EcoFriendly Action Heroes 2012

In 2012, EcoFriendly Sask began providing grants to help individuals or groups to protect and promote the local environment. It was exciting to review the applications as they came in, and we were delighted to be able to provide $11,850 to support 19 different projects.

Youth 
The Meadow Lake Junior Forest Wardens take responsibility for an annual clean-up at Pagan Lake. They clean up storm damage, install new signs, groom the trails, and build and install bird and bat boxes.

Delila Jahn-True wrote a book to encourage people to recycle waste. She read from her book, Advice between Kingdoms – How the Hays moved Trash Mountain, at Craik Eco Village’s Environment Day event.

The Eco-Warriors Club, organized by the Friends of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, was a new initiative for kids ages 9-12, combining field trips and speakers.

Agriculture
The new Emmanuel Village Community Garden is so popular that they are already expanding it. An EcoFriendly Action Grant paid for compost and manure for new garden plots.

Whitespace Initiatives is developing online organizational tools for Out of Your Tree.

Francis Baita is working with young people in Uganda to develop a vegetable garden using SPIN farming techniques.

Events
The Native Plant Society of Saskatchewan received a $1000 sponsorship for their 2012 annual conference.

The Saskatchewan Eco-Network received $500 to support the 2012 Environmental Film Festival.

EcoFriendly Sask sponsored two groups’ Park(ing) Day activities – The Stall Gallery and Our Saskatoon.

Wildlife 
We provided Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation with $2000 to help with their animal rescue operations.

TRoutreach Saskatchewan received two grants to assist with their fisheries research.

Natural Habitat
Saskatoon Nature Society received a grant to help sponsor Swale of A Day on June 10. It poured with rain all day long, but 40 members of the public, including two City Councillors, visited the Northeast Swale and the event received excellent media coverage.

The Upper Souris Watershed Association prepared and aired 18 30-second radio ads to increase public awareness of sustainable water supply.

Here’s one example: “Canadian adults use an average of 329 litres of water/day. Only 10% of water is used in the kitchen for drinking, cooking and washing dishes. About 65% of water is used indoors in the bathroom. Water use dramatically increases in the summer when half to three quarters of treated water is used to water lawns and gardens.” 

Alternative Transportation 
Saskatoon Cycles received two grants to assist them in taking the Bike Valet to a greater number of community events.

We donated $1500 to the Core Neighbourhood Youth Co-op’s Bike Power & Bike Laundry project on Small Change Fund.

Energy
The Saskatchewan Environmental Society received $1500 for their Energy Awareness Saskatchewan project on Small Change Fund.

Congratulations to all our 2012 EcoFriendly Action Heroes. Keep up the good work. We look forward to providing financial support for more Eco Heroes in 2013.

See also: 
EcoFriendly Action Grants
Who is EcoFriendly Sask?