A partnership between Campbelltown City Council, Western Sydney University and Campbelltown Performing Arts High School has culminated in the launch of an illustrated children’s storybook, titled Eric the Eel.
The book, written and illustrated by Year 10 students Zynab Al Jabiry, Fao Vine and Tiperia Fepuleai and Ezekiel Filisi, and published by council, follows the life of a migratory long finned eel who eventually makes his home in the Park Central wetland.
Mayor of Campbelltown, Cr Paul Hawker, recently presented the first print editions to the students at Campbelltown Performing Arts High School, praising the now published authors.
The book is the result of the Love Your Lagoons (LYL) project, which saw staff from council and Western Sydney University mentor students to engage with their local waterways, and was created to educate the community on the amazing lifecycle of the eel and promote waterway sustainability.
Through the LYL initiative, groups of students investigated and developed a range of project ideas that would improve the sustainability, usability and connectivity of a local waterway to its surrounding community.
Council continued this collaboration with Campbelltown Performing Arts High School under the banner of Catchments Connecting Communities, with the purpose of transforming a number of the students’ ideas into real life educational resources that will help the community engage with their local natural environment.
The Eric the Eel storybook is the first of these projects to be brought to life.
Cr Paul Hawker said council was committed to working with local schools to encourage young people to be active in their community and foster environmental stewardship.
“Projects like this inspire young residents to get involved in local conservation projects and gain an appreciation and understanding of our natural environment and the region’s rich biodiversity.
“We are continually striving to create new environmental education initiatives and improve our existing programs, so that school students can have fun learning about and interacting with our local environment, and the Catchments Connecting Communities initiative has allowed us to do just that,” Cr Hawker said.
