World Earth Day at Don Bosco Di Chatillon (Aosta Valley), Italy

This day was created to raise awareness on environmental sustainability issues. Our School, Don Bosco Di Chatillon, Italy, which is part of the global network of Salesian schools "Don Bosco Green Alliance", on the front line to concretely contribute to the formation of a new environmental awareness, offers every year to the children of the schools of our Region (Aosta Valley), a competition dedicated to this theme.

 The students who participated this year are: 23 for primary school, 22 for lower secondary school and two for lower secondary school. The younger ones were asked to draw "mountain farming in the Aosta Valley". A project to be carried out with recycled materials on the theme of "the agriculture of the past in the Aosta Valley" was proposed to the middle school children. High school students instead had to send a photo taken in the area on the theme "caring for the environment in Valle d'Aosta".

Among the drawings, those from the primary schools of Pontey and Châtillon particularly stood out. Among the projects, Alberto Heresaz's wine processing cycle and Angelica Rocca's grandparents' vegetable garden were awarded, both very precise and with attention to detail. David Fassino and Emily Juglair were awarded joint third place for the care and originality of their works. All four finalists are first graders. However, the jury appreciated the works of all the children who were also praised by the Superintendent Dr. Marina Fey who attended the award ceremony and complimented them on the great initiative.

 To crown this day dedicated to environmental education, the sowing of aromatic herbs was organized for all the children in the first and second classes of our institute, a gooseberry shrub was planted in the educational garden and a conference was held on woods of the Aosta Valley presented by Doctor of Forest Sciences Grange Aline. The children participated in all the proposed activities with great enthusiasm.

Moreover in view of the bicentenary of the dream of Giovannino Bosco at the age of nine, we distributed 9 saplings to our neighboring schools.