On March 27 the WCMS Student Council, along with Ms. Mary Alice Lyons and Ms. Mary Dorow, visited the Solar Oven Society located in Minneapolis. This tour marked the beginning of a project in which all students can participate. The Solar Oven Society builds durable yet inexpensive solar ovens that utilize the sun’s energy for cooking food. These ovens, the students learned, solve some of the problem in the world of using too much wood for building fires to cook. There is less and less wood to find, it takes a lot of time out of a day for women and children, and the solar oven can cook efficiently without wood. Students also learned that many children around the world don’t get a proper education because much of their day is taken up just finding wood for cooking.

Students will be collecting aluminum cans throughout the months of April and May. These cans will be taken to a recycling center and the proceeds will be given to the Solar Oven Society for the making and sending of solar ovens to countries such as Haiti and Somalia.