Student Wave Blog

Spreading Storm Drain Awareness in the Town of Poolesville

Our storm drain sticker

My name is Jeeva Thaivalappil. I am a sophomore at Poolesville High School in its Global Ecology Program. I am involved in the “Bay Coalition” club at Poolesville (Class of 2017).

Last fall, we organized a meetup after school to place storm drain awareness stickers on storm drains in the town of Poolesville. The Global Ecology class of 2016 led by Ben Weishaar and Jennifer Dunn came up with the project. It started as an idea for a class presentation. But then Ben and Jennifer wanted to bring it to life, so they took the concept to us in the Bay Coalition.

Working with ACP International, we decided to order 45 storm drain stickers to place around the town of Poolesville. To pay for the project, Ben and Jennifer created a presentation for the Poolesville Town Commissioners in October. The Commissioners were blown away by the presentation and granted our request!

Storm drain awareness is very important. Labeling them helps raise awareness about littering, which can help prevent trash from ending up in streams, rivers, and even the Bay. I want to help educate people about this issue and prevent it. This project was a great opportunity for me to do so.

One of our members placing the sticker on a storm drain

Last summer I also attended a CBF Student Leadership course at Fox Island and at the Karen Noonan Center, which were both eye-opening experiences about the condition of the Bay and how our little impacts can make a big difference. The courses inspired me to go make a positive impact on our environment.

I really enjoyed doing this project because it was a great opportunity to help spread awareness in my community. More people can learn from what we did and educate others. In the future I’d like to come up with my own service project to help spread awareness about our environment.

For more information about designing your own stickers for a storm drain awareness project visit: http://www.acpinternational.com/

-Jeeva Thaivalappil, Poolesville High School

Photos provided by Jeeva

Our Base Camp to the Environmental Legislative Summit

Last week on February 2, about fifty of us students from all across Maryland got together in Annapolis at the CBF Headquarters to learn how to advocate for the Chesapeake Bay. It was in preparation for the Maryland Environmental Legislative Summit, held the next day in the Miller Senate Building in Downtown Annapolis.

Ben Weishaar, Co-President of the Poolesville Bay Coalition, presents on the State of the Bay at the Base Camp

Students from 22 different schools, representing 11 counties and Baltimore City, prepared and gave their own presentations on issues like:

• Basics of the Bay’s geography
• The Blueprint for Clean Water
• The “State of the Bay“
• Agriculture and nutrients
• Hydraulic fracturing
• Polluted runoff
• Maryland's legislative process

We premiered videos we had made. One was about the Clean Water Blueprint, featuring the green club at Sherwood High School. Another video, by the green club at Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts, showed how to take action for the Bay at school. A third one about polluted runoff was made by former CBF student intern Christian Hodges. (Stay tuned, the videos will be released more widely soon!)

U.S. Congressman John Sarbanes (D-Maryland, District 3) also visited, and spoke about the power that students have to make a difference in environmental legislation. He was super supportive of what we were doing, and thanked us all for being so committed to saving the Bay.

“There is no issue in which young people can have more of a leadership role than the issue of the environment.” -Congressman Sarbanes

We also heard remarks from CBF President William C. Baker, and from Alison Prost, CBF's Maryland Executive Director. It was wonderful to be able to hear from the people who have spent their lives advocating for the environment and the health of the Chesapeake!

“As students, you hold an unbelievable set of powers. So use them. Be knowledgeable. Be persistent. Be powerful.” – CBF President Will Baker

At the end of the event, CBF gave out student awards. Scott Howarth received the James Hemphill Student of the Year Award, and the Poolesville Bay Coalition received the Mummichog Student Organization of the Year Award. Congrats to all these awesome people, and thank you so much for all your hard work!

Scott Howarth (left), Poolesville Bay Coalition representatives (right)

The Base Camp was a great time where lots of CBF student groups got to meet together and discuss all the different projects we have done. CBF did a wonderful job organizing this event, getting us all together, and making sure we had the information we needed to attend the Legislative Summit. It was really great to get to hear from so many student leaders from around the state who care so much about saving the Bay!

To see more from the event, follow @cbfstudentwave on Instagram and Twitter, and check out the hashtag #CBFBaseCamp.

And scroll down to see more photos from the day!

--Amelia Avis, Senior, Annapolis High School

All photos by Nikki Davis