FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 6, 2006
Paris Elementary School receives Champions of the Environment award
COLUMBIA – Paris Elementary School in Taylors has received this month’s Champions of the Environment award for a project to save a wooded area on the school’s campus, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control announced today.
“Our second grade students have received $500 to continue the multi-year project to develop ‘The Growing Place’ on our campus,” said Judy Durham, instructional coach at the school. “The project is a direct result of the students observing the environment around them. When they realized that the small area of woods at the corner of their new school campus was all that remained of the old school’s previously wooded campus, they were concerned. They wanted to save the remaining woods as a habitat and learning garden, and to maintain the benefits of plants and animals to the environment.”
Durham said students have started their project by planting annuals and drought-resistant plants.
“This project serves the environment well,” said Lynne LaSalle, Champions of the Environment coordinator. “The trees and plants filter the air, hold soil in place and reduce runoff by allowing rainwater to soak into the ground.”
Champions of the Environment encourages and rewards environmental stewardship in South Carolina’s kindergarten through 12th grade youth. In addition to the $500 cash prize, winning schools receive Champions of the Environment give-away items. A television commercial about the project will air on WIS-TV and winners are eligible to be selected as overall Champions of the Environment at the end of the school year. Applications for Champions of the Environment’s monthly award program are due at the end of each month, through March 2007.
Champions of the Environment is made possible through the support of International Paper, Eastman Chemical Company, WIS News 10 and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. The program is in its 14th year of promoting environmental education by rewarding students and teachers in South Carolina for their efforts to improve and protect the environment.
For more information, visit the Champions’ Web site, www.scdhec.gov/champions, or call LaSalle, at (803) 898-4394.
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For more information:
Lynn LaSalle – (803) 898-4394
E-mail – lasallli@dhec.sc.gov
or
Adam Myrick – (803) 898-3884
E-mail – myrickar@dhec.sc.gov
MNR0087