Hi, my name is Aaron Shamsian and I am a budding climate activist.

I wanted to educate other students in my middle school about climate change and its effect on the environment, so I approached my school principal back in the fall about doing an Earth Day event.

To get the Earth day event done I had to do a lot of things. First, I had to meet the principal and talk to him about the idea of celebrating Earth Day which is on Friday, April 22.

As there was a school break that week we decided to plan something for April 12. The principal said to start by picking out videos explaining climate change that are under 5 minutes long made for middle school kids.

The video had to be describing the Earth and how you can help it and the impact humans have had on the Earth.

The next time I met him I brought a friend, Aden, who also had a liking towards the earth and helping it.

Both of us checked over the video and picked the one to present to the Principal which got approved to show to all the first-period classes.  We decided that I was going to make an announcement to the entire school over the loudspeaker beforehand explaining what we were doing today (April 12) and its importance.

We also worked on getting all the science teachers to do a lesson on the environment that day.

Lastly, we wanted to plant something that would last forever and help take carbon out of the air.  Hicks Nursery gave us $125 that we used to buy three Azalea bushes.

So that gave us the idea to purchase garden stakes to put in front of each bush from the current 6th, 7th and 8th grades (class of 2026, 2027 and 2028). Each year a new bush will be planted in honor of the new grade coming to the middle school.

The final thing that happened is that Garden World donated 750 seed packets to the school to give out to the kids at the end of the day to plant at home.

So everything was all set, approved and ready for April 12. Then next thing I knew it was April 12, so in the morning I did the announcements.

Most people said good job. Of course, some people said I did a bad job but people will always hate. Once the announcements ended with me, they showed the video and some people you could tell it had an impact.

At the end of the day each teacher had seeds to give out to the kids so if anyone wanted they would take and anyone who didn’t want the extra seeds went to other kids and the school staff.

So the school day ended. It was a great day for me, I’ll probably never forget it since I knew that day I hopefully did something good for the environment and made a difference in the world.

Aaron Shamsian,

Grade 6, Roslyn