ShawneeDispatch.com

Photo by Stephen Montemayor

Prairie Ridge Elementary School students helped commit to reducing more than 2 million pounds of carbon during its Cool The Earth program. As a result, Kansas University linebacker Steven Johnson joined the school in celebrating its success in an all-school assembly on Tuesday, Dec. 13.

Photo by Stephen Montemayor

Kansas University senior linebacker Steven Johnson and Prairie Ridge Elementary third-grade teacher Stephanie Thompson get the crowd ready at the beginning of an all-school assembly on Tuesday, Dec. 13.

Photo by Stephen Montemayor

Superintendent Doug Sumner reacts to receiving a pie to the face at the end of an all-school assembly at Prairie Ridge Elementary on Tuesday, Dec. 13.

After three weeks, participation in a Prairie Ridge Elementary School environmental program was, literally, off the charts.

Prairie Ridge became the first Kansas school to participate in Cool The Earth, which calls itself a grassroots, school-to-home program geared toward motivating households to make instant energy-saving changes at home. It took little time for the school to boast the fastest participation rate among the program’s 367 participants nationwide.

A chart near the front of the school tracked its progress as students would turn in tickets, each with a pledge to reduce energy consumption in some form. Some vowed to turn off the lights more often or unplug appliances not in use. All of this was done with the promise of a special celebration in mind. The school was challenged to turn in 1,125 coupons. In return, Steven Johnson — a senior linebacker on the 2011 Kansas University football team — would pay the school a visit and participate in a dance competition against teachers.

The stakes were further raised as 1,500 coupons would be good for an all-school assembly in which Johnson, who is dating third-grade teacher Stephanie Thompson, would address students. Tack on another 300 coupons and Johnson and Superintendent Doug Sumner would join a group of students during the assembly in competing against teachers in a relay race. The chance to smack a pie across Sumner’s face was also added as further incentive.

Pretty soon, the chart at the front of the school ran out of room. The little blue markers that signified the school’s progress trailed off the poster and up the wall. Johnson was coming, Sumner would eat pie, and Prairie Ridge students would save nearly 2.5 million pounds of carbon.

To put things in perspective, that 2.5 million pounds is more than 1.7 percent of the entire program’s 142 million pounds of carbon saved. Furthermore, if all 367 schools saved as much, the program would be looking at 917 million pounds of carbon saved nationwide.

Last week, on Dec. 13, chants of “Ste-ven! Ste-ven! Ste-ven!” began as soon as the students gathered on the gymnasium floor. The linebacker stood before them wearing a green Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T-shirt, stretched by a frame one would expect a linebacker to possess.

Johnson talked about the community service his football team performed over the years. He talked about his soda pop vice — earning a few rogue cheers from the young crowd — and how important it was to recycle whenever you indulged.

And after the dance-off and the relay, and after the gymnasium erupted once more upon Sumner being “pied,” the students had one more surprise for their superintendent. As the assembly approached, students sold holiday temporary tattoos and KU football magnets to raise money for the Ron Wimmer Foundation, a program to help students and families in need.

Their fundraising efforts mirrored that of their environmental work, as they were able to give Sumner an oversized check for $1,220.

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