I’m always looking forward to the last Friday of each month, but this one was by far my favourite! Since we are a small school we find it important to find time with people within the community and friends from other schools. Every month there is a Youth Night where everyone in the grade 6-8 class and their friends from the community get together to have some fun in a sustainable way. This means we make sustainable snacks, decorations and Halloween costumes!
First we prepared the venue by adding some creepy Halloween decorations. Next we carved some pretty cool pumpkins that had some funny and scary faces, random shapes and even some animals! We put candles in these and set them up along the walkway. Special thanks to Gates Farm for donating the pumpkins!
Last month we watched Wonder Woman, played 'Mantracker' outside and made homemade pizza, but for our Sustainable Halloween Party this month we did stuff a little bit differently. We had everyone dress up in their sustainable Halloween costumes (which means you reuse past costume pieces or you make the costume from recycled resources). An unsustainable costume would be if you went out and bought a new one just for this year. It was awesome to see the creativity that went into the costumes. Some were super scary (a Fire Giant Dreadnought from D&D) and some were super funny (a grandma with giant hands)! A lot of the people wore homemade costumes or costumes they have had for a long time and were used for another reason. This is one of the best parts of Halloween. We gave out awards like most sustainable, most creative and scariest costume!
Next we ate some pretty cool snacks (that were delicious) and caught up with our friends. Keeping with the theme of sustainability, some classmates brought homemade desserts or desserts from a local farmer's market. At this party, we made very little waste by not bringing snacks such as chips or bagged popcorn, which are obviously not very sustainable because they are not made locally, nor are they very healthy for us or our planet.
That was fun, but this is where the fun really started ...
As the sky became dim we started off the night with playing sardines, a game where 2 people hide quickly and quietly while everyone else looks through the long grass and the woods to find them first. Once you find them you pack in like sardines, trying not to be seen by your friends.
Next we had to play Mantracker - or it wouldn't be Youth Night. As every minute passed, the sky went darker and darker, and we had to run from taggers coming from every direction with flashlights and jumping into the long grass trying not to be seen. Running through the woods was the hardest because you would slide down the hills and run into trees and branches, tripping over grass and sticks. Through all the cuts and pain it was totally worth it.
Last but not least was the favourite activity of the night, The Hunger Games! This is a partner game that is very similar to Mantracker. Two taggers give partners 3 minutes to hide. The partners run into the pitch black night, some run to the long grass and some run to the woods! Let me tell you, running in the dark in the woods is NOT easy. This was a super fun activity and seeing everyone run by you in the long grass is super nerve racking plus it was FREEZING outside so sitting still in the long grass was very cold.
The reason we focus on “sustainable” Youth Nights is because we as a school are interested in helping the wider world. As a school we try to help the environment, For example, we do most work online instead of on paper. Pretty much everything we do is as sustainable as possible. So why not do sustainable Youth Nights too? Some of the Global Goals we are supporting are: Good heath and wellbeing (3) Decent work and economic growth (8) Sustainable cities and communities (11), and Responsible consumptions and production (12).
Think about this sustainable quote: “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” - Robert Swan. This quote is so true because we all know it only takes 1 person to make a difference but why don’t we step up to the challenge and be that person? We all just hope someone will fix it for us but we need to take action for ourselves. That is why The Booker School is trying to be as sustainable as we can be.
Thank you for reading my article and hopefully you can challenge yourself to do something good for our earth and be that one person who makes the difference in our world. Hope to see you at one of our next Youth Nights! Join us on December 8th for a Sustainable Solstice Youth Night!