Dawn Letterie, Teacher
Frank's Picture
One day Frank was walking by his kitchen table with the newspaper spread out. There was one thing that caught his attention. It was a list of things that you shouldn't flush down the toilet because it wastes water and can harm the environment. He read it because he thought it was interesting.
Later that day Frank heard a noise from behind him and turned around. It was his little brother Joey playing with a toy car.
"Vroom!" "Vroom!" said Joey making car noises.
Then he stumbled and fell landing right on his toy car. The wheel popped off. Joey started crying.
"It's broken!" "It's broken!" Joey cried. He ran into the bathroom with his broken car in his hand. Then Frank realized what Joey was doing.
"No!" Frank shouted but it was too late. He heard the splash as Joey threw his car into the toilet and the swooshing sound as he flushed it down the toilet.
"No, Joey you know you're not supposed to do that!" Frank said. This was not the first time it had happened. Joey had flushed band aids, gum wrappers, and a huge assortment of toys. But now that Frank had seen the list of things that you shouldn't flush he knew that the things Joey flushed could clog pipes and waste water.
"You can't keep doing that!" Frank shouted. Then his face lit up as he thought of an idea. He ran out of the bathroom and grabbed a piece of paper and some markers and drew a picture of an open toilet with someone throwing trash in it. There was a big red X over the picture. He taped it to the toilet and to Frank's amazement, Joey didn't flush anything down the toilet anymore.
That week at school he noticed people throwing trash in the toilet at school. Then he had another brilliant idea. At recess Frank made the exact same picture that he made at his house and stuck it to the toilet. It worked! People stopped putting trash in the toilet at school!
One day a teacher noticed the sign. He talked about it to the other teachers, who talked about it to the principal, who told the superintendent. Later that school day Frank heard something on the loudspeaker. "Frank, please come to the office."
Frank went down to the office feeling a little worried. He got more worried when he saw the superintendent standing there. "Is this your drawing?" asked the superintendent.
"Yes," Frank said. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry? I think this is brilliant! In fact, I'll put one of these on every toilet in the school. Even better, I'll put one of these up on every toilet in every school in Winthrop!" The superintendent started walking away. "Yes, yes, I think that sounds very good."
A month after their conversation, every toilet in every school in Winthrop had Frank's picture on it and Winthrop was saving thousands of gallons of water. That is how one person's efforts can have an impact on the reduction of water use.
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