Disney has issued a challenge environmentally minded fourth- and fifth-graders at Wright City Elementary School can't resist, along with a lesson in how a few careless human acts snowball into a lot of stress on the environment and contaminate water quality. On a chilly, sunny Saturday morning last month, 13 students and their teachers decked out in orange T-shirts, warm pants and rubber boots and gloves were out wading through Peruque Creek at Wright City's Ruge Park to help clean up the stream, protect water quality and provide a safe wildlife habitat. What they found that people had dumped in the creek was eye-opening: old tires, a plastic swimming pool, washing machine, cast-iron water tank, run-off foam and other unidentified objects that elicited loud yells. By the end of the morning, the kids had piled and bagged debris for pickup and safe delivery and moved on to spend the afternoon raising awareness about "upstream" ways for people to help protect the area's Peruque-Piasa watershed. Focusing on the area surrounding the elementary school, they stenciled storm drains with an anti-dumping messages - "Dump No Waste; Drains to Stream" - and went door-to-door distributing environmental leaflets. "We want everyone to stop littering and keep our rivers and creeks safe," said student Lexie Kraml. Her friend Hannah Kurtzeborn agrees. "Please recycle everything possible and never throw anything in the water since it could hurt fish and the environment," she said. The Wright City Elementary Stream Team are local ambassadors of the citizen-based Missouri Stream Team that works with biologists to clean up and care for the state's streams as vital natural resources. Missouri Stream Team is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Conservation, Conservation Federation of Missouri and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. In addition to their Stream Team participation, the students also are members of the Disney Planet Challenge (DPC) Club that is participating in a national project-based classroom environmental competition to inspire kids to become lifelong stewards of the planet. Participating classes submit a portfolio of their work and have an opportunity to win a trip to Disneyland and to be featured on the Disney Channel. Technology director and project adviser Andrea Schremp said she is amazed at the commitment the students are demonstrating. "I know they are excited about competing, but their passion is truly about helping the environment," she said. Under the direction of teacher Jill Meadows and Schremp, the students are steeping themselves in environmental outreach activities, creating a Web site, music video, writing letters to local and state officials and a service-learning grant, and conducting many other activities to raise awareness and stake a claim to the protection of their generation's environment. All this will be packaged and showcased as part of the submission to Disney. The students are working toward submitting their entry to the Disney Planet Challenge officials in February.