Update: Earth Day Challenge goals exceeded, Wisconsin Menominee Tribe: Gang graffiti, litter gone; pill cache, e-waste collected

challenge logo

Menominee tribal school students remove gang graffiti, pick up litter; College students collect 23 pounds of pills; dozens of computers in Earth Week projects connected to the EPA Great Lakes Earth Day Challenge

pharma waste

The College of Menominee Nation e-waste and pharmaceutical collection pulled in 23 pounds of pills, and dozens of computers, related equipment and cell phones. Pictured, above left to right, are Heidi Cartwright, a part-time police officer in the town of Manawa and a police science instructor at the college, who guarded the drugs; College of Menominee Nation event co-organizer and student Cheyenne Caldwell; her daughter, Jazzmin Caldwell, 7 years old, first grade student at Keshena public schools; and Diana Wolf, MITW Solid Waste/Recycling Coordinator. (Photo courtesy tribal college professor William Van Lopik, Ph.D., who teaches the Implementing Sustainable Development classes)

(Keshena, WI) - Faculty and students brought their old computers, cell phones and medicines to an e-waste and pharmaceutical collection site at the tribal college in Keshena, Wisconsin to help a federal Earth Day challenge to clean up the Great Lakes Basin, while younger students have been cleaning up the reservation and whitewashing gang graffiti.

At the College of Menominee Nation, the e-waste and medicine collections went without a hitch as people turned in hundreds of items on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at the campus commons.

Over 23 pounds of medicines were turned in including about 100 bottles of pills, more than 25 computers and dozens of related components like hard drives, printers, keyboards and speakers. American Indian households are dropped off televisions, radios, DVD players, 12 cell phones and over 100 small batteries used to power the electronics.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued the challenge to Great Lakes basin residents participating in over 100 projects in literally hundreds of communities that collected pharmaceuticals, electronics and household poisons. The EPA awarded grants to some of the projects.

The MITW and interfaith groups volunteered in the challenge to help the EPA reach its goal of one million pounds of e-waste and one million pills across the Great Lakes basin states of Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania.

EPA officials announced today that the goals have been exceeded in a big way with only partial results reported and more projects still underway.

e-waste caldwells

Pictured, above left to right, is Jazzmin Caldwell, 7 years old, first grade student at Keshena public schools; and her mother, College of Menominee Nation event co-organizer and student Cheyenne Caldwell, who are showing computers and other e-waste gather as part of the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge.

Tuesday’s six-hour collection is among numerous Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin projects that are part of the United States Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge that runs through the end of April.

MITW students says no to gangs, replace negative graffiti with positive Native American artwork

Gang graffiti was whitewashed from a wall at a skateboard park near the tribal school this week by K-8 students on the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin reservation who wanted to clean up the area in honor of Earth Day and replace the negative message with a positive Native American symbol.

"The younger students put their hands in paint and made flower hand prints on the wall," said teacher Beth Waukechon. "All week students have been cleaning up the reservation, and one student was so inspired she wants to start an Earth Club."

On Friday, April 25, over 180 students continued cleaning up litter around the community of Neopit, one of four towns on the 234,000-acre reservation known for its thick forests and 24-miles of the pristine federally protected Wolf River.

reservation river

"The students are giving thanks to Mother Earth for all that she had done," Waukechon said. "They are taking a moment each day to do that."

"We know that she (Mother Earth) can shake us off at any moment," Waukechon said. "We are the ones that need her - she doesn’t need us."

Another project, "Clean up the Rez Day" was held on Thursday, Aopril 24 based at the tribe’s Youth Development and Outreach program.

The Menominee Teen Court Panel and other volunteers cleaned up litter and garbage, said Claudette Hewson, MITW Restorative Justice Coordinator.

The litter was separated and when possible recycled through the MITW Solid Waste/Recycling Department.

The panel is comprised of teens, ages 14 to 17, some of whom have been in minor scrapes with the law. The teen panel acts as a peer review for youthful offenders sentenced in tribal court who "need to learn healthy behaviors," Hewson said.

On May 2, at-risk teens sentenced to probation and parole will paint over gang graffiti around the reservation.

Sponsors of the ongoing project include the tribe’s Community Resource Center, Menominee County Police, Menominee Tribal Police, Tribal Clinic Wellness Program, Maehnowesekiyah, Probation and Parole, Community Recycling Project, Recreation Department, EarthHealing.org and the U.S. Post Office in Keshena.

Tribal School students used April to learn about many aspects of the planet and the environment including the legendary sturgeon, that's much more than a fish to Menominee Indians.

In many ways, the Menominee culture revolves around the sturgeon and satudents learn its value from a young age.

During Earth Week all classes at the MITW tribal school have been applying subjects like math, history and others to different aspects of the life cycle, biology and value of the sturgeon, an important fish to the Menominee tribe

The MITW students learned a wide range of facts including about sturgeon habitat, its cultural and historical value to their tribe, why it grows so big and lives longer than many fish

ewaste

The college’s Implementing Sustainable Development classes, that sponsored e-waste and medicine collections, found out Tuesday during the project that they had won the National Recycling Coalition Bin Grant through Coca-Cola, said class professor William Van Lopik, Ph.D.

"One of premises of the class is to do things, not just talk about what we are going to do and how the world is going to be changed, but having students do things," Dr. Van Lopik said.

The college was among 75 colleges and universities, and the only tribal college, to receive the grant out of over 1,100 applicants, Van Lopik said.

The grant pays for 50 recycling bins to be placed around the campus and other areas.

The class has participated in the ten-week Recycle Mania project two years in a row that involves weighing recyclables as they leave the building. This year, the class ranked 136 out of 200 colleges and universities with 8 pounds of recyclables per person, beating out Ohio State and Georgetown, Van Lopik said.

The MITW held a curbside pickup of electronics for members during Earth Week, April 21-24.

banner flyer

A couple thousand pounds of electronics was turned in at the MITW transfer station since April 1 and the total weigh of circuit boards to be recycled is expected to reach several tons.

electronics

transfer station bulldozer worker

"Garbage Monsters" give students a friendly environment scare

garbage monster

monsters2

Native American students, their parents and others recently created "Garbage Monsters" out of bottles, paper and other items found in their trash in a project at the Keshena Public Schools, said Diana Wolf, MITW Solid Waste/Recycling Coordinator. After naming their monsters, the students gave a presentation on other uses for the garbage they used to make the creatures.

"We will do whatever it takes to do cradle to grave recycling," Wolf said, adding the tribe follows EPA guidelines. "We are not making a profit off of it but it is the right thing to do."

With assistance from an EPA grant, the new non-profit Earth Healing Initiative (EHI) is offering a wide range of free services to the MITW and some of the cities to hold e-waste and pharmaceutical collections.

MAGNUSON

The EHI involves American Indian tribes and "a coalition and partnership of churches, synagogues and other faith traditions joining together and sharing their projects and resources to heal, protect and defend the environment," said EHI founder Rev. Jon Magnuson of Marquette, Michigan.

BISHOP SKRENES

Trust between religions and Native American communities including participating in joint environment projects are vital to protect the future of the earth, said a Lutheran bishop, who has participated in numerous Earth Day recycling projects.

"We are in an environmental crisis in many ways," said Lutheran Bishop Thomas A. Skrenes of the Northern Great Lakes Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). "The Great Lakes watershed is really a kind of a mother to all of us here in the populated areas of the upper Midwest."

Interfaith and Native American participation in environment projects like the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge will help ensure a better future for all humans, Skrenes said.

The Earth Healing Initiative volunteers are working with challenge project organizers in numerous cities including Milwaukee, Chicago, Duluth and the Greater Cleveland Area.