Making Waves Environmental Awards Announcements for 2022

What do water celebrations, river clean-ups, water as art, a young entrepreneur and community gardens have in common? They are all winners of the Sun Foundation’s Making Waves Awards for 2022. Every year during the Clean Water Celebration, the Sun Foundation seeks nominations for and bestows the Making Waves Award on those going above and beyond to protect clean water and the environment. Nominees may be students, teachers, schools, individuals, government, or agencies. 

Since the Clean Water Celebration is virtual this year, the winners are recognized on the virtual platform. Congratulations to all and thank you for taking action! Nominations are now open for 2023 and may be submitted here. 

2022 Winners

Eileen and Doug Leunig

Community Artists, Global Water Fountain 

Doug and Eileen Leunig are two Peoria artists that are true friends of the Sun Foundation and community art. This artistic and talented husband and wife team have worked in various media - photography, video and mixed media - that focuses on the beauty of water and its movement. The Leunigs are also one of the Sun Foundation's Clean Water Champions, discussing various aspects and importance of water and its beauty in our lives. They have created a downloadable Global Water Fountain and share some of their most beautiful water photography from around the world. The Leunigs wanted to make it possible for children today to have art in their lives. They began by selling their fine art photography and donating their profits to arts organizations. They are also the founders of Peoria's Big Picture Initiative. Doug is the artist who created “Abraham Blue,” the 50-foot portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the Peoria County Courthouse, that launched Big Picture in 2018. Since then, they have helped facilitate colorful murals and art across the city. 

Mike Coyne-Logan, Rachel Loomis, Kristi Shoemaker and Susie Ingram 

Living Lands and Waters and Peoria Park District’s Forest Park Nature Center, Illinois River Sweep 

Sometimes the stars align, and the right group of people come together and work together to make something wonderful happen. Michael Coyne-Logan, Rachel Loomis, Susie Ingram and Kristi Shoemaker are four of those stars. Mike and Rachel are from Living Lands and Waters out of East Moline, and Susie and Kristi are from the Peoria Park District's Forest Park Nature Center in Peoria Heights. When they got together to coordinate some Illinois River Sweeps, they and their teams were able to clean up tons of trash and junk from around the Illinois River and area streams. Bringing long boats down from East Moline, the teams would meet at the Ivy Club to launch. Teams would spend the day cleaning up trash, debris, plastic bottles, cans, tires, and even appliances from the river's shore. Debris was loaded on the boats for the trip back to Ivy Club where it was properly disposed. Several River Sweeps were conducted last year with more planned for this summer. Thanks to this group for making our rivers and streams cleaner, safer and more beautiful. 

Mark Bills Middle School

Life Skills Classes School-wide Recycling Program

The Life Skills students of Mark Bills Middle School have implemented a schoolwide recycling program. It came to the students’ attention that although people were throwing some recyclable materials into the class bins, too many people were also throwing trash into the bins. Too much time separating for the janitors each night. 

Veronica Jackson leads the Life Skill classroom, and her students collect from the recycle bins, sort the contents, condense them and deposit in the recyclable dumpster twice a week. Students are learning lifelong job skills while taking care of their environment. Students also learn about the earth and recycling within their Life Skills curriculum. This hands-on opportunity has had a huge impact on these students as people and as good stewards of the earth. 

Nicolina Pappas

Student Entrepreneur, Nicolina’s Turtle Company 

As a third grader in the Quad Cities area, Nicolina created her own online company, Nicolina’s Turtle Co. and began sewing pouches for reusable straws. Her straw pouch, metal straw and cleaning brush bundles have earned hundreds of dollars each year that go directly to conservation efforts, such as Living Lands and Waters, Nahant Marsh Education Center and Niambi Zoo. In addition, she exhibits and sells her pouches at local craft fairs and school events and participates in clean-up programs from parking lots to river edge. Now a fifth grader, Nicolina also gives presentations to her school as well as tv and radio interviews and attends Rise Up webinars to learn more about youth-driven actions for the environment across the US and around the world. She is featured in an episode of the Sun Foundation’s Clean Water Champions on YouTube, where she explains her projects and challenges the viewer to create projects of their own to make a difference in the planet. What an impact she has made!