Past and present students from the Jasper Sustainability Club for Youth are looking beyond the park boundaries in search of funding for their long sought after SEED classroom.
Over the last three years, the club has raised more than $50,000 through its local fundraising efforts, but it needs to raise another $130,000 to purchase the sustainable, living classroom.
To help raise awareness about the project, as well as funds, the club is launching a new online campaign, complete with a video and GoFundMe page that it hopes to promote with the help of celebrities, industry professionals and politicians.
“We thought ‘What if this video is a dare video?’” said Magda Mahler, a member of the parent group that has been supporting the sustainability club in its quest to bring a SEED to town. The dare is one that asks Albertans to improve the province’s reputation by supporting the construction of Alberta’s first living building—Jasper’s SEED classroom.
“Our aim is to reach a broader audience and try to get people of influence, such as industry professionals, politicians, and celebrities, to post their own videos daring Alberta to do better. It is a quick and easy challenge people could take part in and we could capture some memorable moments of the SEED,” said Mahler.
So far the GoFundMe page, titled Jasper’s SEED Classroom, has received two pledges for a total of $240.
“We aren’t asking Jasper residents to donate more,” said Mahler, noting that the sustainability club is already so grateful for the support the community has provided over the last few years.
“We need to reach a broader audience,” she said, noting that Jason McLennan of the Green Building Institute has pledged his support for the project and has offered to promote the GoFundMe campaign, helping the students reach beyond Jasper.
The sustainability club has a vested interest in bringing a SEED to town.
In 2012, students travelled to Portland for the Living Futures Conference, where they presented in front of sustainable designers, architects and builders, sharing their story of working with the provincial government on the design of the new Joint School Facility, which opened last September.
That experience quickly turned sour when few, if any, of their ideas for a sustainable school were considered.
After sharing their experiences at the conference, the students met Stacy Smedley, a sustainable architect from Seattle. Smedley was inspired by their story and wanted to help them achieve their goals of building a net-zero school.
That inspiration led to her to design the first SEED, a modular classroom that meets the stringent requirements of the Living Building Challenge, using only what it receives from the environment: rainwater and solar power.
Smedley hoped that through her own fundraising efforts she would be able to bring the prototype to Jasper. But, after running into difficulty raising the funds in Seattle, she was forced to sell it to another school in 2013 in order to cover her costs.
That sale happened after Jasper’s students had already raised $50,000 toward the $180,000 classroom.
In January, the sustainability club set itself a goal of having all of the pieces in place to bring a SEED to town by September. It’s plan was to apply for grants, which it has, and to seek out other funding sources.
Smedley has committed to the students that she will put aside some of the proceeds from each SEED she sells to help to bring one to Jasper. She would need to sell 20 to cover the cost of one, excluding the cost of transport, permitting and building the structure once it’s here.
So far, five have sold.
Despite three years of ups and downs, Jasper’s Sustainability Club for Youth has remained resilient in its quest to bring a SEED to town.
That’s why it’s impossible to give up, said Mahler.
“These kids have just stuck with it. Everybody’s still so optimistic.
“The lesson we’ve taken away is everything takes a little longer when you’re pioneering a new trail.”
Nicole Veerman
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