Sally
Beach Fanatic
By David Magliano
With help from the Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance, South Walton Montessori Academy?s five- to nine-year-olds spent Wednesday morning expanding their minds and dirtying their hands while cleaning trash from the shores of Campbell Lake in Topsail Hill State Park.
?Community service and the environment are definitely big parts of our philosophy,? said Catherine Beall, a teacher at the 55-student Montessori Academy.
The philosophy at Montessori?s alternative classrooms is based in part on three principles the students themselves created: respect yourself, respect others, and respect the environment.
?It gives them a lot of responsibility,? she said. ?We talk a lot about maturity and earning privileges.?
They earned the privilege to spend a day at the lake. The Walton County Parks Department and the Tourist Development Council provided transportation and supplies for the cleanup at Campbell Lake, which in turn provided plenty of trash for the students. The water level was low and the shore was littered with soda cans and beer bottles.
Along with collecting bagfuls of trash, students learned from park rangers and CBA officials about the qualities of Campbell Lake, one of Walton County?s globally rare coastal dune lakes.
?What happens is the lake will fill up, fill up, fi ll up, almost like my name,? said Phillip Ellis to the academy?s attentive group of kids, earning the CBA?s project coordinator a brief chuckle. ?It gets to the very tip top and then it blows out the sand dunes, and the majority of the water from the lake will fl ow into the Gulf of Mexico.?
In addition to the lake system, the students learned about prescribed burns, water monitoring, Native American artifacts and the animals that occupy the area. Members of the Destin and Walton County Snowbirds also contributed to the cleanup.
With help from the Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance, South Walton Montessori Academy?s five- to nine-year-olds spent Wednesday morning expanding their minds and dirtying their hands while cleaning trash from the shores of Campbell Lake in Topsail Hill State Park.
?Community service and the environment are definitely big parts of our philosophy,? said Catherine Beall, a teacher at the 55-student Montessori Academy.
The philosophy at Montessori?s alternative classrooms is based in part on three principles the students themselves created: respect yourself, respect others, and respect the environment.
?It gives them a lot of responsibility,? she said. ?We talk a lot about maturity and earning privileges.?
They earned the privilege to spend a day at the lake. The Walton County Parks Department and the Tourist Development Council provided transportation and supplies for the cleanup at Campbell Lake, which in turn provided plenty of trash for the students. The water level was low and the shore was littered with soda cans and beer bottles.
Along with collecting bagfuls of trash, students learned from park rangers and CBA officials about the qualities of Campbell Lake, one of Walton County?s globally rare coastal dune lakes.
?What happens is the lake will fill up, fill up, fi ll up, almost like my name,? said Phillip Ellis to the academy?s attentive group of kids, earning the CBA?s project coordinator a brief chuckle. ?It gets to the very tip top and then it blows out the sand dunes, and the majority of the water from the lake will fl ow into the Gulf of Mexico.?
In addition to the lake system, the students learned about prescribed burns, water monitoring, Native American artifacts and the animals that occupy the area. Members of the Destin and Walton County Snowbirds also contributed to the cleanup.
