A few days ago, I was appointed as my school’s (Tyee’s) first environmental minister. My friend Zoë is the president. We were talking to our principal about all our ideas for green stuff. She had this great idea for doing ‘1000 acts of green’ and making it a school challenge (I made it 1001 because it is just that little bit more exciting). Eventually the conversation moved on to the idea of having a green club. Mrs. Rosa (the principal) told us about a conference about kids who had been in the ‘family of schools’ our school was part of and all the amazing sustainability-oriented projects they were doing. She thought we could invite a few kids with a real passion for nature and the environment from each of the schools in this family to meet us at the conference, and start an inter-school environmental club. We were going to think of a name for the club and I said I had been wanting to start a kid’s environmental club for a while and had come up with the name CAN, Children’s Association for Nature. Me and Zoë were going to be the co-founders, but she said since it was mostly my idea I should be the president. So now Zoë is the vice-president.

The CAN launch isn’t the only exciting event this week–the day after the conference is the deadline for an art competitin about nature and schools.So not only do I have to prepare for the conference, but I have to make my submission(s) and organize at least 20 others in the school to do the same. There are money prizes if you get published in the book, but the coolest part is that for every entry $5 gets donated to Tyee for sustainability projects, with a maximum of $100.