Want to Get Wet and Dirty? Join Our Public Service Effort!

Jim Moore Chair, In-House Counsel Committee Jim_Moore@huntsman.com Raissa Kirk Vice Chair, Public Service rkirk@crowncentral.com

The Section's In-House Counsel Committee invites you to join our exciting community service project with Earth Force - Youth for a Change! This article gives you a brief overview of our efforts to date, and provides information on how you can get involved in our activities. Earth Force is a national non-profit organization created in 1994 by The Pew Charitable Trusts in recognition of two emerging national trends: young people's desire to act on behalf of the environment and their desire to help their communities through voluntary service. Through a variety of programs Earth Force, which serves 35,000 youth a year through 11 offices nationwide, helps young people discover and implement lasting solutions to environmental problems in their communities.

The In-House Counsel Committee's public service project is with Earth Force's GREEN program - the Global Rivers Environmental Education Network. This award-winning program developed nearly a decade ago at the University of Michigan matches middle and high school science classes with private sector sponsors to study and improve water quality in their community. A local watershed group also is involved in each GREEN project. The students and their teacher begin GREEN by doing a watershed assessment that includes physical, chemical and biological monitoring. Using this data and other resources, they identify a problem they would like to address. Students research the problem in a balanced fashion, review applicable legal or community considerations, and decide on their preferred solution. They then design and implement an action plan to address the problem, and conclude by reflecting on what they learned.

The private sector sponsors fund the students' water monitoring and testing equipment, which are kits pre-assembled by Earth Force. Professionals from the private sector sponsors are mentors to the students in the program, and serve as resources for their teachers by assisting in monitoring events, attending a class session, or being available by phone to give input to the class. There is no steadfast time commitment. Mentors can provide just a few hours of their time or more routine support to their host schools. The cost of sponsoring the necessary training, manuals, kits and support for a GREEN school in a city where GREEN infrastructure exists is $5,000. Of course, this is often an excellent opportunity to meet other corporate leaders and to gain public recognition for your organization or firm. Bottom line, this is a "turn key" project - if we can raise the funds, Earth Force does the work to match the sponsors with schools and a watershed partner, and conducts the training!

By recruiting and pooling sponsors within a geographic area to reach the $5,000 needed to move forward in a city with pre-existing GREEN activities, the In-House Counsel Committee started two projects during the 2003-2004 school year. Our Indianapolis, Indiana project was funded and supported by the law firm of Harrison & Moberly, the corporation, Eli Lilly, and the law firm of Krieg DeVault, LLP. Our Baltimore, Maryland project was funded and supported by the Section, Constellation Energy, Quality Environmental Solutions, and the law firm of McGuire Woods, LLP. We thank all of these dedicated entities for helping us make the ABA/Earth Force 2003-2004 school year a success. Under the leadership of Vicki Wright, of Harrison and Moberly, and Joan Heinz, Associate General Counsel with Eli Lilly and Company, three Lilly attorneys and several private firm attorneys have been trained in the classroom and the field with Earth Force and non profit partner, Indiana Hoosier Riverwatch. The team worked with five different middle school classes talking about the project and doing an outdoor activity on erosion and pollution, spent a day in the field assisting teachers and parents with small group activities in a stream and associated river, and visited each class after the sample results came back. Our Baltimore supporters partnered with Baltimore City Recreation and Parks to conduct water sampling with two different elementary schools in the winter and spring, participated in canoe trips and classroom sessions to assist students in analyzing the data and developing community action plans for addressing problems raised by the data. The Baltimore students' action plans were showcased at an end of school year, two-day outdoor Celebration Days picnic and they included implementing a public awareness campaign on litter prevention through a community picnic and cleanup day; making signs and writing a play relating to litter prevention; writing letters to officials over concerns about animal waste and nitrogen in the Gwynns Falls watershed and recommending that buffers be planted to deter goose droppings; and developing a brochure on pollution prevention relating to topics such as salt on roadways, oil and petroleum pollution, homeowner use of excess fertilizer.

The In-House Committee is exciting about continuing this initiative in Baltimore and Indianapolis in the 2004-2005 school year. The enthusiastic response to the program by the mentors and supporters, as well as the students, teachers and non profit partners is infectious and we are excited to bring this partnership to other cities. We are hoping to start another project soon in one of the following cities: Lansing, MI; Detroit, MI; Spring Hill, TN; Shreveport, LA; Houston, TX; Austin, TX; Philadelphia, PA; Erie, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Tampa/St. Pete, FL; Charleston, SC; Portland, OR; or Lordstown, OH. To begin GREEN efforts from scratch in a city beyond the aforementioned where GREEN activities already are ongoing, we need to raise $25,000. We are hoping to accomplish this in Houston to start and, as aforementioned, the start up costs for that endeavor are only $5,000. In addition, we would like to begin a program in Washington, DC, where we are confident that we would have much mentor support if we can commit the initial $25,000 to build the infrastructure for the program in that city. If your organization, firm, or company is interested in committing all or part of the funds needed to start a project in one of these cities, please let us know by e-mail.

What makes GREEN so exciting is that our efforts and time contributions show quick returns. The GREEN program generally is implemented from start to finish during a school year. As you can imagine, GREEN builds essential academic skills including critical thinking, teamwork, problem solving, and decision making; teaches students how to assess watershed health with the proper tools; and encourages youth to undertake projects to improve environmental quality based on their findings. Visit their website at http://www.green.org to learn more about GREEN. When we work together, young people and attorneys can improve their communities, learn, and have fun at the same time! We hope you join our efforts!