Bonny Petrovsky is hoping her neighbours will turn the lights off and join her family for an Earth Hour walk around their Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue community Saturday, March 28. Last year, 54 people took part in the walk around Cameron Public School after Petrovsky sent out an e-mail to residents suggesting the Earth Hour get-together.
"My daughter Rystana came home from school one day and was talking about Earth Hour so we went online to find out more information," Petrovsky said. "I have an e-mail list of 100 people in the neighbourhood so I sent a message saying, 'Let's get together and walk around the block.' I had no idea how many people would come out. We went to the corner to meet in the school parking lot and about 50 people were there."
During the walk, Petrovsky said some of the youngsters became upset when some of the homes still had lights on.
"The kids are so much more into it (environmental awareness) than we are," she said. "In our house we turn off the lights and don't flush the toilet every time, but we're not real strong activists. My daughter, who is 12, is all about David Suzuki."
Earth Hour was started in Sydney, Australia in 2007 by the World Wildlife Fund, when more than two million homeowners and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008, Earth Hour had grown to include 50 million participants worldwide.
Petrovsky's second annual Earth Hour Neighbourhood Walk will begin at the Cameron Public School parking lot at the corner of Franklin Avenue and Radine Road at 8:30 p.m.