Friday, April 15, 2011

Conservation is key on second day of Clean Water Celebration

If the 2,000 or so students who left the Clean Water Celebration walked away learning only one thing, it was that water flows downhill.

That means the things that ruin water for people in Peoria can easily ruin water for people in St. Louis, Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

"Water flows downhill, never uphill," said Denise Reed, a professor of geology and geophysics at the University of New Orleans, during a keynote address at the Peoria Civic Center. "Water always comes from you to us, never from us to you."

The theme of this year's Clean Water Celebration, put on annually by the Sun Foundation and its partners, was "From Our Gutters to the Gulf."

The Clean Water Celebration is a two-day event. The first day, which was Sunday this year, is on Peoria's waterfront. The second day brings school children from the Tri-County Area and beyond to the Civic Center for the keynote speakers and breakout sessions.

The message spread to the students was one of conservation, about taking care of their waterways for themselves and for neighbors to the south.

Paul Ritter's classes at Pontiac Township High School have been living that message for a few years. The students in those classes have designed receptacles for unused prescription drugs. They distribute them in municipalities across the states in hopes those unwanted prescription drugs will not be flushed down the toilet or carelessly discarded, causing them to wash into rivers and lakes.

"I've seen a lot of fish with six eyes or two heads," said Charles Spencer, a sophomore at Pontiac. "And a lot of people believe the reason is prescription drugs in the rivers."

The group has served as inspiration for a number of other drug recycling programs in the state, including Peoria County's.

The program also instills in the students a sense of urgency in protecting the area's waterways.

"It's really become part of the whole school," said Amber Brunskill, a senior who plans to stay involved in the movement after graduation.

The group, along with a few dozen others, ran a booth at the celebration, handing out literature and trying to encourage other students to get involved.

Cracking down on drug abuse Drop boxes to be placed in several locations for prescription drug disposal

With prescription drug abuse becoming an increasingly lethal issue in
Effingham County, several organizations are banding together in an effort to
get these potentially deadly drugs off the street.
Secure drop boxes will be placed in several locations for drug disposal
within the next month as part of the P2D2 program. Effingham County Chief
Deputy John Loy said Monday that boxes will be placed on the first floor of
both the Effingham County Office Building and Effingham County Government
Center, the Illinois State Police District 12 headquarters in Effingham,
Altamont Municipal Building and Altamont Pharmacy.
Loy said the boxes can be put anywhere with either human or video
surveillance.
³We¹re still looking for locations to put them,² he said. ³The drugs will
be picked up by bonded couriers and then destroyed.²
Coroner Leigh Hammer said the program will hopefully lessen the incidence
of prescription drug abuse cases that, sadly, turn into fatalities.
³It¹s a big project,² said Hammer, who added that drugs can also be
dropped off at the Effingham County Health Department.
Hammer said there have been 12 to 15 deaths in the county resulting from
prescription drug abuse in the past three years. Prescription drug abuse
became more widely known in the area after a combination of aggressive
enforcement and legislative action dramatically reduced methamphetamine
abuse in rural Illinois.
The program is being facilitated by the Effingham County Youth Ambassador
program, an outgrowth of the University of Illinois Extension 4-H program.
Several ambassadors appeared at Monday¹s County Board meeting.
³4-H isn¹t just about the animals,² said St. Anthony High School student
Jesse Haarmann.
Other ambassadors appearing at Monday¹s meeting included Abby Westendorf
of Teutopolis, Michael Goldstein of St. Anthony and Ethan Fitzwilliam of
Altamont. Westendorf thanked the board for its service to the county.
Hammer praised the group after the meeting for its work.
³I applaud them for stepping forward and taking leadership roles,² she
said.
The board took little action at Monday¹s brief meeting, though it did
hear from John Schuler of the Post Oak Flats Resource Conservation and
Development organization. Post Oak Flats is a federally-funded non-profit
organization with a multi-faceted mission.
Schuler told the board that one of the agency¹s primary missions in
recent years has been to stimulate entrepreneurship in its five-county
coverage area, which includes Effingham, Clay, Fayette, Jasper and Marion
counties. Post Oak Flats has assisted the Effingham County high school CEO
entrepreneurship class, for example.
In action taken Monday, the board voted 6-1 to buy an ad for the county
map distributed by the Greater Effingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Board vice chairman Bob Shields was the only person to vote against the ad,
while board members Rob Arnold and Jim Reeves were absent.
Shields said he didn¹t see how the money spent on the ad would
significantly help county taxpayers.
³It¹s not that maps are a bad thing, and I¹m not trying to criticize the
board members who voted for it, but I just don¹t see how the taxpayer
benefits from this at a time when we are trying to save money,² Shields
said.

Pontiac science teacher earns national award

PONTIAC — Pontiac Township High School science teacher Paul Ritter has earned top teaching honors from the National Science Teachers Association.

He was one of more than 100 teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade from across the nation nominated for the Sea World/Busch Gardens Outstanding Environmental Educator of the Year Award, which was presented to him last month at a conference in San Francisco.

Ritter has received national attention for the Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal Program that he and his students started in 2007. Also called P2D2, it has expanded into 16 states.

In his 13 years at Pontiac, Ritter has a long history of getting students involved in community projects in order to teach scientific principles.

“I truly believe excitement in the classroom is imperative. These kids want immediate feedback and instant reward. It’s the Nintendo and Facebook society, so we try to get them excited and out into the world quickly,” said Ritter.

PTHS Principal Jon Kilgore said Ritter will do just about anything to get students involved in the classroom, including picking up a guitar to lead classroom sing-alongs.

“The students are truly engaged in enjoyable learning activities such as changing the lyrics of songs to include science content,” said Kilgore. “He is constantly looking for creative means to teach environmentalism with the science curriculum.”

Several people were involved in getting Ritter nominated, but it wasn’t even one of his students who got the ball rolling on the effort. Jordyn Schara, a sophomore attending a high school in Wisconsin, contacted him two years ago about P2D2 and helped expand it into Wisconsin.

Spokesman Kate Falk of the National Science Teachers Association said nominees were scored on nine criteria, including project goals and accomplishments, positive impact on schools and their community, originality and creativity and the level of student participation. Finalists also were required to fill out a questionnaire.

Local Teacher Gets Award

Top Science educators from around the Country were honored at the 2011 Teachers Awards Program in San Franciso, California.
The National Science Teachers Association or, NSTA, awarded top science educators from around the country at a ceremony earlier this month.
One of those teachers was Pontiac Township High Schools Science teacher, Paul Ritter. He is from Mendota, Illinois.
He received the Outstanding Environmental Educator of the Year Award.
His most recognized project is the Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal Program.
The program is to educate the public about the harm done to the environment because of drug disposal practices and to provide people with an alternative way of disposal, ensuring the quality of water for the future.
The NSTA is the largest professional organization in the world promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Conservation is key on second day of Clean Water Celebration

PATRICK OLDENDORF

Posted: 04/11/2011 10:43 PM

If the 2,000 or so students who left the Clean Water Celebration walked away learning only one thing, it was that water flows downhill.

That means the things that ruin water for people in Peoria can easily ruin water for people in St. Louis, Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

"Water flows downhill, never uphill," said Denise Reed, a professor of geology and geophysics at the University of New Orleans, during a keynote address at the Peoria Civic Center. "Water always comes from you to us, never from us to you."

The theme of this year's Clean Water Celebration, put on annually by the Sun Foundation and its partners, was "From Our Gutters to the Gulf."

The Clean Water Celebration is a two-day event. The first day, which was Sunday this year, is on Peoria's waterfront. The second day brings school children from the Tri-County Area and beyond to the Civic Center for the keynote speakers and breakout sessions.

The message spread to the students was one of conservation, about taking care of their waterways for themselves and for neighbors to the south.

Paul Ritter's classes at Pontiac Township High School have been living that message for a few years. The students in those classes have designed receptacles for unused prescription drugs. They distribute them in municipalities across the states in hopes those unwanted prescription drugs will not be flushed down the toilet or carelessly discarded, causing them to wash into rivers and lakes.

"I've seen a lot of fish with six eyes or two heads," said Charles Spencer, a sophomore at Pontiac. "And a lot of people believe the reason is prescription drugs in the rivers."

The group has served as inspiration for a number of other drug recycling programs in the state, including Peoria County's.

The program also instills in the students a sense of urgency in protecting the area's waterways.

"It's really become part of the whole school," said Amber Brunskill, a senior who plans to stay involved in the movement after graduation.

The group, along with a few dozen others, ran a booth at the celebration, handing out literature and trying to encourage other students to get involved.

 

Patrick Oldendorf can be reached at 686-3194 or poldendorf@pjstar.com.

Students Spur Legislation To Keep Drugs Out Of Waterways

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WBBM/CBS) – Whether you use prescription drugs properly or abuse them, a group of students is emphasizing that landfills and waterways are no place for the unused pills.
As WBBM Newsradio 780’s Dave Dahl reports, Paul Ritter, a science teacher at Pontiac High School downstate, told a state House committee that his students originally developed the P2D2 Program. P2D2 is short for “Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal.”
LISTEN: Newsradio 780′s Dave Dahl reports

“These are students who have put their hard work and effort and the blood, sweat and tears,” Ritter said. “You’ll also notice there’s a piece in there called the medicine chest. The Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant thought so much of these kids that they took their curriculum and presented it, and published it.”
Students from Antioch Community High School were also involved in creating the program.
HB 2506 would allow law enforcement personnel to collect prescription drugs from residential sources and burn them. It has already passed out of a state House Environmental Affairs Committee and is now going before the full state House.
It is meant as an alternative to flushing unused prescription drugs down the toilet, thus contaminating waterways and marine life.

Pontiac Students Showcase Growth of P2D2 Program

PEORIA - When the P2D2 prescription pill and drug disposal program started four years ago at Pontiac High School, few people could have foreseen its incredible growth into a national movement.

"We have Alaska. Hawaii is joining in and we have a couple other states, but it's grown pretty fast," says Pontiac senior Bethany Guelde. "It's pretty exciting."

As part of Peoria's Clean Water Celebration, students are continuing to help the growth of the P2D2 program by educating area students about the dangers of prescription medicine and our drinking water.

"Mostly just to get the word out so the kids can start their own program, if they like," says Pontiac senior Amber Brunskill. "Maybe make good decisions themselves."

The unique part of P2D2 is that the students are the ones who continually take the lead to move the program forward. Some students are even looking to take that sense of responsibility beyond high school.

"I've already talked to the college I'm going to in Michigan. I'm going to start a program up there because it has not yet been introduced into the community," Guelde says.

Students say the program is essential because even though two-thirds of the world lacks clean drinking water, we often take it for granted.

"It's just not something that goes through most people's minds, so when we say this is a huge deal and something needs to be done about it, most people are shocked by that," says Pontiac sophomore Charles Spencer.

But the dedication of these motivated students all but guarantees P2D2's success for years to come.

"I've learned so much and I love the program that I wish I wasn't a senior now and could keep going," says Brunskill.

In four years, P2D2 has expanded into 16 states, disposing over 135,000 pounds of medication and other drugs.