Celebrating Earth Hour with your family

By Ryley Murray
Communications Intern
On the evening of March 27, 2010, nine-month pregnant Tracey Geneau began to feel labour pains. As she rushed to the hospital, she remembered, as she always does, to turn all the lights off in her house. Earth Hour is something that Tracey and husband support every year, as they are both very environmentally-minded. They wanted to make sure that even though they weren’t at home, they could still observe the hour.
Her beautiful baby, Jacob Martial Carl Geneau (pictured here) was born in the midst of Earth Hour at 9:12 pm. After he was born, one of the first things the long-time WWF supporter said to her husband was, “Jacob is an Earth Hour baby!”

(c) Tracy Geneau
While they couldn’t turn the lights out in the hospital, for safety reasons, Tracey took comfort in the fact that they were observing the hour in their home and will continue to do so every year from now on, even if it means turning out their lights during Jacob’s birthday parties!
All over Canada, we’re hearing stories from families of how Earth Hour has become a time for them to reconnect, and look at how they can be better at helping fight climate change at home. Conserving energy, buying more environmentally friendly products, or taking family walks to the grocery store instead of driving are all small changes that every family can make. Families are the glue that holds a community together and when they take a stand for the planet by enforcing these actions in daily living, the impact that has on the world is huge. We’d like to welcome young Jacob Martial into the panda family and wish him a happy Earth Hour birthday.