16th Annual Earth Stewardship Day at State Fairgrounds

SPRINGFIELD - Over 1,000 Sangamon County fourth graders participated in the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's 16th annual Earth Stewardship Day at the Illinois State Fairgrounds today.

Between 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., students and their teachers are observing 41 interactive presentations and other special attractions, throughout the Fairgrounds.  The various presenters represent a wide range of agencies and organizations, all focusing on the importance of protecting, restoring, recycling and reusing natural resources.  In keeping with the focus on "stewardship," students and teachers were asked to make sure lunches and beverages were "waste-free."

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the Illinois Departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Economic Opportunity, and Natural Resources, Transportation, as well as the Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts and the city of Springfield jointly sponsored this year's event.  Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias also participated in this year's event.

"Earth Stewardship Day provides a hands-on, fun approach to learning about our environment and ways to protect it so that the young environmental stewards here today inherit a healthy world full of opportunity," said Illinois EPA Director Doug Scott. "My thanks to all of the agencies who have devoted so much time and energy to make this day happen, and to Treasurer Giannoulias for his support."

Illinois EPA employees staffed seven stations, one of which was "Environmental Jeopardy."  In this interactive game, student volunteers compete against the clock and each other in an effort to correctly answer various environmental questions.  The first students to come up with the correct answer are awarded points while the contestants who did not get the correct answer or did not answer quickly, get "trashed."  Other Illinois EPA stations included Macroinvertebrate Mayhem, Recycle Dash, Sum of its Parts, Toxic Relay, Groundwater Model, and Skimming the Surface.

Special presenters also included environmental storytellers Brian "Fox" Ellis, of Fox Tales International in Peoria and Dan Keding of DanTales in Urbana, both of whom are nationally renowned.  The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity provided funding for an additional presentation "The Joy of Mother Earth," by Mark Kater of Skokie. 

Another special presentation that will be included this year is the Global Warming Project created by Grant Middle School's 7^th grade Illinois Math and Science Academy class.

This annual celebration of environmental protection and conservation was free and open to the first 1,000 students whose schools registered, with preference given to those schools that have not attended in the past two years.

For more information about this annual event, please contact Kristi Morris-Richards, Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Illinois EPA at (217) 558-7198.

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