Cultivating respect for the environment: Florida: Manatee County School District.

Manatee County School District in Bradenton, Fla., received the 2005 Civic Star Award for Florida for a program designed to encourage children to develop a sense of civic responsibility and respect for the environment.

The collaboration involves Medallion School Partnerships, a provider of before- and after-school enrichment programs at more than 500 locations nationwide; Sea Breeze Elementary School, where Medallion operates a program, and Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch, a local nonprofit organization committed to endangered sea turtle conservation.

The Sea Breeze program began in 2002 as a response to a declining sea turtle population. The turtles are increasingly threatened by coastal erosion, pollution and human activities. Sea Breeze Elementary's location near the Gulf of Mexico provides students with an opportunity to help reverse the trend and to gain a better understanding of the ocean and marine life.

Students work at the Turtle Watch Education Center, a public facility that Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch opened in Holmes Beach to promote sea turtle nesting and habitat awareness. There they learn how to price items and promote the center. They also help educate beach goers about turtle habitats while they clean litter off the beach.

The biggest change program managers see in Turtle Watch participants is a greater curiosity about the environment, an enhanced sense of responsibility and pride, and increased compassion, empathy and spirit, said Christina Swosinski, education director for Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and program administrator for Medallion School Partnerships. In addition, she said, "friendships have evolved that would not typically evolve in the school setting."

Students' efforts to help reverse the decline of the sea turtle population give them a sense of purpose and a better understanding of natural environmental processes. Other educational benefits have been derived from such activities as students attending a county commission ordinance hearing on sea turtle protection. More parents are also getting involved in the protection effort, and newspaper articles about the student's activities have helped to increase community involvement.

The original service learning project with the elementary school's fifth graders during the school year has since spawned a summer camp on Anna Maria Island open to children from all schools in the district. Like the original program's emphasis, the camp's focus is marine life education and service learning.

For more information on the program, contact Superintendent Roger Dearing, Manatee County School District, 215 Manatee Ave. West, Bradenton, Fla. 34205, or call [phone]. Dearing's e-mail address is [e-mail].