GRAFTON - While places in the world were still unsure of how to approach 2021, Living Lands & Waters (LLW) continued their efforts to make the world a cleaner place. Headquartered in East Moline, Illinois, Living Lands & Waters is a 501 (c)(3) environmental organization.
Spending up to 9 months a year living and traveling on their barge, the Living Lands & Waters' crew hosts river cleanups, watershed conservation initiatives, workshops, tree plantings and other key conservation efforts. As the COVID Pandemic took hold of the world the LLW crew continued picking up garbage from the Mississippi, Illinois and Ohio Rivers.
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The crew also worked hard planting and distributing native trees and removing invasive species, but all in-person education came to a halt. With the need for a new education outlet, LLW educators Mike Coyne-Logan and Rachel Loomis took the opportunity to create a virtual education program designed for students from across the country and dedicated to connecting them with nature.
Jersey County Middle Schooler, Roanna Newton (6th Grade) learned of the online opportunity and last summer participated in the virtual classroom led by the LLW team. The LLW Virtual Community Exploration & Challenge (LLWVCEC) Education Program, educated the participants on garbage reduction, protecting our watersheds and other environmental issues.
Roanna along with approximately 60 other students from communities around the USA, followed a monthly program schedule that included the following:
Students were provided lessons on various natural resource topics. Materials needed were shipped to their homes.
Students were challenged to take action in their communities through investigations, observations and data collection.
Students met virtually with their educator to discuss and reflect on the monthly lesson and challenge.
If the monthly challenge was successfully completed the student would earn a monthly program pin.
If all 6 pins were earned, students were qualified to be a candidate for the “End of Program Grand Prize”, which was a trip to Living Lands & Waters Barge.
Through the LLWVCEC Education Program, students investigated 150 storm drains within their communities, researched and removed invasive species from places they often visited and created 30 bee houses for pollinators. The final challenge was to organize and host a community cleanup. This final challenge encouraged the participants to get outside while fostering the youths to become stewards for their natural environment. The students together led 212 volunteers and removed 5,583 pounds of garbage.
The Virtual Community Exploration & Challenge (LLWVCEC) Education Program described above had 28 students successfully complete the 6-month program. Roanna Newton, daughter of Jim and Carla Newton from Grafton, IL was the winner of the grand prize, a trip to Memphis, TN to work alongside the LLW crew on the mighty Mississippi River. On March 11th, 2022 Roanna, along with her mother, Carla Newton and her sister Kateryna Savienkova made the trip to Memphis, TN.
Roanna and her family were able to visit the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, walk across the Harahan Bridge that crosses the Mississippi River at the Arkansa and Tennessee border and visit the famous Beale Street. But the highlight of the trip was joining the LLW crew and eleven college-aged students for the second week of LLW’s Alternative Spring Break (ASB). The ASB program invites colleges and universities from all over the country to participate in a week-long clean up event during their spring break to help clean up garbage that has collected on McKellar Lake.
Though quite a few years younger than those college spring breakers, Roanna hustled to fill up bags upon bags of garbage: plastic bottles galore, balls from every sport you can imagine, tires, and yes, even the “fun toys'' you may find in a kids’ meal. Roanna and her family ate lunch on the LLW barge and got a full tour from her favorite remote educator Rachel Loomis. The ASB students removed 35,670 lbs. from McKellar Lake throughout the 3-week cleanup event.
Living Lands & Waters will be moving their way up river to Alton, in April 2022. They are looking to host a community clean up, but are waiting on water levels to confirm that date. Mike and Rachel will be hosting Educational Workshops on the “Floating Classroom” barge, and have a few dates available. If you are a formal science teacher please email Rachel at rachel@livinglandsandwaters.org to find out how you can sign up for an Educational Workshop.
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