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Welcome

Karyne

Our School

Phase 1

Phase 2

Solar Greenhouse

Live Data!

Fundraising

Sponsors

Media / Speeches

Technology

Links

Pamphlet 2012

e-mail us!

Welcome to Projet Karyne!
An ecological project at Gisèle-Lalonde high school,
established in october 2006
in memory of Karyne Maisonneuve.
(click for details)

Let her energy shine forever!


Sponsors

Our official sponsors:




Click here for a list of sponsors or if you wish to become our next sponsor.

Timeline

11 February 2010
A LONG list of all the environmental projects put in place at Gisèle-Lalonde high school as part of Phase 2.

20 juillet 2009
Click here to hear an instrumental piece written by Michel Foucault for Karyne.

Phase 3
(details and pictures)

April 21st 2009
Presentation to the CEPEO of the Phase 2 results and the launch of Phase 3.

Phase 2
(details and pictures)

October 2nd 2009
Solar boat race

May 1st 2009
Solar car race

20 décembre 2008
Installation d'une superbe murale créée par les élèves pour commémorer les étapes du virage écologique.

May 2008
The Aéro-solaire club of the G-L school won the grand prize at the "Solar Car Challenge" in Cornwall! We prepared a video of this awesome event (4MB).

15 avril 2008
Presentation to the CEPEO school board of the Phase 1 results and the launching of Phase 2

Phase 1
(details and pictures)

October 5th-9th 2007
Activation of the wind turbine and solar panels!

July 12th 2007
First anniversary of Karyne's death
Arrival of the wind turbine tower

June 18th 2007
Official unveiling of the components for Phase 1

April 13th 2007
Visit to Cornwall for a solar car race and to meet David Suzuki.

March 13th 2007
Visit to Frontenac High School and Energy House in Kingston

October 17th 2006
Presentation of Projet Karyne to the school board

October 2nd
The first article describing the project appears in l'Express d'Ottawa

September 20th 2006
Projet creation (Maisonneuve family and Peggy Clavette of the Gisèle-Lalonde high school)

Breaking News!
Did you know? The Karyne Greenhouse is on Twitter since 2019!

You will find some amazing news and info about the greenhouse and the ecologiqcal education program at G-L!!

Matière Verte (@verte_e)

Summer 2015 - Uncle Éric's bicycle-pump!

Mme Côté was looking for a way to water the outside garden with a hose from the rainwater tanks... so we needed some pressure.

Luckily, Karyne's is a bit of a genius! He put together a water pump from an old bike. All you need is one person to pedal to pressurize the water from the raiwater tanks into a pressure tank, and voilà! You can now water the entire garden with a pressurized hose -- as long as someone is pedaling of course!

The photos: on the right, the bike with the pump casing opened; below left, uncle Éric, with the help of grand-papa and Marc (Karyne's grand-father and brother), and on the right, a short démonstration byMme Côté!

Thank you Éric!

 

September 2013 - Progress this summer

The water tanks for the rain recycling is in place. The three sections of the thermal curtain are cut, and the installation of the electrical system is coming along, including a new battery box outside!

On top of that, the students in the G-L Club Enviro picked carrot and other vegetables from the garden in front of the greenhouse, and donate the nicest vegetables to the Orléans food bank.

Those students will also landscape around the greenhouse and create an oasis for butterflies.

The PPCS students at G-L in 9th grade will also measure the impact of the level of acidity of the soil to the growth of peas.

In summary, the student and teachers are really exited to use the greenhouse this year!

 

May 20th 2013 - The rented fence is gone!

In less than an hour, our team of volunteers took down the fence that was provided by United Rentals since 2009! Thanks again to United Rentals for their patience, and to Richard Guindon from Great Outdoors Landscaping for the reference!

'école The school has also installed a brand new permanent fence to protect the greenhouse and the surrounding garden. Thank you

Click here for pictures!

May 2013 - The greenhouse murale is done!

Mme Nicole Belanger et Mme Lise Duford with 10-11 students completed the superb murale on three walls of the greenhouse, themed with the five elements (from one of Karyne favorite movies - The Fifth Element) : fire, water, air, earth and love!

Clickez ici pour les photos de la murale. Un travail incroyable – félicitations et merci à tous.

L'école a aussi fait installer une nouvelle clôture pour protéger la serre et le jardin. Merci!

May 10th 2013 - The 4th solar model car race at G-L!

Nine teams from schools De La Salle, Le Sommet et Franco-Cité faced each other in four events: speed, endurance, power and presentation. Unfortunately, the sun was not a strong player that day so we had to use the lamps!

Congratulations to all participants, and special thanks to M Fillion Castonguay from the environmental eduatoin program at the CEPEO who organized most of the event with the help of G-L 11-22 grade students.

Click here to see some pictures and a video of the finale.0

See you next year!

November 18th 2012 - The greenhouse is now open to the students!

We have completed the final city inspection, and the greenhouse is now open to the public!

YAHOO !!

We added a number of recent pictures on our greenhouse page, and I also produce a very low budget short movie that you can watch (warning: the video is 44MB!).

October 12 th 2012 - Contest of la Caisse Populaire d'Orléans!!

WE WON!

The Caisse Populaire Green Contest ended last night at midnight and the Projet Karyne/Gisele-Lalonde Serre obtained the most Facebook "likes": 1,043! Wow!!

We will be receiving a cheque for $15,000 on Karyne's 15th birthday, October 18. A big thanks to the Caisse Populaire for initiating a contest promoting environmental projects in Orleans schools.

Thanks to all of you for your votes and your support which has helped us get this far!

September 1st 2012 - Invitation to the annual solar boat race!

It is with pleasure that Project Karyne and Gisèle-Lalonde Secondary School invite students and teachers of the Ottawa area to participate in a Model Solar Boat Race. This event is being generously sponsored by the City of Ottawa's Community Environmental Projects Grant Program.

This race is open to students in grades 6, 7 and 8, and will take place on Friday October 5th, 2012.

All details are available here

July 20th 2012 - Construction of the straw-clay wall

Wow - what an amazing effort! Thank you to the more than 50 volunteers who came to help us during one of the most beautiful weekends of the summer!

Tons of great pictures here!

Third annual model solar car race at G-L May 11th 2012!

It is with pleasure that Project Karyne and Gisèle-Lalonde Secondary School invite you to participate in a Model Solar Car Race. This event is being generously sponsored by the City of Ottawa's Community Environmental Projects Grant Program.

This friendly competition for grade 9 to 12 students involves the design and construction of a model car powered by solar energy, for participation in a race which will take place Friday May 11, 2012 at Gisèle-Lalonde Secondary School (Orléans).

Participating teams will receive a solar car construction kit containing the parts required to make your vehicle.

REGISTER BY : Friday, March 30, 2012
REGISTRATION FEE : 40,00$ per team (plus mail out charge if required)
INCLUDES : Construction kit, t-shirts and prizes
TEAM : Maximum of 7 participants including 1 adult
Limit : Maximum of 4 teams per school

For more information please contact:
Anne-Marie Bazinet, Science Teacher
613-833-0018 x512
anne-marie.bazinet@cepeo.on.ca

November 2011 - The pop can solar heater construction has begun!

M. Brunet's class started working on the pop can solar heater - some early pictures here!

October 19th 2011 - Excellent CBC documentary about Projet Karyne

The team of the daily show "C'est ça la vie", on the CBC French network throughout Canada, created a beautiful documentary about our project.

Click here to view it (in French of course).

September 23rd 2011 - Third Annual Model Solar Boat Race!

AWESOME - WHAT A BLAST!! Thanks to the 24 participating teams from 8 schools that made our annual race another memorable day! Once again this year, the enthusiasm was incredible, and the weather was perfect. Click here for pictures and results.

Thanks again to Caroline, Anne-Marie and all the membres of the club envio for a flawless event! Everyone had a lot of fun!!

Also thanks to the City of Ottawa for their sponsorship of this event, and to the Orléans Fruit Farm for the apples we served as a snack.

Congratulations and thank you to all participants, and to their teachers for accepting the invitation!


June 20th 2011 - Calling on all golfers!

Projet Karyne is organising a new fundraiser - selling "almost new" golf balls for $10 a dozen!

Thanks to Yvon Ferrand for donating the used golf balls, and to Alex Rousseau, Karyne's best friend who is now 14 years old, for carefully washing and packaging them!

If you would like to purchase some used golf balls, please email us at elohim @ sympatico.ca

Thanks!!

Invitation to the annual solar boat race in the fall of 2011 at G-L!

It is with pleasure that Project Karyne and Gisèle-Lalonde Secondary School invite students and teachers of the Ottawa area to participate in a Model Solar Boat Race. This event is being generously sponsored by the City of Ottawa's Community Environmental Projects Grant Program.

This race is open to students in grades 6, 7 and 8, and will take place on Friday September 23rd, 2011.

All details are available here

May 13th 2011 - Second annual solar car race at G-L!

Thanks to the 10 team who participated to our second annual solar car race! Despite the scary weather predictions, we had a very nice day, and a ton of fun!

Click here for pictures and results.

Thanks again to Caroline, Normand, Nadine and Anne-Marie et all the members of the enviro club for coordinating the event, to our M-C Émilie and Justin, to our judges and special guests. And finally, thank you to the City of Ottawa for sponsoring this event.

Congratulation to all participants, and thank you to the teachers who accepted our invitation. See you next year!

February 2011 - The greenhouse construction will resume in the spring

We invite the community to help us!

- By supplying materials at discount prices : cement, wood for framing, trusses, steel beams, glass or plexiglass, doors, metal barrels

- By helping with construction skills such as: carpentry/framing, installing doors and greenhouse glass, general contracting and coordination of trades, straw/mud wall construction

If you would like to be part of our team, contact us!

February 2011 - Check out our improved Live Data page!

The data is updated every day (2 days behind) with fairly cool graphs, and an export function!

Scientists welcome!

Announcing…Solar Car Race 2011 for Ottawa Area High Schools

Registration is ongoing; limit of 20 teams. Build a model solar car and join us in May 2011 for a friendly race!

The information sheet is available here.

The "Wall of Founders" contest for the solar greenhouse

Congratulations to Annie Legris in grade 12 who sold the most plaques during our contest for the Wall of Founders 2010! For her hard work, Annie was awarded the grand prize of $250.

The 2011 edition of the contest will start after the holidays, with another $250 for the best fundraiser!

M Quirion put in place the Committee of the Wall of Founders, who will look after the contest, the marketing and the brick mural in the agora. For details, please visit our Fundraising page.

November 25th 2010 - The greenhouse foundation is done!

Many many htanks to all those who helped with the foundation work: Richard, Colin, Roch, Marc, Alain, Joël, and many more! All that is left is to restart the wind turbine!

We added many pictures of the construction on the greenhouse page. We're now done for the fall, we will start again in the spring 2011!

November 10th 2010 - Thank you Chloé!

A special thank you to Chloé Lalonde of Windward Studio for donating her time and talent for the Holiday Family Photo fundraiser for Projet Karyne!

Our family went and we look really good!!!!! A miracle!

Octobre 23rd 2010 - Now we're really going!

Thanks to all who came and help setup the fencing around the new excavation site for the greenhouse foundation!

And thanks Karyne for getting the weather to collaborate once again!

 

Octobre 8th 2010 - Start of the solar greenhouse construction!

Thanks to all who participated to the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the Solar Greenhouse at Gisèle-Lalonde high school!

On the official picture, from left to right:
Mr. Peter Staniforth, Branch Manager, TD Canada Trust
Mr. Ismael Abdi, Principal, E.S.P Gisèle-Lalonde
Mr. Stéphane Vachon, Surintendant, CEPEO
Mr. Joel Primeau, Genivar
Mr. Georges Orfali, President, CEPEO
Mrs Tracy Chisholm, Sobeys Ontario
Mr. Jed Goldberg, President, Earth Day Canada Community Environment Fund
Mr. Paul et Carl Maisonneuve, Projet Karyne
Mr. Richard Guindon, Great Outdoors Enterprises

The excavation of the greenhouse should begin in the next week or so!

To follow the progress of the contruxtion, visit the Phase 3 page.

To help us finance this project, please visit our Fundraising page


October 1st 2010 - Second Annual Model Solar Boat - "Power the Future"

AWESOME - WHAT A BLAST!! Thanks to the 24 participating teams from 8 schools that made our second annual race another memorable day! Once again this year, the enthusiasm was incredible, and the sun showed up just in time to help the racers. Click here for pictures and results.

Thanks again to Caroline, Anne-Marie and all the membres of the club envio for a flawless event! Everyone had a lot of fun!!

Also thanks to the City of Ottawa for their sponsorship of this event, and to the city representative, M. Sami Rehman, who also served as a judge for the originality and conception of the boats. And finally, thanks to Orléans Fruit Farm for the apples we served as a snack.

Congratulations and thank you to all participants, and to their teachers for accepting the invitation!


May 1st 2010 - Launch of the "Wall of Founders" contest!

Your message or dedication will be engraved on one of the greenhouse walls, for donations of $200 or more. In the spirit of Project Karyne, several families have already decided to make a donation in memory of a loved one.

Our goal is to include at least 100 messages in the greenhouse.

This fundraiser also features a contest for the students at G-L (prizes awarded in October)::
- (Individual Prize) Best marketing campaign (with supporting document - rules here) - a 500$ award
- (Individual Prize) The most plaques sold - 250$ award
- (Class Prize) The most plaques sold - pizza-lunch for the whole class!

The form to complete for each plaque sold is available here (PDF), or at the secrétariat.

Thanks and good luck!

Greenhouse update!

A full update of the solar greenhouse project
is available on the Phase 3 page.

February 25th 2010 - TD Friends of the Environment Foundation funds part of the Solar Greenhouse Classroom!

This foundation announced today that it will contribute $10,000 towards our project.
Thank you!!

January 18th 2010 - The Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario : a Canadian leader in the fields of environmental education & management

Ottawa (January 22nd, 2010) – The Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario (CEPEO – Eastern Ontario French Language Public School Board) has officially joined ArTech, a nonprofit organization associated to the International Organization of the United Nations (UN), in order to become a leader in environmental education and management by following International Norms ISO (International Standard Organization).

The full press release is available here. Congratulations to the CEPEO for a great leap forward!!

Novembre 17 2009 - Earth Day Canada funds part of the Solar Greenhouse Classroom!

We received confirmatiopn today that the Earth Day Canada Community Earth Fund chose the Projet Karyne Phase 3 - Solar Greenhouse Classroom - as one of its recipients pour 2009!!  EDC will contribute $18,000 to our projet. The official annoucement is here.  Here we go!!


November 30th, 2009 - Aviva Competition for the Solar Greenhouse

During the third round of voting, we surpassed our goal of 4,000 votes with a final count of over 5,100 votes!!! That's awesome - what great support - THANK YOU!!

Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to get us in the top 20 - we finished 25th amongst hundreds of ideas. Last Thursday during the BLITZ at the school, we came within 120 votes of 20th place, but then a few ideas received a "miracle" number of votes in the last few days and the last idea to qualify needed 6,000 votes to finish 20th. There are several great ideas that will advance to the semi-finals and we wish them good luck - feel free to vote for your other favorite idea in the next round (which starts December 2nd).

As far as our idea is concerned, don't worry, we don't give up easily and the solar greenhouse WILL BECOME REALITY at G-L!! We recently received financial support from Earth Day Canada (see above). and with the school's help we will find other sources of financing, organise fundraisers and special events, and find partners. GO GISELE!!

November 10, 2009 - High School of the Year!

Gisèle-Lalonde High School was awarded a prize for High School of the Year, by Ecology Ottawa in collaberation with the Sierra Youth Coalition.

The official announcement is here.  Congratulations!

November 6th 2009 - Texas Hold'em Poker Tournament

What a great success! Approximately 75 players took part in this tournament which raised close to $2,000 for Projet Karyne! Thanks to Terry and his awesome team for a fantastic event, and a really fun night where we met a lot of great people. First place went to Michelle and Léon (a tie), Terry took 4th place and Carl finished 8th!

At the MIFO (Carrière street in Orleans), open to all players 19 and over. Total purse : $2,000 (depending on participation), registration fee: $50, maximum of 200 players. All profits will go to Projet Karyne.

For pre-registration, contact Terry Lemieux at 613-837-5942 or 613-219-5818

October 24th - International Climate Change Day

All 350.org pictures from that great day are here, our pictures (to the right) are here and here!!! Thanks to all who participated!!

Just a few weeks before the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, this day of action is endorsed by Desmond Tutu, David Suzuki and many other world leaders! A number of events are being organized in Ottawa; we will participate in two of them:

Projet Karyne Event 11am-noon: We will meet at the Gisèle-Lalonde High School windmill at 11 am for a tree-planting ceremony and photo shoot with our huge banners! The photo will be posted on www.350.org. Everyone is welcome to come and show your support to tell the world leaders that we need action now on climate change. Wear your Project Karyne or Power the Future t-shirt if you have one, you can buy one that day for $20 if you want one. You can also come dressed in anything red or blue…but please come regardless!! We need lots of people for a good picture!

"Fill the Hill" event from 2-3pm: Details on the ClimateDay site here.


Power the Future - Model Solar Boat Race held October 2, 2009

WOW WHAT A DAY!!! Thanks to our 200 participants who made this day one of the most successful Projet Karyne / Gisèle-Lalonde environmental events ever! Karyne was there in spirit to pump up the enthousiasm and provide 2 hours of sunshine exactly at the right time!!! Nicely done girl! Click here for pictures from the event a summary of the results.

Four TV clips taken that day will be shown on Rogers Community TV Daytime show, Monday October 5, running four times at 11am, 3pm, 6pm, and 11pm. There will also be articles in upcoming issues of Orleans Online and the Orleans Star.

Thanks again to Nicole and Caroline and all the members of the G-L environment club for an incredibly well orchestrated day.


September 12th 2009: The "Forest Jam" in Plantagenet raises over $300 for Projet Karyne!

Several musical bands showed off their talent at this great outdoor event organized by the Guindon family, which also raised funds for Projet Karyne. The Maisonneuve family also interpreted a few songs with the help of Victoria Powell, one of Karyne's best friends!

Many thanks to the entire Guindon family for their support and a memorable evening.

July 9th 2009:

Our next project: the construction of a solar greenhouse classroom:

  • A functioning greenhouse to grow vegetables, flowers and herbs almost year round, with a classroom inside!
  • Designed and constructed with the help of students and members of the community.
  • The integration of a maximum of renewable energy and energy efficient components, such as solar air and water heaters, straw bail walls, rain water harvesting system, passive air conditioning, and more.

May 1st 2009: The "Power the Future 2009" solar car race at the Gisèle-Lalonde high school today was a great success!! A long list of local celebrities were present, including Mrs Gisèle Lalonde herself, our MPP Phil McNeely, and Mr Orfali and Barheile of the school board, the CEPEO. All came to see the fierce and fun competition, and listen to our guest speaker, M David Chernushenko.

Mme Lalonde underlined the importance of inviting schools of other boards, francophones and anglophones, to involve as many youngsters as possible in the ecological transition. Bravo!

We would also like to thank our sponsors: Les Caisse Populaires Desjardins, Sustainable Ottawa, Tucker House, Ottawa University, and our partner for this event, the Cornwall Carbon Reduction Initiative (CCRI).

For its participation, each school received as a prize a small tree to plant at their school, and each student and teacher received a t-shirt. All the results from the competition are available here.

Thanks again everyone for a memorable day!


April 10th 2009: A televised report on CTV News about Projet Karyne, and the solar car race!

December 20th, 2008: Thanks to a grant by the city of Ottawa, and with the help of Studio Bisonlou, students of the construction class (M. Poirier) and of the visual arts class (Mme Duford) have created a marvelous mural, installed in the agora, which will commemorate the milestones of the ecological transformation at Gisèle-Lalonde for years to come! (photos)

December 10th, 2008: Chloe Guindon, a photography student at Algonquin College whose brother Rob attends G-L, graciously offered to organize a Project Karyne fundraiser. In cooperation with the school, she held family photo sessions and raised $450. Thank you Chloe and Rob for your incredible enthousiasm!
Octobre 18th, 2008: On Karyne's 11th birthday, Gisèle-Lalonde's enviro club organised a great treasure hunt, with lots of fun activities and an enrionmental touch of course! Eighteen teams participated, and Karyne's mom was checking out the action and took a few pictures!!
September 30th, 2008: The CEPEO (our school board) is the first school board in the region and the first francophone school board in Canada to participate in the pilot project for schools of the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC)! Ten schools have been selected to share their energy consumption data with hundreds of schools in Canada, which will allow the project to establish comparisons to the LEED program and make individual recommendations. Congratulations!!! More details here.
September 8th, 2008: A new murale will soon be installed in the agora of the Gisèle-Lalonde school, which will illustrate the various accomplishments during the green transformation! The sketch is ready, and Mr Poirier's team is currently performing tests with the construction team... stay tuned...
June 7th 2008: Thanks to Rob Guindon, a student in grade 11 at Gisèle-Lalonde high school, who had his hair shaved by Mrs Gisèle-Lalonde herself, during the Orléans Soapbox Race. Rob and his family raised over $3,000 for Projet Karyne! We would also like to thank the organizers of the race to allow us to be part of that extraordinary event, and for their support! And thank you also to Chloé, Rob's sister, for this excellent montage (5MB).
June 6th 2008: A televised report on Global National News about Projet Karyne, featured as part of their "Everyday Hero" profile.
May 23rd, 2008: The Aéro-solaire club of the G-L school won the grand prize at the "Solar Car Challenge" in Cornwall! We prepared a video of this awesome event (4MB).

April 10th 2008: We are currently working with Lar-Mex and the CEPEO to provide live statistics of the energy production on this web site!

 
A memorial to Karyne, our angel

In July 2006, Karyne Maisonneuve passed away from secondary effects of cancer treatment. She was only 8 years old. During her two-year battle, she underwent several operations and endured many hospital stays, never losing her smile and her love of life.

In her memory, and in an effort to refocus their sadness into something positive, her parents and three siblings (Élyse, Marc and Paul) launched Project Karyne, a renewable energy project, in partnership with the Gisèle-Lalonde High School. The administration and staff of the school and the CEPEO School Board gave full support to this innovative project.

With the Kyoto accord, Canada committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, yet almost all of the energy spent in this country is from burning non-renewable fossil fuels, such as petroleum products, natural gas and coal. Meanwhile, the Alberta Tar Sands Project uses 600 million cubic feet of natural gas a day to melt tarry sludge into a usable form. That is enough natural gas to heat more than 3 million Canadian homes. It is the fastest growing source of heat-trapping greenhouse gas in Canada.

It is likely that the increasing rate of the incidence of cancer is partially attributable to pollution and the state of the environment in general. In 2001, Canadian industries reported the release of over 18 million kg of known carcinogens into our air, soil and water. From 1970 to 1998 the incidence of cancer in Canada increased by 35% for men and 27% for women.

Our team believes that raising youth awareness of ecological challenges and encouraging the advancement of various types of renewable energy will help all of us create a cleaner environment for future generations.

We are always looking for sponsors and partners who share our ecological vision, and who would like to assist us with this exciting project. We plan to invite parents and other members of the community to participate and learn with us of the potential of renewable energy.

Be part of our team!