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Whatever happened to ...

the Sickles High aquatic program?

By AMBER MOBLEY
Published December 29, 2006

Sickles High School's Gryphon Aquatic Preserve is pretty much penniless but still pushing on.

The program costs about $5,000 a year to run, so money from a $9,000 grant that helped initiate the program two years ago is all spent.

The aquarium preserve, the brainchild of then-teacher Michael Rady, has about 30 tanks and hundreds of fish.

Rady's educable mentally handicapped students used to maintain the tanks, but most of them have graduated.

Marine science instructor Anthony Leotta took over the program this year after Rady moved away at the end of the 2005-06 school year. His regular education students do most of the aquarium work now.

With the grant money gone, Leotta buys a lot of aquarium supplies out of his own pocket as he looks for additional grants. With 15 years of experience in the aquarium trade, Leotta also leans on his connections for donations.

"Michael Rady did a great job," Leotta said about the program's development. "Now it's just a matter of keeping it going."

Amber Mobley can be reached at 813 269-5311 or amobley@sptimes.com.

The honors kept rolling in for Odessa's Savannah Walters, 13, and her international effort to get people to save gasoline by properly inflating tires.

Savannah, an eighth-grader at Independent Day School, was named one of the nation's top 10 youth volunteers in an annual competition among nearly 2,000 applicants.

Since then, she was one of three recipients nationwide of the Young Eco-Hero Award from Action for Nature, an environmental group that focuses on young people. The Florida Wildlife Federation named her Youth Conservationist of the Year. And on Nov. 2, Savannah won the daily Point of Light Award from the Points of Light Foundation, a national network that encourages volunteerism.

"That was really cool," Savannah said.

She took an interest in energy conservation as a second-grader after learning about efforts to drill oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. A wildlife photographer explained to her that Americans waste 4-million gallons of gasoline each day by driving on underinflated tires, which causes extra drag. So Pump 'em Up, a nonprofit organization promoting tire inflation, was born.

With help from friends and her mom, Savannah persuaded tire companies to donate thousands of pressure gauges, which she and friends distribute to drivers. She maintains a Web site, pumpemup.org, and a quarterly newsletter.

Savannah makes special efforts just before Thanksgiving, one of the most driving-intensive days of the year, when 10-million gallons of gasoline are wasted, she says. She hopes by 2010 to have Pump 'em Up events in every state, with children reminding their parents to check the tires before traveling.

Early this year, Savannah was featured in the national Sierra Club magazine. That was followed in March by a segment on the NBC Nightly News, an article in Time magazine and the parade of awards.

"This year, it just exploded," said Sandy Walters, Savannah's mother.

Prudential Finance, which named Savannah one of the top 10 youth volunteers, placed congratulatory ads in a variety of magazines.

"My teachers read about my organization, and they got to know it better," Savannah said. "That's really cool."

Bill Coats can be reached at (813) 269-5309 or coats@sptimes.com.

Josh Oldenburg didn't have to leave Essrig Elementary School this fall, even though the School Board reassigned his Carrollwood Springs neighborhood to Carrollwood Elementary School.

"They let him stay. He got his special assignment," said his mother, Mary Lee Oldenburg. She fought the rezoning on the grounds that the district allowed other families to use school choice to get into Essrig even as Josh and his neighbors were to be forced out.

Josh, now in second grade, got into the gifted program and continues to thrive with Essrig's computer technology focus, one of Hillsborough County's few successful "attractor" programs. He's happy to be with his friends and the teachers who know him.

Mom and Dad, however, remain wary of the future.

"Will we be able to continue to stay?" Oldenburg wonders. "I haven't gotten a straight answer there yet."

She has heard that Josh's special assignment could be revoked when he applies again next year. There is no guarantee that younger brother Matthew can go to Essrig for kindergarten. So Matthew will remain in a private school as the family assesses options.

Jeffrey S. Solochek can be reached at (813) 269-5304 or solochek@sptimes.com.

[Last modified December 28, 2006, 07:13:08]