by Rizalina Manzano and Angelo Pascual

Solsona National High School (SNHS), the school that rose from rocks to greens, has once again proven itself not only as a champion in academics and co-curricular contests, but also as a champion of the environment after being named as Ilocos Norte’s grand winner for school category during the awarding ceremony of the province-wide Search for the Cleanest and Greenest Cities, Municipalities, Barangays, and Schools, last December 9 at the Ilocos Norte Centennial Arena, Laoag City.

As an eco-friendly learning institution, SNHS had been religiously implementing programs and projects geared towards championing environmental protection. Some of these include “NO to Plastic, YES to Classic”, a campaign on regulating the use of single-use plastic in the campus and encouraging the use of indigenous eating paraphernalia; “Project CARE (Caring Activity for the Restoration of Mother Earth)”, a project that aims to instill the value of caring for the environment by planting fruit-bearing trees and calamansi seedlings using recycled pet bottles as containers; “Project H2O (Hydrate and Habituate Observance of Environmental Protection)”, an advocacy that aims to distribute refillable and reusable water bottles among students; “Eco-Warriors’ Creed”, a practice that allows all students to arrange themselves in lines and then walk towards the gates where waste segregation sacks are placed, then the recyclable materials are put at the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and the organic wastes at the compost pit; and “School In a Garden”, a project that enables students to create and maintain school nurseries and vegetables and ornamental gardens in the campus.

Besting hundreds of public elementary and secondary schools in the entire province of Ilocos Norte, SNHS was awarded with a plaque of recognition and a cash prize amounting to Php 100,000.

Dr. Rizalina T. Manzano, school principal IV, challenged all the employees and the students to always maintain a clean and green school environment, which, according to her, creates a positive learning atmosphere.

“With or without contests, SNHS will continue to be a model school of environmental care in the community, and will uphold policies on environmental dimensions of school operations such as waste management program, energy efficiency and conservation program, pollution prevention program, and greening program,” Manzano reiterated.

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