THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 25, 1995 TAG: 9506230224
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 09 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY WILLIAM D. SROUFE, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Thirteen students at Deep Creek Middle School have won national and state awards in the Junior American Citizens Contest, ``Waterways Impact America.''
The competition, sponsored by Daughters of the American Revolution, encourages students to learn about America's waterways.
Participants, who are members of the Junior American Citizens Patriotic Hornets and Historic Hornets clubs, made posters, banners, stamp designs, wrote poems, short stories, produced videos and did sculpture projects to display their enthusiasm for the numerous ways that waterways influence America.
Three Deep Creek Middle School students captured first place, out of 3,600 entries, in the nation for their poster ``Pollution in Our Community Waterways.''
Aaron Sorrell, Anthony Knoll and Nick Trahan, the team that captured the nation's No. 1 spot, found that pollution of waterways in their own neighborhoods was very apparent.
``People would be surprised,'' Sorrell commented. ``We found a lot of broken up things in the water by the Great Bridge Locks, and it doesn't look like anyone is going to clean it up.''
Adding to the total winners were six state winners, Ted Ambrose for his video production, ``Transportation on the Deep Creek Locks''; Leah Comfort and Greta Lee for their special project of a model of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel; Penny Cuffee for her poster, ``Waterways Impact America''; Matthew Martin for his banner, ``Pollution in the Waterways''; and Altrev Sykes for her original poem, ``Waterways Impact America.''
Ambrose, whose video production got him third place in the state, said that his mother gave him the idea for his video.
``My mother's father took her down the locks when she was about my age,'' Ambrose explained. ``So, she took me down there.
``I knew kind of how the locks worked, but didn't realize exactly what they did,'' he said. ``When I got down there, I saw how the locks changed the level of the water for the boats, and also realized the importance of them.''
Rounding out the achievers were third-place winners Jason Hastings for his original and heartwarming story about a family member, ``The Life of a Waterman''; Kirsten Stech for her original essay, ``Water Pollution in Our Waterways''; Matthew Williams for his model of the river systems in molded map of the United States; and Amber Jones for her honorable mention for an original stamp design ``Steamboats.''
Hastings, who wrote ``The Life of a Waterman,'' said that he hoped to bring some attention to the problem of pollution with his story.
``There's a lot of pollution, not just in the Chesapeake Bay,'' Hastings said. ``It's all over the world, and we'll need to do something about it. It's becoming more and more important that people realize what's happening.''
His story is about a clammer whose livelihood is slowly disappearing because pollution is deteriorating the clams' habitat and ultimately his own.
Renee Brewer, faculty adviser, explained that this contest made all the students more aware of their communities as they got out and took a look.
``They had to go out find the problem, present it and then communicate it, first to their classmates, then through their project,'' the 30-year teaching veteran explained. ``Achieving a goal is an important process.''
``It's a great learning tool,'' Brewer said. ``I often tell them, 'that having knowledge is important, but being able to communicate that knowledge is more.'' by CNB