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SALT LAKE CITY — "Pollution is like a monster," fifth-grader Elliott Mumm boldly declared to roughly 1,000 students gathered in the Capitol rotunda Thursday for a clean air rally.
The Madeleine Choir School student continued his speech by spouting off statistics and small suggestions for change. He concluded with a fist pump and a "woot," and then walked back to sit among the 19 other fifth-grade student speakers.
Tyler Knibbe, a Madeleine Choir School teacher and the organizer of the event, said the students spent three weeks preparing posters and speeches for the rally.
The students attended a clean air rally last year, but the school decided the students would have a better experience if they held the rally themselves, Knibbe said.
"We really worked that into our curriculum. They wrote letters, they wrote opinion pieces and that sort of thing," he said.
Approximately 300 Madeleine students attended the rally. Students from the Salt Lake Arts Academy, Salt Lake City Open Classroom, Bonneville Elementary and some home-schooled students also attended, Knibbe said.
Students who spoke at the rally shared statistics about air pollution and offered suggestions about how to improve Utah's air. Students encouraged carpooling, upgrading existing homes to reduce emissions and stopping idling cars.
Madeleine Choir School principal Jill Baillie said, "We are not here to complain! We want to be part of the solution!" as she opened the rally.
Speakers at the rally included Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, House Minority Caucus Manager Patrice Arent, D-Millcreek, and representatives from several clean air advocacy groups.
"How I wish you could vote," Biskupski said as she commended the children on their awareness and activism.
She asked the students what aspect of air quality legislation is most important to them.
"I will stand by your side to make sure our city works on that particular issue," Biskupski promised.
Arent asked the children how many of them had been required to have an indoor recess because of poor air quality.
"It simply isn't fair," she said as nearly all of the children stood to demonstrate their answer.
Arent is the founder and co-chairwoman of the bipartisan Clean Air Caucus that met earlier in the week to unveil the air quality bills it's proposing in the 2016 Legislature.
Several air advocacy groups, including Utah Moms for Clean Air, Breathe Utah, HEAL Utah and Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment were invited to speak.
Matthew Pacenza, executive director of HEAL Utah, delivered what he referred to as good and bad news. The good news, he said, is that according to polling, air quality is most important to Utahns.
Pacenza added that he believes legislators genuinely want to make changes to help the air quality in Utah. The bad news, however, is that special interest groups interfere with good legislation, he said.
Dr. Brian Moench, president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, suggested that the next time students go to the doctor, they should ask "if clean air is right for you." He then led the students in a few chants: "When breathing is hard, nothing is easy," and "young lungs matter."
Many of the presenters emphasized that students should go home and talk to their parents about clean air.
"You need to talk about this all the time," Biskupski said.
Students from the Madeleine school sang two selections, including "God Bless America." Third-grade students from Bonneville Elementary performed a choreographed song they wrote as a class.
The Madeleine students walked a little more than a half-mile from their school to the Capitol. Salt Lake Arts Academy students took public transportation to the rally. Email: elarson@deseretnews.com
