By Joshua Adam Hicks

jhicks@bellevuereporter.com

Not every good thing must come to an end. At least not on its scheduled date.

Tillicum Middle School exchanged the stand-alone April 22 Earth Day with an extended period of observance this week.

WASL testing kept the school from celebrating on the official day of recognition for Mother Nature, but Tillicum’s ASB Earth Committee made up for it by organizing awareness activities for April 27 through May 1.

“A lot of people wanted to go green, but they weren’t really doing stuff,” said 7th grade Earth Committee member Erin Lee. “This is showing that we really can make a difference.”

The activities started Monday with an assembly featuring a guest speaker from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Students also conducted skits to promote stewardship of the Earth, and then rode stationary bikes to demonstrate how humans can generate electricity. Their combined energy, as measured, was only enough to power a television for an hour.

“It really puts into perspective how valuable that energy is,” said Joy Haverstick, who helped the Earth Committee coordinate its efforts.

Recycling was the theme Tuesday as students wore green and stood guard at garbage cans to explain the dos and don’ts of salvaging their junk.

Yellow shirts brightened things up on Wednesday as teachers turned off their lights, SMART boards, and computers in an effort to conserve energy.

Brown was the color on Thursday as the students threw their food waste into composting bags during lunch.

Friday featured blue, as the focus was on limiting water use.

Students also played an environmental version of Bingo throughout the week, checking off squares for various Earth-saving practices that they completed. Their Bingo cards were made of recycled paper.

“I think we’re kind of understanding that it does take effort to do these thing at first, but you eventually get used to it,” said Haverstick. “It’s kind of like buckling your safety belt.”

Joshua Adam Hicks can be reached at 425.453.4290.