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PRESIDENT BUSH, WHITMAN HONOR YOUNG ENVIRONMENTALISTS AT WHITE HOUSE

Release Date: 04/18/2002
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Also available in Spanish: "El Presidente Bush y la Administradora Whitman ofrecen Homenaje en la Casa Blanca a Jóvenes Defensores del Medio Ambiente"



Environmental News

President George W. Bush and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Whitman today welcomed students from across the nation to the White House to honor their achievements in environmental protection. The 2001 President's Environmental Youth Awards were presented to 30 students at a ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House.

"I want to thank so much the award winners for turning idealism into action; for taking a great spirit and love for our country and doing something about that spirit and love for our country. Communities are better as a result, but as importantly, you're providing a really good example of service," said President George W. Bush. "You're showing other people that people can make a difference in people's lives. Stewardship is the calling of government, and it is the calling of every citizen. I hope that in the years ahead you'll never lose the idealism we honor today. Your communities need it, and your country needs it."

“As we hear about the projects these young people have undertaken in their communities, we can all be confident that America’s environmental future is in very good hands,” said EPA Administrator Whitman. “I am so proud of the work these young people have done in their communities. It’s exactly what the President means when he asks all Americans to dedicate a part of their lives in service of our country. I am also proud of the work President Bush has been doing to protect our environment, not just for today, but for tomorrow as well. ”

The President's Environmental Youth Awards have been presented annually since 1971 to honor students grades K - 12 who develop projects that help protect their communities and address local environmental concerns. This is second time that the awards were presented personally by President Bush at the White House. Winners were selected from among applicants in the EPA's 10 regions.

Recipients submitted summaries of their projects to EPA's regional offices. The projects were then judged on the basis of their accomplishment of goals, long term environmental benefits and community impact. The judges also considered design, coordination, implementation and the student's effectiveness in presenting their projects.

This year's award recipients are from Pawcatuck, Conn.; Rooseveltown, N.Y.; Huntingdon, Pa.; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Glen Ellyn, Ill; Lubbock, Texas; Reeds Spring, Mo.; Lakewood, Colo.; Mesa, Ariz. and Skykomish, Washington.

The award winners and their projects are attached.

EPA Region 1
Documentary on Recycling & a Waste-to-Energy Plant
Stonington High School
Pawcatuck, Conn.

Stonington High School boasts an active group of students who take recycling very seriously. Named “Green High School” for the year 2000 by the Connecticut Recyclers Coalition, the school’s program expanded its focus this past year and changed its name to Stonington High School's Environmental Awareness Committee. A significant part of school’s program is teaching younger students at the elementary level about recycling.

EPA Region 2
The Wetland Restoration Project
Akwesasne Freedom School
Rooseveltown, N.Y.

Sixth, seventh and eighth grade students attending the Akwesasne Freedom School do more than just learn about wetlands, their importance to the natural world, and how they provide critical habitat for many plants and animals species. They’ve put their knowledge to work. With the support of their teachers and families, the students at Akwesasne Freedom School worked in collaboration with the Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment, a community based, not-for-profit environmental organization, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Agency, to restore a 50-acre wetland that had degraded through neglect.

EPA Region 3
“Standing Stone Creek Water Quality Pre-Assessment”
Huntingdon Area Middle School Environmental Club
Huntingdon, Penn.

This project focused on ascertaining the water quality of Standing Stone Creek. Huntingdon Area Middle School, Huntingdon County Conservation District, and Juniata College Environmental Science Department received a grant from the Pennsylvania League of Women voters to complete the project. A stream assessment was developed and conducted at four sites and examined biological organisms living on the stream bottom, chemical stream analysis, physical stream characteristics and stream habitat parameters. In addition, a questionnaire was developed to obtain input about the environmental healthiness of the water from the perspective of the Huntingdon Water Treatment Plant. Tests showed good water quality and the research results were accepted as part of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection statewide stream assessments.

EPA Region 4
“Hayes Creek Project”
Robertsville Middle School Technology Student Association
Oak Ridge, Tenn.

The Technology Student Association is a non-profit organization that meets after school so students can learn about the technological world around them. Seventh-grade students from Robertsville Middle School choose events and use information they have learned to solve problems and construct items. Cleaning Hayes Creek was their “Environmental Challenge.” Students cleaned trash, cleared and extended a pathway, tested water and gravel, and built an outdoor classroom with help from parent volunteers and other students and a local Boy Scout Troop built a bridge across the creek. Through their efforts, Hayes Creek is now a system of trails by a clean creek that many people in the community can enjoy. An outdoor classroom, now beside the creek, will provide a unique environmental education opportunity for students and teachers throughout the city for years to come.

EPA Region 5
“Churchill Park”
Patty & Betsy Williams
Glen Ellyn, Ill.

Patty and Betsy Williams’ goal was to help turn Churchill Park into an outdoor education center for the Glen Ellyn Schools. They have been working for the past six years to make that goal a reality. The sisters have initiated and implemented a variety of projects at Churchill Park, which is part of the Glen Ellyn Park District. Developing books which show bird, plant and tree identification is one project that was part of this effort. In addition, the sisters are decorating a sign at the entrance of the park with something new each month. Additionally, the girls have worked on a prairie plant education program, the relocation of a butterfly garden, and expanding the park.

EPA Region 6
STIR (Stop Tobacco In Restaurants)
Amit Bushan
Lubbock, Texas

Amit Bushan suffers from bronchial asthma and was unable go bowling or eat at restaurants in his community because of the tobacco smoke. He decided to find out what he could do about it and, using the Internet, he began researching the harmful affects of secondhand smoke. During his research, he discovered the dangers that secondhand smoke poses. He also learned that of the 1300 restaurants in Lubbock, less than 10 percent were smoke free. Amit started a campaign to make public places, frequented by children, smoke-free. He named his project “STIR,” Stop Tobacco in Restaurants, since he wanted this issue to STIR up the community. He designed a logo, made a PowerPoint presentation and began his campaign by presenting it to his school principal in August 2000. Amit, working with Dr. Bacchi, his sponsor, trained students, met with local leaders and media and designed a website. On June 14, 2001 an ordinance was passed in Lubbock to ban smoking in all public places.

EPA Region 7
The “R” Project
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Respect
Reeds Spring High School
Reeds Spring, Mo.

The “R” project is an integrated waste management program that began in 2000 and includes a no-discharge in-vessel organic composting system for food waste, paper, grass, leaves, wood chips and other organic materials generated at schools within the Reeds Spring School District. Its goal was to teach students to be environmentally responsible in handling solid waste. In Missouri, about 9.5 million tons of waste are generated annually by a population of more than five million. About 6.1 million tons goes to landfills. About sixty percent of municipal solid waste is what people throw away. The balance is waste from demolition, construction, industry and other sources. In municipal solid waste, paper and organics are the two tonnage leaders. Composting can turn virtually all of this organic material into a useful soil amendment and can put organic wastes back to work as well as reduce the amount of waste going to landfills. The project has also integrated lessons on composting into the classroom.

EPA Region 8
“Save the Dawgs!”
Jefferson County Open School
Lakewood, Colo.

For two years, a group of 7th, 8th and 9th grade students at the Jefferson County Open School in Lakewood, Colo., have stood up for a prairie dog population that has been rapidly declining along the Front Range of Colorado, an area of active urban and suburban development. Habitat destruction is one of the primary causes of the decline in numbers of prairie dogs in Colorado. Students have written and met with government officials, helped relocate animals and continue to monitor colonies and plan to lead educational programs for young students in their school district.

EPA Region 9
Protect the Earth Club
Roosevelt Elementary School
Mesa, Ariz.

Student members of the Protect the Earth Club learned many ways to protect natural resources and took action to solve local environmental problems. With sponsorship from the Honeywell Corporation, the group of fourth to sixth grade students identified environmental needs in the school community and set out to educate their peers in ways to protect the environment. This effort has included recycling, air quality, natural desert habitat, household hazardous waste and the promotion of environmental awareness.

EPA Region 10
“An Oily Sky”
Skykomish High School
Skykomish, Wash.

Students in the film class at Skykomish High School have produced two documentary videos on the issue of oil seeping through the soil from an old railroad fueling station in the community. The videos are entitled “An Oily Sky.” “Sky” is the local name for the mountain community of Skykomish, located in the far north end of King County, Washington. Oil had been observed seeping into the river as early as the 1920s, but was dismissed as being a minor problem associated with overfilled fuel tanks on the locomotives. Studies in the 1990s established the amount of underground oil to be approximately 160,000 gallons. Some recovery efforts were begun, but by the year 2000, only a little over 700 gallons of the oil had been recovered, and oil was still seeping into the Skykomish River. Increased awareness of the problem led to remedial action by Washington State’s Department of Ecology in King County. A first step in the total cleanup of the oil took place last summer through the building of a barrier wall to prevent oil seepage into the Skykomish River.

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