Naperville students send Earth Day message
Students at May Watts Elementary School in Naperville recently participated in an unusual spelling lesson.
Roughly 613 kids and faculty members ventured outside on a chilly Thursday, climbed the side of a hill near their school and lined up to spell the word “Earth!” in celebration of, you guessed it, Earth Day.
The project was the brainchild of Ann Covert, a fourth-grade teacher who heads the school's Ecology Club. It culminated a weeklong series of events all tied into an environmental message.
It was only fitting May Watts students would tackle such a project because the school's namesake was selected DuPage County's Most Influential Environmentalist by a panel of experts in a 2007 poll conducted by the Daily Herald.
Watts, who was born in 1893 and died in 1975, was a teacher, naturalist, poet, artist, author and founder of the Illinois Prairie Path and the Morton Arboretum's education program.
It was Watts who recognized in the early 1960s that Illinois could create a public trail along an abandoned railway line similar to the Appalachian Trail. The resulting path now covers more than 62 miles.
Covert, of course, knows all that and is a self-described environmentalist and naturalist.
She's been heading the school's Ecology Club — aimed at fourth- and fifth-graders — for nine years. The club focuses on Illinois' environment and habitat.
“May Watts is my hero,” she says.
There are about 30 students in the club and they tackle all kinds of projects.
They've collected pennies in Pringle's cans to support Willowbrook Wildlife Haven in Glen Ellyn.
They've gathered used cellphones for SCARCE, or School and Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education, which uses the proceeds to buy textbooks.
They've donated Crayons to the same group, which melts them down to create larger ones for kids with special needs.
They've even conducted waste audits at their school to show classmates what they're throwing out and how the waste stream can be reduced.
“It lets kids absorb what's in front of them,” Covert says.
Creating the word “Earth!” is symbolic, of course, but Covert says it also reflects shifting attitudes among people of all ages about the need to protect their environment.
“Kids are changing, they're really grasping this,” she says. “I've been nothing but encouraged by working with them. They do care and they're very passionate.”