SWHS club wins President’s Volunteer Service Award

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May 15, 2008

By SUSAN WHEELDON, Staff Writer The Commonwealth Journal Thu May 15, 2008, 08:01 PM EDT

Somerset — A group from Southwestern High School was presented an award Monday that only a handful of people have received over the last two years.

Students in the Southwestern High School Conservation Club and Raptor Center were presented the President’s Volunteer Service Award, for their numerous hours they volunteer.

“This is not something which happens very often,” said Don Christy, EPA Regional Chief of Staff Region 4, who said his only reason for coming to Kentucky was to present the award.

The club, which is nationally recognized, was honored for the numerous hours the high school students volunteer to care for injured birds of prey as well as their efforts to clean up communities, build trails and do water testing and recycling.

The awards ceremony was previously set to be given in February, but due to weather conditions the ceremony had to be postponed.

Christy said he has helped present all the awards in the Southeastern region over the last two years, and other programs or people he has presented awards to include a wild and scenic protection program in Mississippi, a man who had been building and working on a trails to the sea effort, and a lady in Tennessee who has been working on water quality for 40 years.

There have just been around four or five awards over the last two years, Christy explained.

While Christy was on hand to present the award, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson spoke to the students and congratulated them for their efforts via video conference.

“I would like to recognize you for contributing countless hours of your personal time to protect our environment,” said Johnson.

Johnson told the students they were nominated for the award and called their accomplishments “noteworthy.”

“(These awards) are not given out daily,” said Johnson. “... It’s a very special award.”

Christy told the students their work is greatly appreciated and said he hopes they will continue on with their efforts.

The club is one of the few high schools in the U.S. to operate a Raptor Rehabilition Center. Through the program, students volunteer to feed, exercise and provide limited medical care to the birds as well as maintain the facilities. The Center houses two bald eagles, a golden eagle, several red tailed hawks, owls and other birds of prey. The club is also featured in Environmental Science, a high school science textbook.

“This is a great thing,” said Christy. “If my high school had such a program I would have definitely been involved.”

Christy said he believes the club helps those involved become more socially responsible, have more citizenship and be environmentally responsible adults.

“We’re so excited and honored to receive this award,” said Adrian Tapp, a junior at Southwestern.

Tapp said now she hopes that the award will help expand the club. She said they are currently working to raise enough money for a nature center and hopefully the award will help them with money and grants.

The center, which would be solar active, would house offices, a library, a computer lab, a place to do research, food prep for the birds, a drop off for birds during the night hours and when no one is at the facility, a lab for genetic studies, a gift shop, a classroom and a small indoor amphitheater.

Advisor Frances Carter said they currently have raised $140,000 and they need $500,000 to build the center.

Other activities the club performs at the school includes taking care of a greenhouse, which houses native plants and trees; performing water testing; coordinating recycling at the school; taking part in the Lake Cumberland Cleanup, as well as being the only high school to part of KY EXCEL (Kentucky Excellence in Environmental Leadership).

They also are known around the nation for their raptor program, where students take care of birds-of-prey that are hurt and try and rehabilitate them, so they can go back into their natural environment. Students also perform presentations throughout the community, helping people learn more about the birds-of-prey.

The President’s Volunteer Service Award was created at the President’s direction by the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. The award is available to youth ages 14 and under who have completed 50 or more hours of volunteer service; to individuals 15 and older who have completed 100 or more hours; and to families or groups who have completed 200 or more hours.

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In the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s primary election, it was impossible to miss the colorful signs dotting nearly every Pulaski roadway. The names in the race for the 15th State Senatorial District seat popped out: A.C. Donahue. Chris Girdler. Mark Polston.

Once citizens hit the ballots, however, the results mirrored the dimensions of the signs themselves: Chris Girdler stood the tallest.

Girdler, deputy district director for Congressman Harold “Hal” Rogers, ran away with the votes inside Pulaski County’s borders, earning 3,926 votes for 62.05 percent of the total number cast.

That number more than doubled the next highest vote-getter, businessman Mark Polston, who raked in 1,624 votes for 25.67 percent.

However, Polston — who owns Classic Carpet, a home-flooring business located just off the southern 914 bypass — can claim a moral victory ... three of them, in fact. In all three counties in the district other than Pulaski — those being Adair, Casey, and Russell Counties — Polston actually edged out Girdler.

In Adair, Polston beat Girdler 629 to 394. In Casey County, it was 538 to 417, and in Russell, it was 1,862 to 1,038.

Polston said he just “couldn’t pull it out with the numbers” and that “the machine worked for” Girdler in Pulaski County.

“I think that was their strategy — I think they had a Pulaski County strategy all along,” said Polston. “They played the political game well.”

Polston said the difference between his and Girdler’s campaigns was that “mine was a very, very grass roots campaign,” he said. “I did not have a political machine behind me. I understand how this process works, and in this instance, he prevailed.”

As for why Girdler didn’t take three of four counties, the winning candidate — since there are no Democrats in the race, winning the Republican primary was effectively a final victory for Girdler — said he didn’t have an answer for that.

However, “I believe things happen for a reason and I hope the long and strenuous campaign will only heighten my desire to move beyond the bitterness and partisanship of the recent past,” said Girdler.

“Regionalism is a goal of mine, and I look forward to helping all four counties,” he added, noting that he campaigned heavily in each of them.

Sen. Vernie McGaha, the long-time state senator whose seat the candidates were vying for, actually supported Polston after Liberty’s Todd Hoskins dropped out of the race earlier this month.

Donahue, a local attorney, got 556 votes in Pulaski County, 8.79 percent of the vote. He only received 145 votes in Russell County, 74 in Adair County, and 75 in Casey County, where hometown candidate Hoskins almost matched him with 71 votes despite no longer being officially in the race.

Polston said he’s “still digesting” what happened, and though “the process has been a very good experience for me,” he wouldn’t commit to running again in the future. “I wouldn’t shut the door to anything, but I’m not opening any doors either.”

Still, “I think I got a lot of people involved in the process that had not been involved before and would not have been otherwise,” he said. “A lot of people got out and worked really hard, got motivated to talk to friends and neighbors. I think a lot of people became involved through this campaign that are going to be involved for a long time.”

Girdler stressed his “positive message” and said that Rogers is a “mentor and good friend” that he would turn to for advice in dealing with a frequently combative legislative body in Frankfort, one for which Girdler hopes to help change the culture.

Girdler said that he was “confident and optimistic” during the day Tuesday because he’d “worked extremely hard.” Nevertheless, the realization that he’d won gave him “chill bumps,” he said.

“I’m absolutely honored,” said Girdler. “The position of state senator is more than an honor, more than an office. It’s a charge to keep, and I will give it my all.

“I pledge to be the people’s state senator,” he added. “I look forward to working with everyone to move this region forward.”

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