Essay winners address environmental issues
By BILL RICHMOND
City editor
One of the highlights of each year's Mom, Baseball and Apple Pie Festival is the student essay contest. The contest this year gave cash awards to local students for writing about environmental issues.
Students were encouraged to write an up to 250-word essay on "What I can do to help our environment." A board of judges evaluated the entries on the basis of content, originality, grammar and neatness.
The grades 1-3 winning essay writer received a $50 prize, the grades 6-8 winner received $200 and the grades 9-12 winner got $300. The mother and teacher of each winning essay writer will receive a pie a month for a year from Mrs. Wick's. Prizes for students, mothers and teachers were given at last Saturday's festival on the courthouse square.
The winning essays from this year's competition are:
Baker Elementary second grader Kaitlyn Sayre wrote the winning essay in the grade 1-3 division. She is the daughter of Chris and Kerry Sayre. Her teacher is Kelly Riddle.
Help Our Environment
What I can do to help our environment. I can help our environment by recycling plastic bottles, pop cans and glass bottles. I could tell my mom to use environmentally friendly detergent. I could use less hot water in the shower. I could tell my dad to not use the tractors very much because the tractors let a lot of smoke and poisons into the air. I could tell my mom to stop buying plastic cups or I could use them for two days. Things that are broken, I'll fix it or I will use it in another way. I could tell my sister to shut off lights when she leaves the room. I could tell myself that too. I could ride my bike places instead of riding in a car that lets off fumes. I could put my trash that can be recycled in the recycling bin at my school. When my dad mows the lawn, I could pick up the dead grass and start a compost pile. I could throw away less trash in the trash can. I could tell my neighbors to recycle things. At parties I could get all of the balloons and recycle them. If I had a pair of broken glasses I could recycle them.
Driver Middle School seventh grader Taryn Saulmon wrote the winning essay in the grade 6-8 division. She is the daughter of Greg and Melissa Saulmon. Her teacher is Bill Bush.
What I can do to Help the Environment
Back in 1995, when I was born, gas prices were $1.22 a gallon. That means that in the past 13 years, gas prices have risen nearly four dollars. As gas prices rise, so does the harm to our environment. More people are driving their cars, instead of picking healthier choices for the Earth, such as riding a bike or walking. Helping our environment is simple and there are many ways that I can help.
One simple choice that I can make is to recycle. One aluminum can has enough energy to power a television for three hours. Recycling eliminates waste and is very helpful to our environment. Another choice I can make is to use reusable cooking utensils instead of plastic and foam utensils. Easy recycling habits can save the Earth.
There are many other things I can do to help our environment. Believe it or not, eating foods that are produced locally can help the Earth. If I eat food that is produced locally, then I am saving the environment from the pollution that would occur from automobiles. Even easier things such as changing my light bulbs to fluorescent ones, turning off and unplugging lights when they are not in use and using less water in a shower or bath can really make a positive impact on our environment.
Helping our Earth is very rewarding. Using less and saving more can help our environment become a healthier and happier place.
Winchester Community High School sophomore Jaelyn Saulmon wrote the winning essay in the grade 9-12 division. She is the daughter of Greg and Melissa Saulmon. Her favorite teacher is Eric Murphy.
Reversing Our Detrimental Ways
"Go Green," a popular phrase inspiring people to take responsibility for planet Earth, has started to surface everywhere. Everyone is jumping on this Save the Planet bandwagon of sorts. People are talking about improving their own habits that are detrimental to the environment, but no one is really coming up with ideas on how to do so. There are very simple changes we all can make to our daily routines to help improve the quality of our planet Earth.
Cell phones are the most popular form of technology for our time. One easy thing you can do to help the environment is to unplug your cell phone charger when you are finished with it. Only five percent of the power drawn by a cell phone charger is used to charge the phone. The other 95 percent is wasted when it is left plugged into the wall.
Whenever possible, use reusable cookware. But, if disposable plates must be used, use paper plates instead of Styrofoam plates because Styrofoam never decomposes. Recycle your pop cans. One recycled pop can saves enough energy to run a television or operate a computer for three hours. Switch from using liquid soap to bar soap, so you don't have to waste the plastic bottle that the liquid soap comes in. There are thousands of opportunities for us to change our ways, many of which are common sense. If we all do our part, we can reverse the damaging effects of our pollution.
