The Eastern Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation has brought two college students on board for the summer to help the organization expand its public outreach efforts-- Shawn Jones, a sophomore this year at Montana State University, and Kyra Norton, a senior at Bloomsburg University.

 

Here's a description of the kinds of projects the students will be doing for EPCAMR.

 

 

Kyra Norton is set to graduate in December 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography & Environmental Planning and joined the EPCAMR Summer Internship Program through a collaboration previously established with Bloomsburg University’s Career Placement Office.

 

Kyra is from the Berwick area, is a member of the Geography Honor Society (Gamma Theta Upsilon) and the Geography & Planning Society. She has participated in previous illegal dump site cleanups, recycling efforts, and teaching students and others how they can do their part to help protect the environment.

 

She has a background in landscape design, AUTOCAD, working with youth, and interacting with college students on a daily basis through her previous work in the Bloomsburg University’s Admissions Office.

 

Kyra, who started on May 11 has already assisted EPCAMR with conducting 5 Iron Oxide Chalk Talk presentations with the Greater Nanticoke Area 3rd Grade Class, where we made over 1000 pieces of recycled iron oxide chalk for sidewalk art and the classroom out of recovered mine drainage from within the GNA School District’s very own watershed, the Nanticoke Creek.

 

So far, over 180 students have participated in the program. Several more programs area lined up before school is out in both Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties. Kyra has also learned how to process, dry, sift, and blend, our iron oxide into the fine powder form that allows us to sell it to groups who would like to conduct AMD Tie Dye T-shirt Workshops that EPCAMR has been doing for nearly 10 years.

 

On May 17 at the Bear Creek Festival in Schuylkill County, Summit Station, Kyra assisted EPCAMR Staff, Mahanoy Creek Watershed Association members, and Tamaqua Area High School students in our annual AMD Tie Dye T-shirt Workshop, where over 350 t-shirts, donated by ALCOA Aluminum Products Company, were hung to dry on a makeshift clothesline of twine and rope that extended twice up and down the one side of a 120’ long section of a pole building.

 

Robert E. Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director jokingly said, “She’s only a week into the internship! There is plenty more in store for her as the summer progresses! She’s been caught red-handed in our world of AMD already and I think that she really enjoys it.”

 

 

Shawn Jones, a sophomore this year at Montana State University is studying Land Rehabilitation and specializing in soils and hydrology, which no other university in the nation offers. He is also pursuing a double minor in Soil Science & Geographic Information Systems. He has taken a few courses on hydrologic principles, plant identification and basic soil texturing.

 

This summer, while home from the West, he hopes to get his hands out of the books and into the dirt, well, abandoned mine drainage, and culm, to apply some of his classroom learning experiences. Shawn grew up in Wilkes-Barre and graduated from G.A.R High School.

 

Both students seem highly self motivated and are goal oriented people, who pay great attention to detail. Their work ethic should carry over nicely for the Summer with EPCAMR. We need team players.

“We count on interns who are not afraid to take and show initiative to assist our organization with building local capacity in our coalfield communities given our limited resources, staff abilities, and budget,” emphasized Robert E. Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director. “They give us a real shot in the air with some of our Summer Outreach and Education Programs,” he added.

 

Shawn has a passion and knowledge for digesting all kinds of information on the land and history of the Anthracite Coal Region of Northeastern PA. The coal mining heritage is something that runs deep in his family, as many of them were members involved in mining before the Knox Mine Disaster.

 

With his major, he feels like he can continue carrying the torch, by helping reclaim the mine scarred lands damaged by his past family members without even realizing it, out of necessity.

 

He mentions that he was inspired in his senior year at G.A.R. Memorial, through the Watershed Program coordinated by the PA DCNR Bureau of State Parks, the Luzerne & Lackawanna Intermediate Units, and EPCAMR, to go into the environmental field to seek out new ways to reclaim our environment, restore waterways impacted by mining pollution, and to clean up our coalfield communities littered with illegal dump sites.

 

It wasn’t until he was mentored by the EPCAMR Executive Director that he really decided that EPCAMR’s line of work, our profession, project management, environmental education and outreach opportunities to teach and learn about local mining history was for him.

 

“Most students in the Watersheds Program saw it as a ticket to get out of school for awhile, but it really made an impact in my life.” said Shawn nthusiastically.

 

Shawn’s first day consisted of putting together a list of 32 schools that EPCAMR has to send a box of donated iron oxide chalk to from a few weeks ago at an Earth Day Program where we promised students to deliver their teacher a surprise package.

 

He also attended a two hour workshop on how to incorporate Social Marketing into your non-profit’s tool box and will be building a profile for EPCAMR on FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE, and Idealist.org.