From Local Sources

JASPER — Kimball Electronics is donating $1,000 between two environmental causes on behalf of Dubois County’s four high schools in conjunction with the company’s 2020 High School Student Environmental Council program.

The company will donate $500 to each cause — one local and one global in scope: Dubois County 4-H, to be use specifically for environmental awareness purposes, whether through education, fairground enhancements, or community service; and Blue Ring, Inc., an ocean conservation organization based in Chicago.

When the student environmental council first met in January, they were challenged to share ideas on how all four schools could collectively celebrate Earth Day 2020 (April 22), create an action plan and set the activity in motion.

The team came up with 20-some Earth Day ideas and narrowed the list to two: organize a planting ceremony at each school centered around a tree donated by the company and hold a “change wars” competition between the schools to raise money for an environmental cause.

The pandemic and resulting school closings thwarted those plans, but the team persevered and met online to determine a backup plan. It was determined that the easiest and safest thing to do was to donate money to an environmental charity.