April is Earth Month, and across the OCSB, students are finding meaningful ways to care for the planet they call home. At St. Leonard School, that care looks like a movement. What started as one school’s response to a cancelled recycling program has grown into a board-wide battery recycling challenge, powered entirely by student leadership, and it is just getting started.
From Participation to Leadership
For five years, St. Leonard School took part in an Ontario-wide Battery Recycling Challenge, keeping hundreds of batteries out of local landfills. When the Raw Materials Company (the sponsoring organization) announced it would be discontinuing the program, it could have meant the end of that work. Instead, it became a beginning.
The St. Leonard Environment Club responded by launching their own battery recycling challenge, one open to all elementary schools across the Ottawa Catholic School Board. The goal remains the same: keep batteries out of landfills, one school at a time.
“Instead of letting the program disappear, students from the St. Leonard Environment Club took initiative and created the OCSB Battery Recycling Challenge,” said Jennifer Perrier, the teacher leading the initiative. “It’s apparent the students feel a sense of ownership and pride in their project.”
A Board-Wide Movement
What began as a single school’s response has grown into something much larger. To date, 15 elementary schools have signed up to participate, with new schools joining every few weeks.
A leaderboard tracks each school’s progress, with monthly updates keeping the competition lively. Collection runs through June, when the overall winner will be announced and awarded a trophy to display proudly in their school.
“Schools are excited to see their progress on the leaderboard and there’s a sense of friendly rivalry,” said Perrier. “There is also a shared understanding that everyone is working towards a common goal, which keeps the competition collaborative and positive.”
Students in the Driver’s Seat
What makes this initiative especially meaningful is the degree to which students are running it themselves. Environment Club members have taken on a wide range of leadership roles, promoting the challenge through morning announcements, the school newsletter, and social media updates on St. Leonard’s Facebook page.
“Students have gained skills in leadership, teamwork, and environmental management,” said Perrier. “They’ve learned how to organize a large-scale initiative beyond the walls of our school and take ownership of a real-world problem.”
Many students have also developed a deeper understanding of why proper battery disposal matters. Batteries that end up in landfills can leak harmful chemicals into the soil and water, a real consequence that these young environmentalists are working to prevent, one collection bin at a time.
Planting Seeds for the Future
As Earth Month reminds us of our collective responsibility to care for the planet, the students at St. Leonard are turning that responsibility into action. Perrier hopes the impact of this initiative will reach well beyond the current school year.
“The goal is to create lasting habits around battery recycling within the school and at home,” she said. “I hope this initiative continues to grow across the Board and becomes an annual campaign, and I hope it inspires other student-led environmental projects.”
For now, the leaderboard keeps climbing, the collection bins keep filling, and a new generation of environmental leaders keeps showing up, eager, energized, and ready to check who’s in the lead.
In doing so, they embody the OCSB’s mission of putting faith into action: caring for creation, building community, and showing that young people truly can make a difference.
