Building for bats and bees

Photo: Contributed

Women in Trades students at Okanagan College joined forces with elementary school kids to build bat houses and a "bee hotel."

Students at Peter Greer Elementary stepped out of the classroom for a day to learn about conservation. Together, they built four bat houses with nurseries, and one large bee pollinator hotel, which will be placed in green space around the school.

“Our Grade 4-6 students have been spending a lot of time outside focusing on ecological literacy,” says Clint Maltais, a teacher at Peter Greer. “The kids are really passionate about animals and wanted to do something that would actually help the environment. We knew we needed help.”

The tradeswomen helped the kids build the structures.

“This is a great opportunity for the WITT students to be mentors, and to apply what they’ve learned so far in the program,” says the college's Nancy Darling. “It’s empowering for these women to share their skills and build confidence that they can take those skills forward into the workplace.”

“The kids were all amazing to work with and eager to learn,” said Women in Trades student Amanda Gilbank. “It’s great to be able to teach them to build something that is helping the environment and then watching how proud they become when they see what they’ve built.”