Students appeal for votes

FOUR students from Loreto Bray are appealing to the public to lend them their support – and their vote – as they vie to win a ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Award.

Emily McQuillan, Ciara Slattery, Jenny Salmon and Hannah Leonard will present their eco-action project at the national final on Tuesday, May 22, in the Mansion House in Dublin.

There is a People’s Choice Award up for decision and the teenagers are appealing to the public to visit ecounesco.ie before Friday, May 18, to vote for them.

‘Our project is about trying to combat climate change by reducing our school’s carbon footprint,’ said a spokesperson. ‘We were truly taken aback by the fact that our school didn’t have any recycling facilities and we wanted to make a change in our community that would change the school forever. We had three main goals: to obtain recycling bins for our school, to spread awareness about this issue to all members of our school community and to reduce our carbon footprint.’

They took a number of actions - from sorting through and analysing rubbish in bins from a school day, to handing out surveys and holding a poster competition for first years.

As a result of their hard work, the girls have been granted funding by the board of management to provide Loreto with the facilities to become a school that promotes sustainable living through recycling.