CHS teacher receives grant for e-cycling project

Chester High School English teacher Mike Springston has been awarded a $950 grant by the Illinois Education Association Foundation for an electronics recycling program.

Springston, in his sixth year at CHS, applied for the grant as part of the IEA's Schools and Community Outreach by Educators program, designed to give educators in the first 10 years of their career a chance to apply for money for a service project.

The service program chosen is an e-cycle collection on Oct. 6 at Chester High School. Electronic items will be recycled. Also contributing to the project are Randolph County and the city of Chester. Students from the school's Rhetoric & Composition class will serve as volunteers for the collection.

It will be the fourth electronic recycling drive conducted by students in Chester High School's dual-credit class.

More than 75 grants were awarded in the past year to educators' projects across the state. Educators' ideas for projects were creative, varied and based both inside and outside schools. All of them benefitted students, students' families and the community. Volunteer trips, food pantries, plans to get parents involved in schools, increased access to supplies and community service projects were just some of the ideas that were funded.

"We're thrilled another year of this wonderful program resulted in a range of ideas submitted by our members and we are so pleased with such creative effort," said IEA President Kathi Griffin.

"We know that our educators are in the schools every day giving 100 percent, but there are unmet needs as well. So many of them wanted to do more. It's in their nature. We were glad to help them make their ideas come to fruition."

The IEA represents 135,000 members, including teachers, education support professionals, higher education faculty and staff, retired educators and students planning to become teachers.</group>