4 area schools, one youth
win environmental awards

Four St. Louis area schools and one Chesterfield youth have been given regional awards for their efforts to improve the local environment.

Schools honored were:

• Duchesne Elementary School in Florissant, Mo.
• St. Jacob Elementary School in Madison County, Illinois.
• Fox Junior High School and Rockport Heights Elementary School in Arnold.

Also, student Carter Stomberg won the Young Peoples' Environmental Excellence Award for a unique individual project. He is a junior high student in Chesterfield.

In addition, two St. Louis area teachers received environmental excellence awards. They were Janet Crews of Wydown Middle School in Clayton and Marcie Young of McCray-Dewey School in Troy, Ill.

A dozen other businesses, non-profit groups, communities and government organizations were honored at ceremonies held Monday, May 20.

The awards were given by the Choose Environmental Excellence-Gateway Region (CEE-GR) organization. The non-profit group recognizes area efforts to clean and preserve the environment.

Stromberg's award was sponsored by the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD).

Laura Neuman is the director of CEE-GR. She said this year's environmental "champions" took extraordinary steps to help the environment. She added they did so "in economical, creative and fun ways that will inspire others to follow their lead."

Information on how you and your school can participate can be found on the CEE-GR's website at www.ceegr.org. The website provides hundreds of environmental project ideas.

CEE-GR serves greater St. Louis metro counties on both sides of the Mississippi River.

Chesterfield student Stromberg's MSD award honored his efforts to post pollution warnings on area storm water drains. He got fellow boy scouts to help him stencil warnings on 50 drains in the Chesterfield area.

The signs said: "Dump No Waste; Drains to Stream." That meant that water going down those drains didn't go through any water treatment plant. Rather, the rain water went directly into surface streams.

The areas marked by Stromberg included several schools and two Chesterfield parks.

Here are details of the school programs that attracted CEE-GR attention:

• Duchesne Elementary School in Florissant, Mo.

Teacher Steve Marsden started an Environmental Club in 1998. This year, over 100 students were involved.

As an after-school project, the club runs a paper factory that generates new products from the school's colored paper waste. Also, nearly 100 tons of white paper has been recycled since 1999.

Recycling efforts also involve aluminum cans, plastic bags, six-pack rings, printer and ink-jet cartridges, clothing and textiles.

The group also beautifies school grounds with bird feeders, gardens, recycled plastic benches and trees.

• Rockport Heights Elementary and Fox Junior High in the Fox C-6 School District.

Kids have hosted six drive-through recycling collection events which collected 200 vehicle loads of materials. They also have recycled more than 200 tons of fiber through the Abitibi "Paper Retriever" program.

They've recycled printer and ink cartridges and plastic bags. Also, over 300 pounds of cafeteria waste have been composted.

Another project involves collecting old linens for the Jefferson County Animal Shelter. The kids have donated nearly 900 clean stuffed animals to disadvantaged families. The Fox Recycling Club sells hundreds of reused-material items at the school's craft fair.

• St. Jacob Elementary School in St. Jacob, Ill.

The school has received the Earth Flag/Banner from the Illinois Department of Commerce for seven straight years. That's for their efforts to collect at least three different types of recyclables each year.

The kids used their proceeds from the 2000 Madison County Recycling Coordinator of the Year award to create a butterfly garden for the school.

Also, penny collections at the school have purchased 24 1/2 acres of rainforest through the Nature Conservancy programs.

In addition to collecting paper and plastic for recycling, the school collected more than 1,200 pairs of eyeglasses for use in the Lions Club's reuse program.