Instead of filling their campus with the pollution of 350 gas driven vehicles, St. Francis Catholic High School students chose to make ecologically sound footprints by walking, biking, rollerblading, skateboarding or carpooling to school.

It happened on March 22, designated as “Empty the Lot” day at the Sacramento all-girls high school, one of several environmental activities planned at St. Francis during the six weeks of the Lenten season.

The entire student body is participating in “The Desert Blooms,” various environmental immersion activities that coincide with Earth Day, celebrated this year on April 22.

Tanya Davis, Christian service coordinator and theology teacher at St. Francis, said that the challenge to students during Lent is to “see how they can make changes in their own lives to be stewards of the earth.”

“We all need to do our part, whether its fasting from Starbuck’s coffee, which the girls love, and donating that to Catholic Relief Services, eating organic food, or hop, skipping or jumping to get to school, we want to leave the earth better for those living now and in the future,” Davis said.

Activities include a day of prayer for the earth, an Earth Day assembly, organic cooking demonstrations, a plug-in hybrid Prius vehicle demonstrator display, and delivery of a horticulture project to shut-in seniors.

Davis said students are making changes in their lives, and “learning to use less is to create more for others.”

St. Francis has designated its 2006-2007 school year to focus on care for God’s creation, one of seven key tenets of Catholic social teaching.

Junior Stefanie Collins is co-president of the environmental club and committed to a lifetyle that respects the earth and its finite resources.

“It is my belief that I can just change the world a little bit by making sure what I eat and buy hasn’t been shipped across the world to impact the environment,” said Collins, who is a vegan, restricting her diet to plant-based foods.

Kelly Fischer, a junior who was involved in planning the Desert Blooms activities, said that a showing of former vice president Al Gore’s environmental film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” on global warming, is a wake-up call.

“Unfortunately it’s not until people see ice caps melting and polar bears without homes that they take action,” she said. “We’re just trying to foster an environment where people make choices that benefit our environment and community.”

At St. Theresa School in South Lake Tahoe, Earth Day is celebrated 12 months a year.

Students in kindergarten through fifth grades are active in the “K-Kids,” a community service program which nurtures respect for the environment.

This year’s project involved the students in cleaning up two of South Lake Tahoe’s favorite recreation areas, Regan Beach and Bijou Park.

Students in sixth through eighth grades belong to the “Builder’s Club,” a student-led community service organization which this year will participate in a clean-up project that begins at their school site and extends down the street to a local recreation center.

Previous environmental activities include a collaboration between St. Theresa students and local contractors to battle pollution of Lake Tahoe, which is losing its clarity at an alarming rate, widely estimated to be over a foot a year.

A retention pond built by students in front of the school holds water about six hours before it is dispersed into the ground, eventually filtering back into Lake Tahoe.

Elizabeth Ferguson, who teaches fifth through eighth grade science classes, teaches her students the value of working together as a team and believing the motto on the “smart board” in her classroom.

It says simply, “God and science go together,” Ferguson said. “Since God created everything, we are always thinking of Earth Day. We talk about what kids can do in communities that can have a big impact over a period of time.”

During Easter break, fifth graders will be building a swallow bird house which will be placed in a nearby meadow on a 14-foot pole. Success of the project will return swallows to their natural habitat from the eves of homes.

Sixth grader Emily Barnett, 12, who is a member of the Builder’s Club, said lessons learned in Ferguson’s science class have already impacted her life.

“We’ve been learning how the earth can change,” said Barnett, who makes it a point to remember to turn off the lights when she leaves a room, walk a few blocks to a friend’s house instead of riding in a car, and cleaning up litter on the beach.

“We want to help the earth, help put cleaner oxygen in the air and make it a really pretty place,” she said.

At St. Joseph School in Redding, the student body has teamed up with Sunset Market in Redding to stimulate environmental awareness throughout the community.

Principal Ericka Allio said classroom discussions in March and April are planned to foster “an appreciation of planet earth, and an understanding that we must preserve and protect the planet from global warming, pollution and misuse of resources.”

Students are asked to come up with tips on preserving the environment which are then written or pictured on 200 grocery bags to be distributed at Sunset Market on Earth Day.

Owen Fitzgerald, 11, a fifth grader at St. Joseph, has decided to decorate his grocery bag with recycling tips.

“Earth Day should happen all the time because earth is the only planet in our solar system that can sustain life,” he said. “We should take care of it.”

A major gardening project is in progress at St. Anne School in Sacramento where students are getting up close and personal with the earth.

During April, all classes are planting spring flowers in planters that encircle four of the trees on the school campus.

Additionally, fifth through eighth graders are creating geometrically shaped flower gardens in two inner courtyards at the school.

“We’re teaching kids to do simple things to make the world a better place,” said fifth and sixth grade teacher Christine Servant.

Teachers’ lesson plans include discussion on recycling and the merits of growing and purchasing organic foods.

Fifth grader Nkechi Ikem, 11, said he has been learning that air pollution not only makes people sick, it kills plants, depleting the food source for animals.

“I thought pollution was something that could get better, but now I’m learning pollution is getting worse and we have to stop it,” he said.

Copyright © 2007 Diocese of Sacramento - All Rights Reserved