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Inspiring Sustainability in Toronto's Youthby Danielle Wong
Toronto, October 5 2007
| | | | For David Godri, screaming for Darfur led to screaming for sustainable energy in Toronto District School Boards (TDSB). It was at the April 2006 Scream for Dafur in Toronto—an event seemingly unrelated to renewable energy—that the William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute student had a moment of inspiration. “It was phenomenal…the idea that one person can make a change in the world,” 18-year-old Godri said yesterday morning during the YWALK Youth Forum at the Royal Ontario Museum. www.ywalk.caThis simple idea spurred Godri forward to work for change—more specifically change in the way his school generated energy. “The idea… just snowballed into this massive thing,” Godri said, the forum’s keynote speaker. Last September, he wrote a proposal to school staff about installing 10 solar panels on the school roof as a way to curb the amount of energy they consume from the Toronto grid. Shortly after, he presented the plan to TDSB trustees who supported his cause.Last year, Godri created a national, student-driven organization called Solar and Wind Initiatives Toward Change (SWITCH). His movement toward generating TDSB schools with renewable energies received a $250,000 grant from the Ontario government. In the process, a competitive bidding process for renewable energy companies was also implemented. William Lyon Mackenzie C.I. students are working on having their entire roof covered by the 2.4-kilowatt solar panels. Ten TDSB schools are expected to install solar panels by summer of 2008.“It’s up to you to make change,” Godri said to the students. “You guys are the new innovators of society… Be positive and be patient. Perseverance is key.[...] Just do it, If you take one thing out of this, it’s: just do it.” Around 70 students attended the YWALK Youth Forum—a conference for people between 13 and 19 interested in improving their communities’ environment. (YWALK is an international group of youth working for sustainable transportation.)Forum participants watched student-made documentaries and music videos about themes like recycling, heard their peers’ success stories, and participated in a one-kilometre World Record Walk through the U of T campus. It was one of the many features of the 8th Annual Walk21 Conference, which was held in Toronto this week. Participants attended workshops and sessions on creating pedestrian-friendlier communities. It was the first time Canada hosted the annual Walk21 Conference and the first year there was a youth component. One attendee at the YWALK Youth Forum also had a success story to tell. Ryan Fukala, a student at Glace Bay High School in Cape Breton, NS, was in Toronto yesterday to share how he got his school board to pave a sidewalk for students to get safely to school on foot. In February 2006, Fukala was hit by a car on his way to school. “I walk 15 minutes to school every day,” he said. “It used be that there was no sidewalk after a certain length.” Though not seriously hurt, Fukala wrote to the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board about his accident. In response, the board paved a sidewalk last summer where Fukala was hit. Fukala’s story echoes what Godri told the youth near the end of his speech. “What I’ve realized is that it’s not the cumbersome bureaucracy’s job to make change,” Godri said. “It’s up to you to make change. You are the new innovators of society.” | | |
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