BC-TEENS-ECO-CHALLENGE:MCT — lifestyle, youth, kids (1050 words)

Making green, saving green at the Lexus Eco Challenge (HAS TRIM)

By Antonio Franquiz McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

WASHINGTON — Roughly six months ago, a small group of students at Arlington High School in LaGrangeville, N.Y. were brainstorming ideas for a long-term science project. Along with their AP biology teacher, Maribel Pregnall, the five teenagers decided on an ambitious initiative to address the epidemic of Lyme disease in their state. Today, they’ve earned $30,000 for themselves and their school by winning the Lexus Eco Challenge, a philanthropic initiative aimed at encouraging and rewarding just such projects. The Lexus Eco Challenge is a months-long, annual contest that aims to engage middle- and high-school students nationwide to spearhead initiatives that improve the environment both in their local communities and around the world. Split into two distinct challenges — “Land/Water” and “Air/Climate” — it incentivizes these projects with a $30,000 reward for two grand-prize winners and a $15,000 reward for eight first-prize winners. The Challenge, sponsored by Lexus and Scholastic, wrapped up its sixth year in February and doled out hundreds of thousands of dollars among the 10 winning teams. Selected by judges from more than 3,000 students representing 400 schools nationwide, the winning projects stood out for their scale, scope and commitment. “The thing that I always look for when I’m gauging these teams is the passion,” said Nancy Hubbell, a communications manager at Lexus involved with the final recommendations for judges. “What you see is that they take this entire Chinese menu of opportunities to spread their message, and they take on multiple tasks in order to try to make sure that they get the broadest reach for their program.” Since its inception in 2007, the Lexus Eco Challenge has awarded more the $3.5 million to forward-thinking students, teachers and schools across the country. Perhaps more significant than the money, however, are the benefits that participating teams bring to the environment around them through their hard work and innovation. “The Elyminators,” Arlington High School’s five-member team of high-school juniors and seniors, combined students’ interests in both environmental preservation and medical health to translate local research into a global initiative to combat the spread of Lyme disease. From humble beginnings in New York — the global epicenter for the spread of Lyme disease — the project soon snowballed into a multifaceted campaign that not only wowed the judges, but also gave the students something to be genuinely proud of. “We realized how widespread Lyme disease is in our area and how many people were affected,” said Maribel Pregnall, an AP biology teacher and advisor for “The Elyminators.” “That got the team thinking that we really should educate those around the country who many not be as exposed to this disease.”

And “The Elyminators” did just that. The team started locally, combing its highschool campus for ticks and educating its fellow students on how properly to dress in order to protect against them. It also reached out to Dr. Richard Ostfeld at the nearby Cary Institute, a leader in Lyme disease research, in order to replicate his methodology and findings. From there, the team expanded well beyond its home-state. Mobilized to action by a particularly severe Lyme disease case in Kentucky, the students contacted medical centers across the country and around the world in order to promote Lyme disease education and prevention on a global scale, sharing its research with doctors in Germany, India and South Korea. “But they didn’t ignore their local area,” said Pregnall. “They still tried to maintain a local focus, being that New York is the epicenter of Lyme disease in the whole world. They still felt like they shouldn’t ignore their own community, but they always kept reaching out.” Needless to say, the judges at the Lexus Eco Challenge took notice. Impressed by the team’s ambitious approach to such a prevalent issue, they awarded “The Elyminators” the $30,000 grand prize in February along with the “Eco Hawks,” another grand-prize winner that set out to increase recycling in South Carolina. “I really looked at the way they used their creativity to spread their message,” Hubbell said of “The Elyminators.” “They did a very good job showing that students can take a project that has environmental consequences and have it make a difference in people’s everyday lives. It was just phenomenal.” (EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM) With the earnings split between Pregnall, Arlington High School and the five students on the team, “The Elyminators” are continuing to invest in their cause even after the Challenge is over. It plans to purchase new cameras to set up around campus, donate money to local conservancies and invest in potential Lyme disease vaccinations. In addition to the environment and the community, the students themselves benefitted from the experience as well. Through the process of investing themselves in a worthwhile cause for months at a time, each of them developed crucial skills and ties that will serve them well in their educational and professional future — just on the horizon. “There were stages where I thought we needed therapist in here because it’s hard to work as a team,” said Pregnall with a laugh, “but when it all is said and done, they were all confident that everybody contributed to the win, and I think that’s huge. That means that they honestly believe that teams can work when everybody does something, so I think they’ll come away with that sentiment forever.” By fostering this type of development through the Lexus Eco Challenge and other initiatives in its “Pursuit of Potential” program, Lexus invests not only the environmental well-being, but also in the development of ambitious students with promising futures. “I think that this program unlocks part of these students to make them think about their role in the world and how they can change it,” Hubbell said. “We really wanted to do something with kids that would improve their environment and their world.” Today, a list of more than 30 project ideas developed by “The Elyminators” back in December is still pinned up on Pregnall’s classroom bulletin board — a constant and uplifting reminder of how much you can accomplish with hard work, teamwork and ambition.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM) ——— (Check out http://lexus.scholastic.com/ for more on “The Elyminators” and other winning teams, as well as how to get involved in next year’s Lexus Eco Challenge.)