West Vancouver Secondary students paint mural to fight climate change

A group of West Vancouver Secondary students are painting a mural at their school to fight back against climate change.

Chase Madiuk, Brooke Fahey, and Lea McGillvray have been planning the mural since December. Featuring salmon, an orca, and the Lions Gate Bridge, the mural aims to capture the group’s message of “community against climate change.”

Madiuk says the project is connected to their Environmental Science class.

“We have full control to do whatever we want, we just need to do something that helps the environment in some way and do a project on it,” said Madiuk. “We had to go through a lot of teachers to even get permission to start planning the mural.”

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Madiuk says she chose the mural’s location and Fahey designed it. However, Madiuk admits the group has faced hurtles in the project, including painting over their initial sketch to prime the wall.

“Our art teacher came by and did a scratch test and it scratched off, which is not supposed to happen,” said Madiuk. “So he went back to the paint store…which was just a little unfortunate, set us back a few weeks.”

“Just getting to paint with my friends, we just all hangout by the mural, pretty much all day at school and you know our classes are slowing down, we’re getting closer to graduating…it’s making school a little bit more enjoyable to be around, which is good.”

The group set up a GoFundMe for the mural, which will be donated to World Wildlife Fund Canada. Overall, Madiuk says she wants people to be more responsible for their actions in regards to climate change.

“Leaving people aware of what is happening to our world and how it’s not a future problem, it’s a current problem and what we can all do to help.”

Madiuk expects the mural will be finished by the end of the school year.