Paige Hubner, left, of The Watershed Foundation, presents a check for $1,500 to the WCHS Envirothon team. Accepting the check is from left is team captain Piper Ellis, Keller Bailey, Cordelia Grandon and Edward Robison. Not pictured is Valerie Tong. Photo provided by The Watershed Foundation.

News Release

NORTH WEBSTER — For the past eight years, Warsaw Community High School students have participated in the Envirothon academic competition, with the goal of promoting a desire to learn more about the natural environment, equip students for stewardship of natural resources, and develop critical thinking and cooperative problem-solving.

“The combination of individual and group effort that it involves and the skills I have seen students develop have made me continue to support WCHS students in participating in this program, and we have had teams represent our area at the state competition for three years,” said Emily Gough, coach for the Warsaw Community High School Envirothon team.

This year, The Watershed Foundation is supporting their efforts as well — with a $1,500 gift to support their environmental learning efforts as they travel to a competition in Canada.

A team of seniors, including Keller Bailey, Piper Ellis, Cordelia Grandon, Edward Robison and Valerie Tong placed first in the regional competition early this spring, followed by first place placement in the state competition. Now, they are traveling to the NCF Envirothon competition in New Brunswick, Canada, where they will compete against environmentally-minded students from the United States, Canada and China.

According to Gough, this will be a weeklong experience at Mount Allison University involving written and field testing in the areas of Aquatic Ecology, Forestry, Soils and Land Use, Wildlife, and the current issue of Adapting to a Changing Climate. Students will also prepare and deliver an oral presentation, have an opportunity to learn from a wide variety of environmental science professionals, connect with other students who share their passions and explore the natural beauty of the area.

“Each of these students will have just graduated from Warsaw Community High School and they all plan to study Environmental Science or a related field at Purdue University, Northeastern University, Dartmouth College and Columbia University, so this will be an excellent stepping stone as they continue their educational journeys,” Gough added.

“The youths of our community will one day become the stewards of our precious environmental resources,” said Lyn Crighton, executive director of The Watershed Foundation. “On behalf of The Watershed Foundation, we are excited to support these students in their educational endeavors and support their journey to learn more about protecting our environment. We sincerely hope they bring back what they learn to help our community and join us in taking action for the health of our water.”