Hundreds of students made their green marks on Wednesday during an Eco Stewardship Day, an opportunity for the youths to showcase environmental initiatives at their schools.

During the event, attended by around 300 students at the former Confederation High School, it was announced that 23 new schools had been awarded Ontario Eco School Certification — a special annual recognition for achievement in energy conservation, waste minimization, ecological literacy and school ground greening.

Only one school in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board was certified the year before, and schools must reapply each year for certification.

Clem Laferriere, the school board's supervisor of energy management and conservation, said the leap to 24 eco-certified schools in one year from just a single school was a great sign. This year, the board started encouraging schools to aim for certification.

One-third compost

"We're looking at saving money, yes, we're looking at doing the right thing," Laferriere said.

Currently, only one-third of the board's more than 140 school sites compost. The board plans to get all of its schools signed up by next October.

At Wednesday's eco event, dozens of displays showcased different eco activities, such as Michaela Bone's project to convert milk bags into mattresses for people in Haiti. The grade 6 student had devoted many lunch hours to the case.

"It makes me feel really good and everything because it makes me feel like I'm helping someone if they don't have a proper bed to sleep on," said Michaela, who goes to Castlefrank Elementary School in Kanata.

Leadership role

Her classmate, Jordan Pumphrey, found another way to help — by organizing a hair-donation program to create wigs for cancer patients.

"We came up with an idea of donating our hair because I had extremely long hair," Jordan said.

Teacher Marianne Graham said Wednesday the girls' efforts helped Castlefrank earn top marks for its EcoSchool Certification.

"We kind of surpassed our expectations. We got gold certification in our first year," Graham said, adding Castlefrank was only one of a handful that got the highest honours for meeting the top requirements of the EcoSchool Certification.

With files from the CBC's Giacomo Panico