Students Get Lesson In Land Mines

Five Woodridge Elementary School sixth-graders won second place in the youth division of the recent “To Make a Difference” competition.

But much more important than the $400 the group won is the knowledge of land mines they gained while putting their project together.

“After all our research, we realized that we really need to get this problem solved,” said group member Brielle Fuller.

The project started when Lindsay Kalin’s mom, a teacher at Glover Middle School, decided to try out “Project Citizen” - a civic education curriculum. Kalin invited four friends to a sleepover/brainstorming session where they looked through news magazines for ideas. They decided to learn more about land mines after remembering it was a cause Princess Diana was involved with before she died.

The competition, sponsored by the Citizens League of Greater Spokane and the Chase Youth Commission, challenges groups of students to pick a problem - local, state, national or international - research it, come up with alternatives, and develop an action plan for a new policy of their own creation.

Kalin, Brielle, Shawna Young, Sara Lewis and Jessica Bartylla met twice a week for about three months to study land mines. What they found astounded them.

They learned that land mines cause 26,000 deaths a year, that many nations in Africa are infested with land mines and that new land mines are being set 25 times faster than they are being removed.

“So many people die (because of land mines) and they don’t really have anyone to help them,” Shawna said.

The girls decided that educating the community about land mines and the fact that President Clinton has not signed the Ottawa Treaty - which bans land mines, institutes a plan to clean up existing ones, and provides medical aid to victims - would be their best course of action.

“If more people here knew about it, they’d feel more strongly and could help put pressure on the Senate and the president,” Kalin said. “If enough pressure is put on them, maybe they’ll sign the treaty.”

The girls hope people will take the time to educate themselves. A good place to start, they said, is at www.landminesurvivors.org.

Students win recycling award

Assumption School students celebrate Earth Day every day with their routine recycling program. And for their efforts, they recently received a “Make a World of Difference” award from the Spokane Regional Waste System.

Student council members David Jurich, Cameron McMillan, Shane Maggart, Lindsey Egan, Kimberly Davidson, Jenny Tracy and Krista Frankovic help recycle by dumping boxes of scrap paper into the school’s huge blue recycling bin every Tuesday. Every week, it’s overflowing with paper, they say.

Students also recycle aluminum cans and ink cartridges and have a school uniform exchange program.

Anne Galbraith, who filled out the application for the award, said that although recycling doesn’t save the school any money, it’s more important to be good stewards.

“Recycling helps the environment a lot,” Frankovic added.

Riverside holds hair drive

Riverside High School’s National Honor Society will hold a hair drive for Locks of Love Friday.

Locks of Love is a charity that provides custom, vacuum-fit hair prosthetics for financially disadvantaged children with medical hair loss.

Locks of Love accepts hair donations bundled in ponytails or braids that are a minimum of 10 inches long.

Les Avant-Garde Salon and Spa will be at the high school from 8 a.m.noon to give hair cuts. Monetary donations are also welcome.

For more information about the hair drive, call 238-4135 or 879-8818.

Riverside band hosts carnival

The Riverside High School band will host a free carnival at Riverside Elementary School on Saturday from 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

Activities include a pie-eating contest, bingo from 6:30-9:30 p.m. and 20 game and food booths. Game tickets will be 25 cents.

Proceeds will be put toward the band’s trip to Disneyland next year.