City students will get to see a real live falcon fly over their heads later this month when Canada’s Earth Rangers come to town.
Meghan Woodworth and Sam Medina of the Earth Rangers, a national animal conservation education group, are visiting Bertha Kennedy, Leo Nickerson, J.J. Nearing and Keenooshayo School this Oct. 22 through 24.
The Earth Rangers bring live animals to about 600 schools a year in order to teach Grade 1 to Grade 6 students about the importance of conservation, said spokesperson Lori Marier. The animals they use come from captive breeding programs.
The Rangers are in town due to a roughly $50,000 sponsorship by Lehigh Hanson Canada, said Brent Korobanik, the company’s environment manager and St. Albert resident.
Korobanik, who also heads the city’s Environmental Advisory Committee, said he and Lehigh president Jim Derkatch got the idea for the sponsorship because they had children and grandchildren who liked the Rangers.
The Rangers will visit 40 schools in western Canada nominated by Lehigh employees, Korobanik said.
Woodworth and Medina will have a red fox, a three-banded armadillo, an American kestrel and a peregrine falcon with them, Marier said. The kestrel and falcon will actually fly over the audience as part of the Earth Rangers presentation, she noted.
“It’s really exciting for the kids.”
Students will learn about the different animals and how they can become Earth Rangers to support the group’s conservation efforts, Marier said.
Korobanik said he hopes the visit gets kids interested in nature and conservation.
“If even a small percentage of the kids that watch this presentation get that same spark, I’ll be happy.”
The St. Albert Food Bank is $222 richer this week thanks to some food trucks and the students at V.J. Maloney School.
Vincent J. Maloney students held the school’s first charity food truck rally Tuesday. The event capped off the school’s new Language Arts unit on food trucks.
Students and parents made 444 orders from the Orbit, Drift and Lemongrass Grill trucks, which agreed to donate 50 cents per order to the food bank.
That works out to $222 for the food bank, said teacher Kelly Montpetit, who organized the unit.
“The food was really top notch,” she said, with long, well-behaved lines at each truck. Students really like the poutine, spring rolls, onion cakes and beef tacos on the menus, she added.
The school planned to deliver the cash as well as many boxes of food to the food bank on Friday, Montpetit said, speaking on Tuesday.
Montpetit said she hopes to hold a second food truck rally next year.
A St. Albert parent hopes local gardeners will come out next Saturday to help build a sense-sational garden at Elmer S. Gish School.
Parent Jill Cunningham put out a call for volunteers this week to help build the next phase of the Elmer S. Gish Nature-Scape edible garden.
Parent volunteers built the first phase of the garden last fall with the help of a $2,600 Environmental Initiatives Grant. Phase one involved edible fruit trees, native flowers and a small vegetable patch.
This year the parents plan to build a small amphitheatre of seating posts using old power poles from Epcor and to plant a “veritable forest” of native trees, Cunningham said.
“We’re creating a garden where everything planted in it will be a feast for the senses,” she continued. This “five-senses” garden should tie in with Grade 1 lessons on the senses through its use of tasty fruits, rattling seedpods, velvety lambs-ears and other plants.
Cunningham said that the garden should help address the nature-deficit disorder found in today’s youth.
“We need to create places for kids to be out (in) and experience nature.”
The event runs Oct. 18 and Oct. 19 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Volunteers should bring shovels.
Call the school at 780-459-7766 for details.
