Delano 7th Graders' Documentary Wins National C-SPAN Competition

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Three Delano 7th graders are receiving national attention after producing a documentary on water pollution.

Gretchen Ness, Naomi Thoelke and Liliana Schroedl were among thousands of students who entered their documentary into C-SPAN's national StudentCam competition.

The challenge was to produce a video addressing an issue they want the candidates to discuss during the Presidential campaign. When the girls began putting the documentary together, getting recognized by C-SPAN was the last thing on their minds. As pet owners, they were thinking about how water pollution affects animals and the environment.

The 7th graders put the documentary together last fall, spending hours lining up a variety of experts -- from environmentalists to politicians.

"It got really interesting. I didn't know a lot of this stuff," Gretchen said.

Thousands of students across the country entered the competition. And out of all of them, Gretchen, Naomi and Liliana found out Wednesday that their documentary was one of about 50 that was awarded with a prize.

"I was ecstatic! I interrupted a meeting to tell Gwen. It was very exciting," Rachel Klunde said.

Klunde, along with fellow teacher Gwen Briesemeister, helped the girls enter their documentary.

"I'd say the girls' interviews were very solid. They found a variety of viewpoints and they chose to be on camera more than doing voiceovers," Briesemeister said.

In fact, they memorized a lot of what they said on camera.

The documentary also tested their math skills. The girls won $750 from C-Span, and have already figured out how to split that evenly.

"We are getting $750 total. So that'll be like $250 per person, then $125 from the school," Liliana said.

The girls say their number one bit of advice when it comes to stopping water pollution is to simply watch what you put in the environment and recycle whenever you can.