Shawnee students continue to promote levee awareness with t-shirt fundraiser

Students at Shawnee High School in Wolf Lake are selling t-shirts as part of a campaign to help raise funds and build awareness of the dire levee conditions in their district.  

Failing levees have contributed to a number of disastrous flooding events in the region over the years.

The “Save the Levees, Save the Future” project began eight years ago when students from Shawnee teacher Jamie Nash-Mayberry’s history and economics classes began mailing letters to local, state and national-level politicians, as well as prominent members of the media, to bring attention to the growing crisis. 

Students in subsequent years have joined these efforts, and the campaign has continued into members of the class of 2019, who are already planning to write to politicians who were elected to office in early November. 

In addition, as a fund-raising effort, the seniors from Nash-Mayberry’s government class designed a t-shirt featuring the “Save the Levees” call to action. 

The shirt design features the image of a levee standing between floodwaters and a house, along with an ominous couplet: “How long we’ve been here is our history, How long we have left is a mystery.”

Funds raised from sales will be divided evenly among the five levee districts in the Shawnee School District. 

Order forms for the t-shirts can be found at the Shawnee High School and Elementary School offices, as well as Cardinal Corner in Grand Tower. 

The order forms also can be downloaded from the Shawnee CUSD No. 84 Facebook page (facebook.com/Shawnee-CUSD-84-184210863848). 

Orders for shirts must be placed by Dec. 4.