Winning second place in the senior division at the Governor’s Cup in Louisville was great, but getting their message across is more important to Model Laboratory High School’s Community Problem Solving Team.
“Our team put in a lot of hard work, but the important thing to us is putting a stop to mountaintop removal,” said senior Glenn Walker, the team’s captain. “We believe our mountains should not be destroyed. We believe that this problem is a fairly hidden problem and one that citizens of our state need to know about and address.”
“It seems like a total disregard of our environment to blow up the Appalachian Mountains — the oldest mountains in the world — in order to easily extract coal, dump the waste in the headwaters that feed all the downstream rivers and streams and then go on to the next mountain,” he said.
During the competition, the team presented a display of their project, which included two laptops set up to provide information about mountaintop removal, a display board depicting pictures of mountaintop removal sites and how the process affects the headwaters, a petition for people to sign and brochures.
The team initially became interested in mountaintop removal because of the increasing media coverage, said Walker, who attributed local author Bracelen Flood, Teri Blanton with the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and Alan Banks, member of the Riverkeeper Board, as additional resources for the project.
Further preparation included researching several days a week by reading books, watching a documentary and collaborating with the Center of Appalachian Studies at Eastern Kentucky University.
“The more we learned about the topic, the more we came to believe that we did not want the Appalachian Mountains destroyed for non-renewable energy, and that, as young students, we do not want our future landscape to consist of decapitated mountains,” Walker said.
“We hope to advance to the international competition in Colorado where the teams are required to create a video to depict their project,” he said. “We will be showing at least part of our video in late April as a part of the ‘Earth Days’ series at EKU.”
The team also hopes to persuade state legislators to consider a ban on mountaintop removal, having traveled to Frankfort earlier this year to lobby for a stream saver bill that would limit the practice.
“It's inspiring to see the enthusiasm and dedication these students have shown in tackling an issue that is enormously important not just to Eastern Kentucky, but to all of us,” said Isabelle White, the team’s coach.
“The team has worked for many, many hours already, and they intend for this project to continue next year and on into the future,” she said. “These are young people who intend to make a difference.”
Walker said he sees Model’s Community Problem Solving Team as “spokesmen for the next generation.”
“I would like to think that it has been impressive to others to see a group of young people that care about their environment,” he said. “I think others will begin to take part in ending mountaintop removal if they see more and more people taking action against it. Hopefully, our group can serve as a model to others to take some action in their community against a problem they feel strongly about and make a difference.”
Bryan Marshall can be reached at bmarshall@richmondregister.com or 624-6691.
Local News
Students bring awareness to mountaintop removal
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