removed
- 230 square metres of habitat revitalized
- Countless smiles, laughter, and stories were shared!
Highlights
- Students from Shoreline Community School and View Royal Elementary have been able to take part in continuous ecological restoration and many of them returned with knowledge, skills, and determination to remove invasive species!
- Students and passerbys enjoyed the additional education and decorative designs provided by the plant signs, learning about identification in a fun, creative way!
- We had a little friendly competition with longest ivy and blackberry strands! For the Grade 8’s, the longest blackberry strand was 11 metres and longest ivy strand was 7.4 metres! For the Grade 3/4/5’s, the longest ivy strand was 11.1 metres! It was a day filled with great teamwork!
- Portage Park has it all! We are so grateful to be working this gorgeous View Royal park featuring a Garry Oak Meadow, beach access, and a fun playground!
Community Investment Partner
A huge THANK YOU to the Town of View Royal for partnering with our charity, Green Teams of Canada, and making this activity possible with their financial support and direction!
Together we are achieving our common goals and creating connected, healthy and resilient communities engaged in environmental stewardship.
Why We Do This Work
The Greater Victoria Green Team organizes hands-on educational activities that have a positive environmental impact to empower people. Through activities such as invasive plant removals, plantings, litter cleanups and more, we are fostering connections with others and nature so that health and well-being is prioritized, lifelong environmental stewardship is promoted, and community members are enabled to take care of themselves, each other and the places they live. We all have the power to make a difference!
We all experience mental and physical health benefits from spending time in nature, including reduced stress and anxiety, and improved mood, focus, memory and more. While doing so, we can also have a positive impact on the environment as demonstrated through this activity!
Staff Who Made This Activity Possible
Greater Victoria Green Team Program Manager, Kaitlin Warren and Program Coordinator, Severine Tyszewicz, work hard behind the scenes to bring these high-quality activities to you.
Partnership building, outreach, social media, activity logistics, leading on-the-ground, reporting on impacts and more – they can do it all!
Severine was hired as part of Green Teams of Canada’s Youth Leadership Program, intended to empower the next generation of environmentally-focused community organizing.