Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Wednesday, April 25, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - A group of Grade 5 students from J.H. Sissons school will perform a series of sketches at tomorrow's Solid Waste Management Forum to spell out the benefits of recycling, among other environmentally-friendly initiatives.

The sketches are one of several added features to the forum this year, which organizers hope will make the forum more appealing to the public. The forum is being held at the Northern United Place from 7 to 9 p.m.

Four sketches will be put on by the Grade 5 French immersion class taught by Monique Marinier. The students wrote the skits themselves.

"For the sets in our sketch we decided to use stuff that we found in the recycling bin, like juice boxes," said Jeff Dryden, co-author of the play, "There's Cash in your Trash," a play about bottle deposits.

Marinier said she is proud of what her students accomplished in writing the plays.

"They weren't taken out of books or anything," said Marinier.

"I wanted it to come from them. They should take ownership for what they believe in."

The topics explored range from wasting paper to unnecessarily large vehicles.

"One is about idling large vehicles," said Marinier. "It's called 'Exhaust Can Kill You.' It addresses people who suffer from respiratory problems who are more susceptible to exhaust fumes. It's about a big truck idling outside a store."

The forum won't mark the first time the skits were put on. They were originally performed to launch the school's new recycling program.

The performance at the forum will be videotaped so that it can be circulated to other schools.

"The kids are our future, and if they recycle, it's their planet that they're saving as well," said Marinier. "And sometimes, when kids talk to other kids, they tend to listen more closely."

The skits are one of several new additions shaking up the format of the forum, which is put on by city council's Solid Waste Management Committee chaired by Kevin Kennedy.

"We're doing it a little bit differently this year," said Kennedy. "We're going to have the forum first, then two short videos afterwards on the topic of recycling and solid waste management.

"We thought it might encourage more people to come, if there's some entertainment.

The videos will give us a perspective on what other people are doing. One of them talks about what some other communities in California are doing to conserve."