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NEWS
4/17/08
Clean Water Celebration to Focus on the Illinois River
PEORIA, IL - There’s nothing else like it. It’s one of the largest environmental
classrooms of its kind in the United States and the world. It’s students making
a difference by protecting water - our most precious natural resource. It’s the
voice for over 3000 Illinois students, teachers, business professionals and
environmentalists, who are joined by an odd assortment of tiny tadpoles, wiggly
fish and zebra mussels. It’s the 2008 Clean Water Celebration held on the Peoria
Riverfront, Sunday, April 20 from Noon on and at the Peoria Civic Center on
Monday, April 21, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
CWC 2008 - “Team Up for Clean Water”– will focus on how working as a team can
create synergy.
A “Parade of Waters” will kickoff the Clean Water Celebration on Sunday, April
20 at 12:00 noon at the Gateway building on the Peoria riverfront. Mayors,
Village Presidents, and other Community Leaders will each bring water that was
drawn from the Illinois River, lakes, and streams from their community and
symbolically pour their waters together declaring their community’s commitment
to clean water. A Native American Blessing of the waters will then be given and
“Making Waves” awards will be presented to groups or individuals that have made
a difference to the cleanliness of water and the environment.
A 3-mile “Walk for Earth, Wind, and Water” along the Illinois River follows at
1:00 p.m.
From 2 p.m. To 5:00 p.m. preregistered teachers and their classes will enjoy an
Educational Cruise aboard the Spirit of Peoria. This will be a “River Rescue”
cruise and will challenge teachers and their students to work as teams to
investigate first hand some of the suspects who are harming the Illinois River
and to create and present their own solution to rescue the Illinois.
Sunday evening following a buffet dinner program at the Packard Building across
from the Mark Twain Hotel, Dr. Jacqueline Quinn, award winning NASA
environmental engineer will make a presentation of her work on groundwater
mediation, “A Slippery Solution to Environmental Contamination”. Tickets for the
dinner, which begins at 6:30 p.m., are $20, while tickets for only the program
at 7:30 pm are $10.
Monday, April 21, the Celebration continues at the Peoria Civic Center from 9:00
a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Keynote sessions at 9:00 a.m. and 11 a.m. feature a multimedia
presentation. Dr. Quinn will relate how her team of engineers and scientists
collaborated to invent an innovative way to remediate groundwater contamination
and the Oba-William King JUSTUarts Company with guest artist, Gary Moore will
present an interactive musical story telling performance, We Come From The
Water. Environmental “Streams” will rotate students every twenty minutes through
learning stations covering the topics of Aquatic Life, Watersheds and Recycling
and Resource Conservation. Exhibit Hall C will house interactive exhibits. A
variety of special event/break out sessions will feature scientists, authors,
storytellers, and more.
At this year’s Clean Water Celebration students will climb into the Earth
Balloon, a 20-foot inflatable globe, to learn about our Watery Blue Planet. Mark
Twain impersonator, Warren Brown will tell tales of the river from the days of
the paddle wheelers. Brian “Fox” Ellis will perform Canoe Song: A French
Explorer’s Journal, 1673-1690. Students will get a close up view of live eagles
from expert Joe Hand from Wildlife Prairie State Park, live Illinois Wildlife
with rehabilitator, Marge Bjorkland or live reptiles and amphibians with Jason
Juchems of the Central Illinois Herpetology Society.
The Clean Water Celebration is a truly unique event, a model developed in Peoria
for over half a dozen water “celebrations” which have sprung up across the
country. The goal is to impress upon students the importance of thinking
globally and acting locally. By increasing knowledge in the community and
schools about the importance of water conservation and preservation, the Clean
Water Celebration establishes the human right to clean water and a healthy
environment. Val Adamkus, former U.S. EPA Region 5 director and who since became
the President of Lithuania said it’s “the most important environmental classroom
in the United States.”
The Clean Water Celebration is a joint effort between The Sun Foundation, an
arts and science education group in the Tri-County area, and the Rivers Project,
a high school program coordinated by Southern Illinois University at
Edwardsville. High school students from the Rivers Project will be joined by
thousands of middle school students from Central Illinois for a day of
presentations, exhibits, art, science, theater and song.
The event is sponsored in part by grants from Illinois-American Water, the
Illinois Arts Council, Caterpillar, AmerenCilco, CF Industries, Cargill,
Tazewell County Health Department, the Central Region Groundwater Protection
Committee, the Illinois EPA, IDNR, Illinois Humanities Council, Illinois Section
American Water Works Assn., Tri-County Regional Planning Commission, the
Tazewell County Regional Office of Education, Prospect TV & Sound, The Wayne E.
Baum Family Foundation, The Illinois Humanities Council, Peoria County Recycling
& Resource Conservation, Tazewell County Solid Waste, Tazewell Recycling &
Disposal Facility, Commerce Bank, Aventine Renewable Energy, MGP Ingredients,
Central Illinois Community Foundation, Mark Twain Hotel, the Peoria Academy of
Sciences, and the Peoria Visitor’s and Convention Bureau.
Admission Monday is free to students and the public. For more information,
reservations or dinner tickets, please call 309/697-1325.
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