First in a series

Join in 2003 Earth Day fun; make a bookmark

The 2003 Earth Day Festival won't be until April. But, you can start participating now. First up is a Clean Air Bookmark Contest.

The bookmark contest is open to kids in 6th through 12th grades. Entries can come from anywhere in the metro St. Louis area. Winners will be selected in two divisions: Grades 6-8 and Grades 9-12.

Emily Andrews is an employee of the St. Louis Community Air Project (CAP). That's an organization that is studying ways to improve air quality in the area. CAP is one of the sponsors of the bookmark contest.

Emily said bookmark designs submitted need to illustrate ways to improve the area's air quality. The contest opened March 1.

She emphasized that bookmark designs can be entered by individuals. You don't have to go through your school.

The St. Louis City Library is co-sponsoring the contest. Winners of the two divisions will have their bookmarks printed for distribution at the 15 branches of the city library system.

Entries for the contest can be handed in or mailed to any of the 15 city library branches. Entries must be handed in by April 16. (For complete contest rules and for a map showing the branch locations, go to www.slpl.lib.mo.us.)

The Clean Air Bookmark Contest is one of the Earth Day Around Town activities going on before the Earth Day Festival. (For more details on Earth Day, see the sidebar below. You also can log on to the official Earth Day website at www.stlouisearthday.org.)

On April 27, CAP and other sponsors will have a booth at the Earth Day Festival at Forest Park. The booth will be in the Clean Air section of the festival. It will feature hands-on, fun activities on the environment.

Kids wanting to enter the Clean Air Bookmark contest must submit their original artwork displayed on medium to heavy drawing paper. Your bookmark design should be submitted on an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper and the artwork should be 3 1/2" wide and 8" tall.

You can use oil paint, water colors, markers, pencils and/or ink.

Emily Andrews said, "Entrants should use colors that will reproduce well. Light pastel colors should be avoided."

On the backside of the artwork, entrants should include their name, age, grade in school, home address and telephone number. If the entry is through a school, an option is to include the school name, address and name of the teacher.

Emily said, "This information is needed so winners can be notified after the judging."

An awards ceremony honoring the winners and runners-up will be held May 15. The ceremony will be at the Carpenter branch library on South Grand, Emily said. A delay in the awards ceremony is to allow the winning entries to be reproduced for distribution.

The contest is a way to get kids interested in the Community Air Project. The CAP monitored air quality in south St. Louis City for more than a year. There were three monitoring stations in ZIP codes 63118 and 63104.

CAP was testing air in St. Louis for 114 different chemicals. The monitoring was from May, 2001, to October, 2002.

Emily said, "From those tests, we identified six 'chemicals of concern' that were in St. Louis air." They were formaldehyde, benzene, arsenic, chromium, acetaldehyde and diesel particulates, she added.

CAP is now developing an action plan setting out how to improve local air quality. Part of that plan will deal with ways to reduce the amount of the "chemicals of concern" in St. Louis air, Emily said.

During the monitoring period, CAP introduced St. Louis City school kids to the issues of air pollution.

Students at Roosevelt High School made a 12-minute video on the importance of clean air. The video will be available for showings at other area schools. The high school students also toured the monitoring stations.

Kids in an after-school program at Peabody Elementary School in St. Louis City also learned about pollution. Those younger kids got to tour a monitoring site.

The St. Louis city libraries are planning to install Air Pollution kiosks in three branches. These will include flyers about air pollution and other environmental issues.

 

The lineup of 2003 Earth Day activities

The 2003 St. Louis Earth Day Festival will take place on Sunday, April 27, in Forest Park. The events will be on or around the Muny grounds in the park.

This year's festival theme is "Passport to a Healthy Planet." Events will be divided into four areas, "Clean Air," "Clean Water," "Healthy Land" and "Healthy Self."

The festival hours will be from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

In addition, there will be a separate "Art Village," which will include opportunities for creative expression and live entertainment.

Kids and their families also can volunteer for service projects in Forest Park.

There will be an "Earth Day Run for the Rivers" that Sunday morning.

(For complete information on how to participate, log on to the official Earth Day website at www.stlouisearthday.org.)

A new feature of this year's Earth Day activities is the Planetary Passport. Families who participate in the "Earth Day Around Town" activities before the festival can earn prizes.

A number of St. Louis area organizations are scheduling Earth Day events and activities prior to the festival. If you and your family take part in those, you earn credits for your Planetary Passport.

Those credits can be redeemed for rewards and prizes at the Sunday festival.

The organizations participating in the Planetary Passport program are:

• St. Louis Community Air Project (CAP)
• St. Louis Public Library
• Saint Louis Zoo
• Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center
• Wild Oats Market
• Gateway Center for Resource Efficiency
• City Museum
• Missouri Botanical Garden
• Chesterfield Earth Day
• Grace Hill Americorps Trail Rangers Project
• Piwacket Childrens Carnival
• Missouri History Museum
• St. Louis Teachers Recycle Center
• Area state parks