Denver Catholic

15 DENVER CATHOLIC | APRIL 22-MAY 12, 2017 KNIGHTS TO CHRIST SPIRITUAL ENRICHMENT INITIATIVE • MEDITATION: Daily reading of the Knights to Christ Meditation book • RETREATS: Self- guided council retreats • FAITH-SHARING GROUPS: Small groups of 5-8 Knights meet twice monthly "Most Knights want a closer relationship with God. The Spiritual Enrichment Initiative makes that possible" ~ Bruce Tawson, State Chairman NEW! KNIGHTS TO CHRIST DAILY MEDITATION BOOK AND EBOOK NOW AVAIABLE FROM AMAZON.COM! Visit our website:knightstochrist.org For information contact: Retreats – Jim Hiltenbrand 303-986-2301 Other – Bruce Tawson 720-244-5443 Faith-Sharing Groups – Joe Lamb josephlamb@comcast.net Jerry O'Connor 303-919-8049 Around the Archdiocese BY ROXANNE KING I n Pope Francis' second encyclical, "Laudato si," ("Praise be to you") the pope urges the faithful to be good stewards of the Earth. The title is taken from St. Francis of Assisi's beau- tiful Canticle of the Sun, which praises God for the wonder of creation. Inspired by the pope's document, Erin Hensley, a parishioner at Shrine of St. Anne Church in Arvada, used it to support her case for reinstituting recy- cling at the parish school. She recently mobilized a Green Team comprised of 20 enthusiastic students from kinder- garten through seventh grade and on April 3 kicked o" the recycling program with funny skits at the school assembly. For Earth Day, April 22, the Green Team, joined by others from the school community, will do a litter cleanup around the parish campus and in their historic Old Town Arvada neighborhood. "I wanted my children to attend St. Anne's and grow strong religious roots, but I also wanted to know they were caring for the physical roots beneath their feet— God's creation," Hensley, the mother of two students at the school and one toddler, told the Denver Catholic. Hensley's e" orts to reduce waste at the school won't just help the environ- ment but will also have a positive fi nan- cial impact on the parish community. "The quest to reinstate recycling actually saved the school and church $3,500 annually," Hensley said. "The fact that we were able to save this much money in the transition and that it's hap- pening during Earth Month gives me goose-bumps!" Hensley aims to make the cleanup fun by using an app called Litterati, which has been used to help communities tackle environmental concerns and come up with sustain- able solutions. Litterati notes that litter blights the environment, endangers wildlife and hurts the planet. " With our current throwaway society, we as Catholics are called to demonstrate a love for human life but also a love for all life — the life of our planet. We must be mindful of what we buy and discard moments later," Hens- ley said. Hensley assessed that the school collects 10,000-plus gallons of trash a month, but that nearly half of that can be recycled and kept out of landfi lls. "Over the course of the school year, that's enough plastic, paper and alumi- num to cover every square foot of our gymnasium up to our knees — and now it's going to make new paper and plastic materials," she said. The school's efforts to recycle paper, she continued, should save nearly 100 trees a year, as well as 30,000 gallons of water and 10 barrels of oil from not having to produce paper pulp from those trees. Our Lady of Fatima fifth-grade teacher Maddy Crouse and her stu- dents head the recycling e" orts at her Lakewood school. This year she and her fi fth-graders led the move to expand the school's recycling e" orts into the lunchroom, which uses foam trays that were being thrown away daily. "The [fifth-grade] students put together a Power Point presentation and talked to the other students about the di" erence between landfi ll trash and recycling," Crouse said. "[Now] we have [student] trash supervisors who stand by the bins to help answer ques- tions, especially from younger students, to make sure the trash and recycling stay separated." Not only do the recycling projects educate youths about where trash goes and its environmental impact, Crouse and Hensley said, but they help the youths to build vital leadership skills and empower them to know they can make positive change. "This is discipleship in action," Hensley said. "There are many ways Catholics are being awesome disciples regarding protecting human life; this helps other living things as well." Catholic school students learn to be stewards of creation

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