Twelve years after the students of Liz Meldrum’s Mossyrock kindergarten class were brought together and promised a $2,500 college scholarship from TransAlta after they won a competition that spanned much of Southwest Washington, the now-high school graduates received another surprise this week.
The award has more than doubled.
Sitting outside the company’s Centralia power plant Wednesday, company representatives told the students and families the scholarship fund has since grown to $5,512.30 for each of the 19 students.
“It’s pretty awesome. It’s really cool to see it come to fruition because there was a lot of effort, not just by myself as a teacher, but effort in the fact that we had the parents, the grandparents, the community, the state park. It was something that could have been done without every single piece that was put together,” Meldrum said.
The scholarship was part of an eco-challenge launched by TransAlta that included 42 classrooms and around 900 students throughout the region. In announcing the competition, the company said it was part of a commitment to transitioning to cleaner energy sources as the company’s coal-powered plant ends operations by 2025.
“It seemed like such a far-fetched idea in a way, because there were so many people competing,” Meldrum said. “But I really thought what we did was pretty in depth and pretty fun. So even if we didn’t win, I would have loved the experience regardless.”
As part of the project, students planted 65 Douglas fir Trees at Ike Kinswa State Park, mailed “treegrams” to other elementary school students and distributed trees and instructions to their fellow students.
According to Meldrum, it took complete buy-in from the students and total support from parents and families.
“I said if we’re going to do this, we’re going to go for it,” Meldrum said. “We’re going to put everything in on it.”
In addition to the scholarship, Mossyrock Elementary School received a $2,000 award, Meldrum received $1,000 for her classroom and the students received a classroom party valued at $200.
Sandy Yanish, who helped judge the entrees, said the competition was “an exciting time,” though it was challenging to select a winner.
“To be able to go out into kindergarten classes, everything from worm compost farms to kids taking lunch scraps home to farm animals,” Yanish said. “I just want to say congratulations to all of you.”
On Wednesday, the students also received a small jar of coal and a hard hat in recognition of their green challenge.
Piper Rhodes, one of the students who received the scholarship, said she plans to use the scholarship to fund business classes as she pursues a career as a tattoo artist.
“It was just super fun as a little kid to go dig in the dirt and put a tree in the ground,” Rhodes said of the project.
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