April 10, 2012                                                                                       

The Walker Living Campus at Woodend Welcomes New Friends

Support from the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation (TD FEF) is helping to breathe life into the DSBN’s vision of creating an environmentally sustainable legacy for students in Niagara. The Foundation is donating $125,000 to support the development of the Walker Living Campus at Woodend.

“Looking back, many of our most cherished and vivid memories of childhood are of time spent outdoors exploring and learning,” says Kevin Graham, DSBN Special Initiatives Facilitator. “With this gift, TD FEF will help generations of Niagara’s children develop a similar love for the outdoors while facilitating many important learning opportunities along the way.”

Once completed, The Walker Living Campus will be a progressive, 21st century ecological learning environment for both the community and students at the DSBN. It will completely reinvigorate the outdoor education centre currently sitting atop the Niagara escarpment. The development will include a school house consisting of two classrooms, a gathering place where students will explore sustainable building practices and renewable energy sources, and an outdoor classroom for students to become immersed in the beauty of the natural landscape.

In recognition of their generous support, the outdoor classroom will be named in honour of the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation.

“We are thrilled to join with DSBN to bring this project to life. With this donation, we hope to engage young people in learning about sustainability and help them develop a life-long passion for the environment,” said Mary Desjardins, Executive Director, TD Friends of the Environment Foundation.

TD FEF is a national organization, formed by TD Bank Group, with a grassroots focus that funds local projects dedicated to protecting the environment and wildlife. The Foundation works with organizations committed to protecting the environment in their own community and across Canada.  Since 1990, TD FEF has provided more than $57 million dollars to support over 20,000 grassroots environmental projects in communities across Canada.