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Illick’s Mill Project Wins Presidential Environmental Education Award
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has selected the Illick’s Mill Partnership for Environmental Education in Bethlehem as the winner of the 2009 President’s Environmental Youth Award for EPA’s mid-Atlantic region. The partnership group, made up of 28 students from Liberty High School in Bethlehem, was recognized for its continued work in revitalizing and transforming the historic Illick’s grist mill into a vibrant environmental education center that focuses on preserving and protecting the Monocacy Watershed.
“These energetic high school students and all the young people who competed for the PEYA awards demonstrate the enthusiasm EPA needs to promote awareness of our nation’s environment,” said Shawn M. Garvin, regional administrator for EPA’s mid-Atlantic region. “It’s encouraging to know that the mid-Atlantic region has so many promising environmental stewards to promote community involvement in protecting our nation’s air, water, land and ecology.”
The Illick's Mill Partnership for Environmental Education is an innovative consortium that has transformed Illick’s Mill in Bethlehem into a thriving community environmental center.
Illick’s Mill was a grist mill built in 1856 that was later abandoned. Junior and high school students and one dedicated teacher from Liberty High School launched the Illick's Mill Project to finish the restoration of Illick’s Mill into an environmental education center.
With funding raised by IMP, the mill reopened in 2009 as a Stream Science and Environmental Education Center due to the hard work and dedication of many students.
The mission of the center is to serve as a home for environmental action to preserve and protect the Monocacy Creek watershed and its abundant wildlife, and to provide a model of environmental sustainability and technology.
IMP students participate in a non-traditional classroom course at the local high school that emphasizes inquiry-based learning, with learning objectives based on community needs. During the yearlong course, the students organize events and membership drives, write grants, create presentations, engage in environmental work, and learn how to run a nonprofit organization and an environmental education center.
This year’s students have been recognized as the “new pioneers” of the center. In recent months, they have designed, built, and planted four native gardens, wrote a mission statement for the center, and are currently developing curriculum for courses taught at the center. Under their inspiring leadership and enthusiasm, the Illick’s Mill Partnership for Environmental Education has evolved from a restoration effort to a site now focused on full-time environmental education and action.
Under the supervision of IMP students, along with members of the supporting consortium, the education center is now open to the public and hosts habitat preservation, bird watching, fly fishing, water quality monitoring, green technology efforts, and stream bank restoration.
Through the committed efforts of students and others, Illick's Mill serves environmental groups across the Lehigh Valley, and in turn, has become an exciting center for environmental learning throughout the community.
The Illick’s Mill Partnership was chosen from 50 applications in the mid-Atlantic region that includes Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. Applications were evaluated by a regional awards panel of EPA employees.
As regional PEYA winners, members of the Illick’s Mill Partnership will be recognized this week during the National President’s Youth Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C.
For more information, visit the President's Environmental Youth Award webpage.
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5/24/2010 |
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