Two local elementary schools will be holding events geared towards environmental awareness for Earth Day.
At John Muir Elementary, various individual classes will have their own green efforts like using less energy, not using paper, eating in the dark, planting plants around the school, and picking up garbage, said principle Stephanie Hedley-Smith via email.
There will also be a whole school challenge to see who can use the least amount of paper.
Earth Day has been sanctioned internationally for April 22, but school activities will take place between April 23-27.
“The kids thought it would be fun to have a competition,” Hedley-Smith said.
She said teachers usually hold different Earth Day celebrations for their classes each year.
Ecole Poirier Elementary School will holding a lights out event on the April 19, and regularly holds dine in the dark lunch hours once a month, according to vice-principle Sharon Schwartz.
The school has an environmental group called Destination Conservation consisting of students in Grades 4 and 5.
They help with the recycling and they’ll be the ones to make posters to advertise when we’re doing lights out, Schwartz said.
On March 31, the Sooke community managed to reduce energy usage by 1.6 per cent for Earth Hour.
Ninety-one B.C. communities registered for participation, and saved 121 megawatt hours of electricity, reducing the provincial electricity load by 1.67 per cent.
Earth Day launched in the U.S. in 1970, with two million Canadians joining 20 years later in the first international event.
According to the Earth Day Canada website, six million Canadians and one billion people in over 170 countries participate world wide. Each locality stages individual events and projects.