Congrats St. Michael Catholic School!
I’d like to congratulate St. Michael Catholic School for being the #1 school team on the Minnesota Energy Challenge! Teachers, students and families at this school have really stepped up to the plate to make a real difference and show what communities can accomplish when they put their minds to it.
St. Michael is a small K-8 in Prior Lake with some seriously dedicated teachers and very motivated students. Back in 2007, former teacher Pat Benson got a bee in her bonnet over the Energy Challenge and started a school-wide push for families to take the Challenge together (including extra recess for the classrooms that got the most signups). St. Michael sat at the top of the list for a while, but recently current St. Michael science teacher Todd Kohorst noticed that they had fallen to 3rd place behind some larger metro high schools.
So Todd decided to take first place back! He invited me* to come out to his classrooms and talk about energy efficiency, then gave buttons and fliers to every class in the school. He also made the Energy Challenge a class assignment to his 6th, 7th and 8th grade science classes. More than that, Todd pointed out to his students the great opportunity they had. Like I said, St. Michael is a small school, but with a little effort they had a chance to beat the much larger and nearby Prior Lake High School. Students responded, and what do you know – St. Michael is number one again! This time, half of the student population is taking the energy challenge and reducing their carbon footprints.
“The response of the school was great and within a week we had moved back into the number 1 spot. The students were very excited to beat Prior Lake High School because they are so much bigger of a school than us and that is where most of them will be going to high school. I also pointed out how the city of Prior Lake has 3 schools in the top 10 in the state, making Prior Lake the number 3 city in the state, behind only Minneapolis and St. Paul. The MN Energy Challenge has been a great way to get students and parents thinking about their consumption choices and realize that they can make a difference in their carbon footprint, and save money while doing it.’ – Todd Kohorst
Congrats, St. Michael! You are setting a great example – everyone makes a difference and when you take action, it counts!
