A guest speaker had students at Westmount School howling in the gym on Friday afternoon.
Shelley Black, co-owner of Northern Lights Wolf Centre in Golden, B.C. visited the school with centre interpreter Annie Moore and three-year-old grey wolf, Flora.
The wolf centre houses eight wolves bred in captivity. Originally the wolves were intended for use in film and photography, but are now also education assistants.
“We’re creating awareness about wolves,” said Black. “Our goal is to have young people learn and understand what we’re doing, how important the environment is and how valuable wolves are.”
Black teaches youths about the importance of natural predators and makes children aware of the purpose of the natural food chain.
She also tries to dispel myths surrounding wolves.
“No, they don’t eat people like a certain red-caped girl would have us believe,” said Black. “And they howl, but not just at the full moon.”
Black and Moore led a gymnasium full of students in a resounding chorus of howls and waited for Flora to join in the song.
Her visit to Westmount came just before wolf awareness week, which began on Sunday.
“But really it’s always wolf awareness week for us,” said Black.
The school presentation included photos of aerial shooting and hunting of wolves in Alberta to show students what is happening in their own part of the country, she said.
“Our goal today is to give kids an overview of the purpose of having certain species like wolves in our environment and show them how to protect that,” she said.
Westmount school outdoor education teacher Steven Kotowich visited the wolf centre with his family two years ago and was impressed with the Northern Lights interpreter. He invited Black to speak at the school.
“Being that we are the Westmount Wolves, I thought it would be perfect to bring them here to speak,” he said.
Kotowich promotes being active outdoors, environmental stewardship and building leadership as the outdoor education teacher.
“This falls under than environmental stewardship category,” he said. “We want to increase awareness. The more aware students are the more apt they are to put their awareness to use down the road.”
Kotowich said he hopes students took something away from the presentation and learned a little more about the wildlife environment.
The school creates opportunities for the students to learn outside the classroom and receive additional education, and teachers hope it will have an impact, he said.
“If we can interest students today, we have no idea what the effect might be,” he said. “One of the students who walks into this gym today may get the fire to become a wildlife biologist or conservationist down the road.”
Westmount students could continue to be involved with the wolf centre by adopting a wolf, said Kotowich.
“We would have fundraisers here and send our donations to the centre to sponsor a wolf,” he said. “It would be a great student leadership opportunity because kids could take on projects like a bake sale or a bottle drive.”
Because the school is in its infancy, it is still developing a culture and Kotowich said wolf conservation could become part of the school tradition moving forward.
“Maybe this is something we can continue to do for the next 20 years,” he said. “Westmount Wolves sponsoring wild wolves, who knows where this can go?”
