Illinois kids' energy work wins award

Kids in the Alhambra (Ill.) Elementary School' Energy Club recently completed a sale of energy-efficient light bulbs. Sale profits will help to install solar panels to bring energy from the sun to their school.

They also recently presented an Energy Carnival to 4th graders at their school. The club puts on a number of workshops during the year to tell about energy-conservation activities everyone can do.

Through their efforts, the Madison County school has it's own paper recycling bin. The kids and their parents had to work hard to convince a recycling company it was worthwhile to put a bin in the little town.

All these activities earned teacher Richard Johnson and his Energy Club a 2003 Environmental Excellence Award. This and other awards were presented last month by the Gateway Region of Choose Environmental Excellence (CEEGR).

Two other Illinois schools earned excellence awards. They were the Collinsville (Ill.) High School's CHS Recycling Co. and St. Paul Catholic School in Highland, Ill.

(For more information about 2003 award winners, you can visit the group's website at www.ceegr.org. Also, for information on how your school can participate in the CEEGR, your teacher can call (314) 962-4100.)

Ten-year-old Mary Reagan is a 5th grader at Alhambra Elementary. She said she had fun selling the Energy Star compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. The kids put teams together for sales at nearby Greenville and Highland.

In addition, Mary sold bulbs "at my dad's work, at school and to my grandpa."

In all, the kids sold 442 of the energy-efficient bulbs and earned $1,200 after expenses. That money will be a down-payment on the $7,000 needed to have energy-generating solar panels at the school next fall.

Alhambra Elementary was one of just 40 schools in Illinois to qualify for sharp discount on the solar panel installation. Teacher Johnson said the solar panels will provide enough electricity to light the whole school.

Johnson started the school's Energy Club in the fall of 2000. Since then, the club members have been very active in promoting conservation and environmental issues. Fifth and sixth graders make up the club membership.

Last year, the club was runner-up in energy education among all schools in Illinois.

Twelve-year-old Elizabeth Stumpf got the chance to travel to Washington, D.C., last June to accept the award. She said her family also stayed to do sightseeing during that trip.

She said she enjoyed the visit to President Kennedy's tomb in Arlington Cemetery. That's the one with the eternal flame. Another high point was an evening dinner cruise the family took on the Potomac River.

Elizabeth said her family practice energy conservation at home. "We hang clothes to dry on the line in the back yard. We only use our dryer in the winter months," she said.

Twelve-year-old Callie Durborow said her family has a solar clothes dryer at home. The family also hand-wash dishes and use CFL bulbs. The 6th grader also said the family is pretty careful about turning off lights when noone is in the room.

But, she admits, "We have to get on my younger sister a lot." Tate Durborow is eight and a 2nd grader at Alhambra Elementary.

Eleven-year-old Christopher Uhe said he enjoyed the chance to attend a recent energy conference at Lewis and Clark College. He said he liked learning and singing chants that explained reasons to conserve energy.

Uhe said he had fun selling light bulbs to people after "telling them about the benefits." The CFL bulbs use 70 per cent less energy for the same amount of light as incandescent bulbs. Also, they last up to five years.

One conservation project that took some time to complete was getting a paper recycling bin put at the school. Because Alhambra is small, no recycler wanted to have to travel there to pick up paper.

Johnson said he finally got one company to designate one bin it had in Highland for Alhambra waste paper. That meant families made a 24-mile round-trip to donate paper.

Elizabeth Stumpf said her family was one of those that made the drive with scrap paper. Johnson said enough Alhambra residents made that long drive to convince another recycler to put a bin at the school and come to pick up the scrap paper.

Proceeds from the paper are another way to raise money for future Energy Club projects.