March 2011
Phyllis Wheatley Middle School - Conservation Club
Bridgeville, DE

Transforming Delmarva one landscape at a time, that is the mission of the young students comprising the Phyllis Wheatley Middle School Conservation Club.  Led by their teacher, Pamela Vanderwende, these inspired school children have taken hands on learning to a whole new level.  A few times a month they gather after school to discuss upcoming projects and new ideas on how improve the ecosystems around Phyllis Wheatley Middle and the surrounding Bridgeville Township.  Then, once the plan is set, this enthused group of student’s spring into action using their collective passion for nature as motivation to get them across the finish line. 

To date, they’ve designed and installed several unique habitats on school grounds that are now home to various species of plants and animals.  They’ve even extended their reach to the local elementary school, redesigning the Woodbridge Elementary School courtyard to include viewing benches and native plants to help create a natural habitat for animals and a serene setting for those at the school to enjoy the outdoors.  These youngsters plan to dedicate the new courtyard on April 22 of this year, which just happens to be Earth Day. 

It’s for these efforts and their willingness to learn about and explore nature that the Phyllis Wheatley Middle School Conservation Club was chosen as the WMDT/Mountaire Farms Future Star(s) of the Month for March 2011.

Some the Conservation Clubs other projects include adopted wetlands, a Secret Garden and the Phyllis Wheatley Memory Garden.  The wetlands, located on school grounds, were created through Adopt-A-Wetland Delaware.  Students regularly clear the wetlands of any debris and even added a small bridge to eliminate foot traffic near wildlife nesting areas.  The goal of the Memory Garden was to help attract more wildlife to the wetlands project and broaden the wetlands habitat to a point where wildlife would be visible from the 5^th grade classroom.  This would allow both students and staff to get a closer look at nature from inside the science class.  Starting with a patch of weeds, the club transformed a lifeless piece of earth into a safe place for birds and insects to call home.  They added bird feeders, plants with berries, evergreens for nesting and a mulched flower bed to preserve the rich soil in order to create a thriving sanctuary just outside their window.

Behind the leadership of their teacher, the Phyllis Wheatley Conservation Club is proving that with a clear vision and a little hard work, you can accomplish anything. 

“We should have kids learning and creating around our school, creating these environments because it does so much for their self-esteem and gives them so much educationally.” – Pamela Vanderwende, 5^th Grade Science Teacher, Phyllis Wheatley Middle School 

October 2010
Selbyville Middle School - "Miss B's" 7th Grade Science Class
Selbyville, DE

Each year, billions of plastic bags are produced and used worldwide, and each year millions of those same bags are improperly disposed of, ending up along roadways, in fields and even our waterways.  These plastic bags have proven to be detrimental to wildlife, especially marine animals like sea turtles, whales and species of fish, which ingest these bags causing health problems and in some cases even leading to death.  Upon learning of the devastating impact discarded plastic can have on our oceans, Sarah Betlejewski, the 7^th grade science teacher at Selbyville Middle School & her students, made it their mission to help recycle plastic bags and keep them out of our local environment.

The past two years “Miss B” as she is called by her students, has shown her class a power point presentation on the impact of plastic bags, along with a video from the National Aquarium in Baltimore about a whale that strands itself due to plastic bag ingestion.  Her students are quick to understand the dangers of plastic bags and other pollutants, and are glad to be a part of the environmental movement.

“We know we are helping our environment and showing we care.” says Isaiah Morris, one of Miss B’s seventh grade students.

Since beginning their crusade two years ago, Selbyville Middle School students in Miss Betlejewski’s science classes have collected over 90,000 gallons of plastic bags, and are doing their part to spread the word in the community, in order to bring others on board with the mission to help keep our local environment clean and safe for everyone and everything that inhabits it.

“As you are driving down the road you see plastic bags in the gutter, in the grass, in the trees and it makes a huge impact on the environment…the students have worked really hard for it, and 90,000 gallons of bags over the last couple of years is a lot.” – Sarah Betlejewski, 7^th Grade Science Teacher, Selbyville Middle School 

It’s for these environmental endeavors that WMDT & Mountaire named Miss B and her students as WMDT/Mountaire Future Environmental Stars.

“Whether it is carelessness, or thoughtlessness, or disregard for the topography and its inhabitants we live in and around, discarding plastic bags is a no-no for the environment around the Delmarva Peninsula, say the students at Selbyville Middle School. So at the mentoring from their science teacher, Miss “B”, initiated the class crusade to educate her students and to collect strewn plastic bags from the many stretches of ground, beach and inland water areas on Delmarva.

Video studies from national Aquariums describing beached whales and other water inhabitants who were suffocated by the ingestion of these bags, stirred the science/environmental class to study and act,  at this time collecting more than 90,000 water-logged gallons of the once grocery containers.

These youngsters, with the support of the school and the educational guidance of their mentor, recognize the danger s of plastic castaways on the beach, around creeks and on the ocean and want to get the message out to neighbors, schoolmates, and families to discard the floating containers in the correct manner; away from the outreach of unsuspecting water inhabitants who mistake it for food.

Thanks to a bright educator and a student body that recognizes this important step for the environment we applaud this major Delmarva move to clean up our waterways and to be rightfully awarded the WMDT/Mountaire, Environmental Star of the Month award.” Roger Marino, Mountaire Community Relations Director.

August 2010
Phillip C. Showell Elementary - Terracycle Bottle Buddy Brigade
Selbyville, DE

Ronna Cobb and the “Little School that’s Big on Learning” are doing their part for the environment both in and around the school campus in Selbyville, DE.

WMDT & Mountaire Farms are proud to announce Ronna Cobb and her Terracycle Bottle Buddy Brigade at Phillip C. Showell Elementary School as the recipients of the WMDT/Mountaire Future Environmental Star of the Month award for August.  From the outset of the 2009-2010 school year, the students and faculty at the quaint elementary school, located in Selbyville, DE, made it a priority to recycle and instill a sense of environmental responsibility in everyone associated with the facility.  Led by Mrs. Cobb, the Campus Monitor, the Terracycle Bottle Buddy Brigade was formed from interested members of the student body, with a purpose of implementing all recycling activities.  These activities range from collecting paper products and boxes in the classrooms, to rounding up all milk bottles used by students during breakfast and lunch in the cafeteria.  Paper products are sorted and turned in at local recycling facilities, while the milk bottles are packed up and shipped to Terracycle, where they are used to make bottles for bubble mix.  Best of all, Terracycle pays two cents per bottle, with all proceeds going to the school’s Student Council to aid in supporting other student programs. 

"This year with the bottles, we've recycled 38,000, and we've made $756."  - Ronna Cobb

Recycling is just one environmental initiative the school has undertaken.  During the past year they worked with the Center for the Inland Bays to create a schoolyard habitat, which was built just off the main playground, making it visible to students and local citizens traveling on the street.  Working hand-in-hand in the formation of the habitat has allowed the young stars to take in the full benefits the sanctuary provides for a multitude of plants and animals.  From the experience students have been able to gain a greater appreciation and understanding of our waterways and the delicate balance between society and nature.  The ever growing habitat is home to frogs, turtles, insects and a variety of plants, all tended to by students and continuously used as an entertaining learning tool by teachers and faculty of Phillip C. Showell Elementary.  For these efforts, they were chosen as the WMDT/Mountaire Future Environmental Star(s) of the Month.

“On any given school day, At Phillip T. Showell Elementary School, you will find a  principal who participates in  hand-to-mind educational experiences with her students and teachers; a teaching and professional staff that work with the enthusiasm and spirit of their leader; and a community that appreciate the environmental efforts of this “school-that-can-do."  "Ms. Ronna Cobb and everyone, who participate in the daily activities at Phillip T. Showell are to be commended for the educational partnerships they have melded with the Center for the Inland Bays and the Corporate community as they develop future leadership qualities in their enthusiastic youth.” - Roger Marino, Corporate Director of Community Relations, Mountaire Farms, Inc.

July 2010 Future Environmental Stars:
Jefferson School - Extreme Green Team
Georgetown, DE

WMDT & Mountaire Farms proudly presented the Jefferson Schools, Extreme Green Team, with the Future Environmental Star award for the month of July.  For the past four years the 3^rd and 4^th graders at the Jefferson School in Georgetown, DE have worked together to create the Extreme Green Team.  Led by their teacher, Ms. Janet Taylor-Smith, students have spearheaded campaigns like the Nike Re-Use A Shoe program, an effort to keep old shoes out of landfills by sending them to Nike for recycling.  From this initial effort, students embraced the concept of reduce-re-use-recycle, and now collect everything from juice pouches and paper, to aluminum pull tabs and plastic caps.  The team has placed special containers in each wing of the school for the various recyclable materials, which are emptied every Friday by the team and taken to the on-campus recycling bins. 

Sporting specially made Extreme Green Team t-shirts, these youngsters are going the extra mile to promote the recycling agenda.  Their efforts within the school community have made it easy for everyone to take part in the program and by using every resource available, have successfully promoted this way of life to everyone involved with the school.  Hallways are decorated with daily reminders on what the school recycles and once a week the Green Teamer’s get to present their ideas to the student body during morning exercises.  The results speak for themselves, the Jefferson School is now one that fully recycles all trash, and is a community which is inspired to take the small steps that can make a difference.  

"Excitement and enthusiasm are expressions on the faces and in the voices of the Extreme Green Team members as they described to us their daily recycling routines around the Jefferson School. Excitement that they are part of something important to their daily education community, and the community in which they live, and play. Enthusiasm in the way they display colorful-educational art work throughout their halls of learning.  Refreshing is the way I would describe the energy and excitement displayed by Ms. Janet Taylor –Smith as she leads her environmental Green Team students through the lessons of the day. Her spirit is catching to all who are within learning distance.  When they leave this classroom, these third and fourth graders are acutely aware that their efforts are contributing to the health and welfare of the region in which they live.”  - Roger Marino, Corporate Director of Community Relations, Mountaire Farms Inc.

June 2010 Future Environmental Star(s)
Salisbury Christian Schools Going Green Club
Salisbury, MD

WMDT & Mountaire Farms proudly presented Salisbury Christian Schools, Going Green Club, with the Future Environmental Star(s) award for the month of June.  Like many others before them, Salisbury Christian Schools’ recycling effort started small, but over time has steadily evolved into a major way of life, not only at the school, but within these student’s homes and surrounding local businesses. 

Back in 2002 students took the first step in creating the recycling machine the school has now become when they began collecting aluminum cans. Placing recycling barrels throughout the school and at several local businesses, a campaign of environmental awareness started taking shape.  Over time more and more items were added to the recycling endeavor, and today the school recycles everything that isn’t bolted down.  Printer cartridges, cell phones, cardboard, newspapers, magazines, plastic and glass bottles, even snack bags and juice pouches, are all collected, sorted and turned in to recycling centers across the region.  Some these efforts pay monetary dividends for the school, an added bonus.  Since 2002 over 800,000 pounds of aluminum cans have been collected, good for $7,971, and the school mails the used juice pouches back to the juice company for a return of  .02 cents per pouch.  In the first week alone over 200 pouches were collected.

All of these recycling efforts are now spear headed by the schools Environmental Science classes and the Going Green Club in particular.  Led by their teacher, Mrs. Julie Duke, students brainstorm on ways to make the schools efforts more efficient as well as finding other items to recycle.  From creating there own make shift recycling bins, to decorating the hallways with reminders on what can be recycled and the proper way to do it, these youngsters are shaping a new way of life at the school.  They’ve even started an awareness campaign. Using old wire, the club creates environmental bracelets which they sell to the student body to serve as a daily reminder to Think Green.

“I’m proud of them all.  It’s wonderful to see our students grab hold of these environmental programs and take ownership of them” – Christy Evelyn, Business Manager, Salisbury Christian School 

The Going Green Club is also doing everything they can to ensure the momentum continues to grow.  They’ve created a recycling video which is shown to all students and have plans to expand their reach from inside recycling to outdoor planting.  A plan is in the works for students to plant more trees and shrubs around the school property to promote conservation.

“When educator Julie Duke tells her kids to “take out the trash” she gets a response that most parents only dream about. The middle and high school students spring to the command on their feet as well as to their hands and knees gathering cans, paper, glass and plastic, wherever they can find it around the school grounds. Ultimately they place the refuse in prescribed containers for reuse in some other fashion.  Recycling is an everyday way of life for the Going Green Club at Salisbury Christian School. And now those involved in Mrs., Duke’s environmental club brainchild are planting seeds and sprouting new chutes of evergreen around the perimeter of the educational institution. Our hats are off to the students and faculty at this Salisbury school of learning and we are happy to have them join a growing number of students on Delmarva who have earned the WMDT/MOUNTAIRE Future Environmental Star of the Month Award.” - Roger Marino, Mountaire Corporate Community Relations Director.
 

April 2010 Future Environmental Star(s):
Debbi Williamson & Students - The Benedictine School
Ridgely, MD

WMDT & Mountaire Farms proudly presented Debbi Williamson, a teacher at The Benedictine School in Ridgley, MD, and her students with the WMDT/Mountaire Future Environmental Star of the Month Award for May.  For the past seven years Debbi has been using Mother Nature as a teaching aid and developmental tool for her students at The Benedictine School, an education center for individuals age 5 to 21 with disabilities such as mental retardation, multiple handicaps and autism.  A Pathway to Victory in Learning and Living... that is the school creed and a true reflection of how Debbi leads her students.  Using the environment as her path, she continues to light up the lives of her children by instilling a Go Green attitude as they charge towards the victory of learning and living.

Since 2002 Debbie has spear-headed efforts to grow trees and bay grasses at The Benedictine School as part of an In the Class program which involves the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.  Her classes grow celery and redhead grasses on campus, which later get replanted in pre-determined areas by DNR.  She tasked her students with monitoring PH levels and Nitrite levels of the tanks containing the grasses as well as taking growth measurements and recording the information on a website each week.  Once the grasses are ready, the students are responsible for cutting them and replanting them in the proper area.  Her students are also involved in planting trees around the beautiful Benedictine campus.  Using funds obtained through grants from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Debbi and her students have been able to purchase and plant over 331 trees and shrubs around campus.  These efforts have lead to The Benedictine School receiving the “PLANT” award, a state recognition, each year since 2003.

With Debbi’s help the school is also apart of “The Maryland Big Tree Program”, a program which catalogues the largest trees of each species in the state.  After some careful detective work the school found it was home to five qualifying trees:  A common Bald Cypress, an Osage Orange, a Red Oak, a Norway Spruce and a European Larch.    Debbi proudly displays the five certificates and tree ranks within the state in her classroom and even boasts the amazing age of the Bald Cypress, which is deemed to be well over 300 years old.

Aside from the planting of trees and grasses and The BIG Tree’s on campus, The Benedictine School recycles everything from paper to plastic in their effort to have a positive influence on our local environment.

“These programs have benefitted both the students and myself…in slow steady steps we continue to make progress” – Ms. Debbi Williamson of The Benedictine School

March 2010 Future Environmental Star:
Clara Fitzgerald - Senior at Saints Peter & Paul High School
Easton, MD

It’s a great day to be alive, and don’t you forget it. Words one local girl has taken to heart and used as inspiration to carry on her brothers legacy. Seventeen year old Clara Fitzgerald, a senior at Saints Peter & Paul High in Easton, MD, has survived and grown out of family tragedy. Two years ago young Clara narrowly escaped a house fire which claimed the lives of her older brother Kennedy, his fiancé, and her sister Margaret. Since then Clara, who followed her brothers every move as a child, has both literally and figuratively followed in his foot steps down the environmental path.

“When we were younger I would follow my brother everywhere. He used to enjoy walking the shoreline around our home taking in nature and cleaning up debris, and I was always two steps behind him doing everything he did” - says Clara

Kennedy, a junior at the University of Maryland at the time of his passing, loved the Chesapeake Bay, a fact not lost on Clara and one of the factors driving her environmental endeavors. As a freshman, Clara re-started the schools Ecology Club and initiated the schools current recycling program, where she personally picks up the schools recyclables and delivers them to the proper receptacles. She’s also into oyster farming & aquaculture on the Miles River, composting and working with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation on local initiatives. Clara’s assisted the Foundation in planting bay grasses as well as native trees and shrubs. For the past two years she’s also rounded up family and friends for the Pick up or Shut up outing in which they probe area shorelines, cleaning up trash and other unnatural debris from local waterways. An activity she learned from watching Kennedy.  

Last school year Clara was the driving force behind the Ecology Clubs creation of Go Green re-usable bags, which they sold as a fundraiser. These unique bags feature artwork created by her late sister Margaret, a tree, which Clara fondly refers to as the Tree of Life and a quote from her brother, “It’s a great day to be alive, and don’t you forget it.” During the drive the Club was able to raise $1,500, which was donated to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in the name of Kennedy Michael Fitzgerald, for use in the Shoreline Restructuring program.   To many, the Go Green bags have become a useful tool in daily life, to Clara, they serve as much more, a tribute to those she loved who would certainly be proud of the path their young sister is on.

“The moment you meet Clara Fitzgerald you can sense the dedication, inner strength and confidence this senior high school young lady exudes as she leads her classmates in an environmental tribute to her brother’s memory.

The WMDT/MOUNTAIRE Future Environmental Star award is a perfect fit to be received by Clara, who is an inspiration to her peers, her teachers, her family and to all who have yet to know this focused, mature individual.

As we have traveled throughout the years on Delmarva, presenting this award to many worthy students, it is evident that Clara will be among the top achievers as a “can’t-miss” personality, leader and contributor, who will get things done by doing the right things wherever she locates.

Count us among the many who have become proud to know Clara Fitzgerald – Environmentalist Extrodinare.”
Roger Marino, Mountaire Director of Community Relations.

January 2010 Future Environmental Star:
Hailey Fretz - Sophomore at Delmar High School

WMDT, Channel 47, and Mountaire Farms were proud to name Hailey Fretz of Delmar High School as the inaugural winner of the WMDT/Mountaire Future Environmental Star Award. 

A sophomore at Delmar High School, Hailey focuses her energy on organizing environmental projects for her Girl Scout Troop and the school Environmental Club, which she founded as a freshman.  As an 11 year veteran in Girl Scout Troop #246, Hailey is always doing her part for the community, but in recent years she has turned her efforts to environmental work.  Needing to complete a 40 hour project to achieve the “Silver Award” from the Scouts, she and her Troop members developed a program intended to restore the Bay Scape Garden at Trappe Pond in Delmar.  To fund the project the girls began collecting cans and plastic bottles for recycling.  After collecting over 1,500 pieces, they were able to raise over $78 through the State of Delaware’s plastic bottle deposit program and money paid out by Delmarva Recycling for the aluminum cans.  The money from recycling, along with donations from friends and family members, was used to pay for the seeds and other planting material needed to refurbish the garden.  Hailey even designed a map for display which describes the native plants and maintenance plan for the now thriving garden.  Once finished with the Bay Scape garden, Hailey embarked on designing an educational pamphlet for Delaware Solid Waste Authority centered on the Georgetown landfill.  The pamphlet is used to promote the proper materials allowed in the landfill and other means to dispose of waste.

Using her spare time in the summers, after school and on weekends, Hailey compiled over 90 hours of work on the Silver Award project, more than double the required hours, all of which she has documented in a 5 inch thick binder she so aptly named “My Silver Award Project Book”.  With pictures, flyers and stories, the book is a start to finish guide on an extraordinary effort by one young girl to meet a personal goal and help the environment along the way.

“I’ve always wanted to do my part,” says Hailey, “I think doing things to help the environment has improved my outlook on the future.  I’m seeing things through greener eyes.”

 Next up for the newly named Future Environmental Star, working to build on the So What! (SOW) program the Troop and Environmental Club started, a recycling effort with proceeds going to the Ronald McDonald House.

"Hailey Fretz is a role model for Girl Scouting and young ladies.  At the age of 15 she is already a veteran of her Scout Troop and a leader in what it symbolizes to the community and those proud to have participated in the program: Community First.  At the age of 5 she began her quest to be the best she could be in scouting, school, at home and for the community in which she lives.  Her innovative development of environmental projects, involving the suppoert from her peers for the health of the land around us is a tribute to Hailey's leadership skills and a true signal of the more positive events to come from Delmarva's youth.  We applaud Delmarva's young people who devote their time and energy to teh love of our land and betterment of the community in which they live."  Roger Marino, Coporate Director of Community Relations.