By: Emily Macrae
On February 12 Jae and I (Emily) represented Youth4Water at Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School, speaking to 1000 students as part of two assemblies on the theme of the water crisis. The assemblies were organized by the school’s Eco Team in conjunction with the Religion Department. As part of their religion classes, all students had watched the documentary Flow and the Eco Team sold metal water bottles to reinforce the message of water conservation.
Joe Cressy from the Polaris Institute spoke dynamically about bottled water and engaged students in the issue by asking students to stand up to indicate how often they drink bottled water and what their favourite kind of bottled water is. He also conducted a water taste test on stage and revealed many surprising facts about the bottled water industry.
Jae and I spoke about the importance of water in all aspects of life, the myth of water abundance in Canada, the need for a National Water Strategy and ways for youth to protect and conserve water in their own lives. It was scary speaking to so many people, however pictures of Jae’s “anguish” when he found out that Canada was the second worst water waster in the world brought some humour into the presentation.
Overall, despite initial jitters and last minute changes to our powerpoint, I feel that our presentation at Marshal McLuhan went well. This has been Youth4Water’s largest youth outreach (at one time) so far and it was fantastic to connect with a school, and to see the commitment that McLuhan has made to raising awareness about environmental issues and taking action.
On February 12 Jae and I (Emily) represented Youth4Water at Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School, speaking to 1000 students as part of two assemblies on the theme of the water crisis. The assemblies were organized by the school’s Eco Team in conjunction with the Religion Department. As part of their religion classes, all students had watched the documentary Flow and the Eco Team sold metal water bottles to reinforce the message of water conservation.
Joe Cressy from the Polaris Institute spoke dynamically about bottled water and engaged students in the issue by asking students to stand up to indicate how often they drink bottled water and what their favourite kind of bottled water is. He also conducted a water taste test on stage and revealed many surprising facts about the bottled water industry.
Jae and I spoke about the importance of water in all aspects of life, the myth of water abundance in Canada, the need for a National Water Strategy and ways for youth to protect and conserve water in their own lives. It was scary speaking to so many people, however pictures of Jae’s “anguish” when he found out that Canada was the second worst water waster in the world brought some humour into the presentation.
Overall, despite initial jitters and last minute changes to our powerpoint, I feel that our presentation at Marshal McLuhan went well. This has been Youth4Water’s largest youth outreach (at one time) so far and it was fantastic to connect with a school, and to see the commitment that McLuhan has made to raising awareness about environmental issues and taking action.
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