They are officially the best in the country.
The students in teacher Sarah Hain’s Grade 3/4 Stawamus Elementary class beat out 800 other schools from across Canada to win the Classroom Energy Diet Challenge.
Prizes for the win were distributed Friday during an official ceremony at Stawamus Elementary for students, parents, teachers and school board officials.
The prizes included a $4,000 cheque – $1,000 of which is for a class party – plus $1,000 to be used as a donation to a charity.
“I think it is awesome,” student Rhys Daly, 8, said moments before he and his classmates received the prizes.
The class voted to use $1,000 earmarked for the party to go up the Sea to Sky Gondola and pay a visit to the candy store. The students are as yet undecided about how to spend the remaining $3,000 for classroom supplies, Daly said.
The students decided to donate the $1,000 cheque for charity to the Squamish SPCA.
To win, the students completed 25 energy conservation or education challenges over three months.
One of the many things the students did was put on a workshop for other students in the school based on the question: How energy efficient are you?
“Would you bike to school more often, or walk?” asked student Maiya Leonardo, 9, explaining what she said to the younger students.
According to Gabrielle Williams, 10, the class won because the students tried the hardest. “We are a class that collaborated very greatly and I think it was, you know, best earned,” she said.
The challenge is sponsored by Shell Canada.
