Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Lucy will receive a $1,000 award and will present her four-step plan Oct. 15 during the Kentucky Council of Churches’ annual assembly. (Photo: Courtesy of Donnie Woodward / BSHS)

Lucy Arthur-Paratley, a junior at Bryan Station High School, is the statewide winner of the 2009 “Earth Day Every Day” essay contest sponsored by the Kentucky Council of Churches. Her entry was a 12-page action plan with suggestions to help the environment at her school.

“I’ve been thinking about a lot of these issues, particularly in how they relate to my school,” said 16-year-old Lucy. “Caring for the environment is kind of a family value at my house.”

Lucy will receive a $1,000 award, and her principal, superintendant, mayor, and state and federal representatives will be invited when she presents her four-step plan Oct. 15 during the Kentucky Council of Churches’ annual assembly at Natural Bridge State Park.

The Earth Day contest, which she heard about through a family friend, helped Lucy organize her thoughts. “When ideas are more explicit, you can take action,” she said. “I’m very optimistic that some of this stuff will be acted on. Some of it is definitely long-term. But the important thing is that we’re taking steps and beginning to do our part, and we’re making progress.”

The main points of Lucy’s green action plan for Bryan Station, which she noted “increase in difficulty and in environmental payoff,” include:

• Saving energy and saving money
• Training for the future
• Green and healthy food
• Integrating a green curriculum

This isn’t Lucy’s first experience working to improve the environment. In third grade, a teacher at Maxwell planted the seed of environmental awareness, and Lucy started a recycling program in her classroom. Two years later, she expanded it to the whole elementary school.

“That was the beginning of my taking action and following through on the ideals my parents expressed at home,” Lucy said. “Today I’m president of my school’s Young Democrats, and we’re trying some environmental initiatives,” such as adding recycling bins in the cafeteria.

Affecting the mindset of an entire high school could be a challenge, she said, although “there are plenty of people at this school who are very supportive.”

“On the basic level, it’s setting a good example. Beyond that, it requires leadership and some initiative. It requires creating that awareness. You have to make people aware of what’s going on before they can participate.”

Lucy envisions forming an action committee to make concrete things happen – enlisting such stakeholders as students, teachers and staff, representatives of the Site-Based Decision Making Council and the Parent-Teacher-Student Association, and people from the community.

“It takes a village to raise a child,” she said. “And it takes a village to make a school green, too.”