CWDHS teacher wins 2018 Mike Elrick Environmental Award
June 20, 2018
FERGUS, Ontario – Every year, the Upper Grand District School Board presents the Mike Elrick Environmental Leadership Award to a staff member or volunteer who has demonstrated environmental leadership within their school community or school board.
Mike Elrick was an Upper Grand DSB teacher who demonstrated outstanding commitment and leadership in his work on environmental issues within the board. In addition to running the Community Environmental Leadership and Headwaters Programs for fifteen years, he also chaired the board-wide Environmental Issues Committee and was involved in numerous other initiatives within the UGDSB. Mike role modelled environmentally friendly practices from biking to school to washing mugs for staff meetings. Mike passed away in November 2009 from lung cancer.
The recipient of this award is someone who does one or more of the following:
- Drives environmental projects, earth week activities, or advises the environment club within their school
- Models numerous sustainable practices for students, like biking to school, bringing a litterless lunch, or using “good on one side paper”
- Infuses discourse and action on environmental issues into their teaching
- Demonstrates environmental leadership in other ways
This year the UGDSB received 19 nominations of deserving candidates. The Award Committee, comprised of previous award recipients and nominees, curriculum leads and the board’s Environmental Sustainability Lead had a difficult decision to make amongst so many deserving nominations.
This year’s winner is Heather Cameron, a teacher at Centre Wellington District High School. According to one of Cameron’s colleagues, “Heather is a dedicated environmentalist and leads by example. She is a passionate leader of the environmental club. She’s heavily involved with improving our recycling process and undertakes the annual waste audit with students to help create an action plan so that less waste from school reaches landfill sites. Heather is actively involved in the school’s greenhouse program and is involved in maintaining the outdoor garden areas all year round…”
We congratulate Heather, as well as all nominees this year for their inspiring efforts.
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