Donating Clothing for Boston Health Care for the Homeless
By Risa
A few weeks earlier four of us—Lilly, Maya, Kaya and me—donated winter clothing in a benefit for the Boston Health Care for the Homeless. We used some of the money we’d raised to buy new pieces of winter clothing like hats and gloves and scarves and mittens. (They wanted items of clothing that were new, not used.) Then we got to go skating at the amazing huge rink at Bright Arena at Harvard University.
This was our way of showing support for the terrific work of Boston Health Care.
Last spring we were a part of its spring drive to get lots of white socks for people who they treat who are homeless. Eliza, especially, got lots of people to donate socks as part of her bat mitzvah project at her temple and the rest of us convinced some of our friends to donate socks, too.After we gathered several big bags of socks, we took them to the main building of Boston Health Care for the Homeless. And Dr. Jim O’Connell, who has directed Boston Health Care for the Homeless for more than two decades, gave us a tour of the new facilities across the street from Boston Medical Center.
We learned about all of the ways the staff of doctors and nurses and dentists and social workers take care of people who are homeless. So when we heard about this clothing drive, we wanted to do what we could to help.
All of us had a great time at the skating event, and we felt great about donating the clothes to the homeless. We even got to take pictures with Santa! It was a great way to spend a few hours of our weekend— hanging out, skating, and helping a great cause.
On December 8th the Sprouts of Hope took a field trip to visit Tim Sutherland, an energy efficiency expert who heard of us being interviewed on the Callie Crossley radio show on June 22nd. At that time we were talking about the new book we’d written called “Energy Lite,” and how it was going to be in the Cambridge Public Library for families to borrow along with a Kill A Watt meter.
Tim was driving in his car when he heard us talk about our Kill A Watt book project. He told us that he was excited to hear us —as teenagers—talking about using the same kind of meters that he relies on to measure the energy efficiency of machines like air conditioners and washing machines.
When we met him, Tim told us he thought it was amazing that we’d done this book about saving energy by using Kill A Watt meters—and he wanted to meet us.
He works for Navigant Consulting where he does projects for the U.S. Department of Energy. He is paid to figure out how technology can be made more energy efficient. He works with Heather Lisle, and on the day we visited, their colleague Judy Reich was there, too, with her son and daughter, who are about the same age as we are.
Tim and Heather spend their time taking apart different kinds of machines, such as washing machines, refrigerators and freezers and window air conditioning units. They both studied science in college and Tim majored in aerospace engineering and rocket science at MIT before he decided that he wanted to do something about energy efficiency. We found out that Heather graduated from Dartmouth after studying earth science and physics. Judy studied mechanical engineering, aerospace, and science research.
Now they all work on these projects at Navigant, where they take apart and test appliances. By doing so they learn the best designs that create more energy efficient machines. They use a sophisticated meter to gauge the energy use of each machine as well as its stand-by (vampire) power usage. With a washing machine, the goal is to find ways for the machine to use about 0.01 watts when the power is off.
After Tim and Heather told us about their work, they showed us various parts of a washing machine that they’d taken apart—and we learned how magnets can work to make them more energy efficient.
Tim also told us about LEDs, which stands for Light-emitting diode, and he explained how these lights are even more energy efficient than compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL). You can see Eliza holding an LED in her right hand and a CFL in her left.
Right now the LED bulbs are very expensive compared with CFLs and incandescent bulbs. But as was the case when people started to use CFLs to replace incandescent bulbs, these new LEDs cost a lot more to buy.However, they also last a lot longer than CFLs and consume less energy. So pretty soon it’s likely that more and more people will be using them. And LEDs don’t have the mercury problem that CFLs do, so they aren't a health problem if you drop them and disposing of them isn't so complicated.
Since we've gotten accustomed to using CFLs and like knowing how much energy we were saving by using them, we were shocked to find out how much more energy can be saved by using LEDs. Thanks to Tim and Health for showing us this difference.
We had a fun time visiting with Tim and Heather and Judy and learning about their jobs and seeing where they work. Hopefully sometime we can work together on a project.
On November 13th we went to our third annual Youth Summit held by the New England Roots & Shoots. This year the theme wasendangered species. We started the day by listening to a speech and watching a power point presentation about various endangered species. We learned about how extinction is a natural process, but also how it is now caused in part by what humans do.
At the end of the opening session, the Sprouts once again won an award for our work with environmental issues—and for being New England Roots & Shoots’ most active group. During the rest of the day we split up to go to our different sessions. In them, we learned about polar bears, sustainable eating, parrots in Guyana, projects in Brazil and Ecuador, and recyclable art.
During our lunch break at the summit there was also a photo shoot going on. The photographer was our good friend John Tagiuri, who my mom and I first met at an energy efficiency fair in Cambridge. The Sprouts met him when he asked us to dress up like the Statue of Liberty and hold a CFL bulb where the torch would be.
Last year at the Youth Summit, John took cool photographs of us standing on the earth (okay, it was really a ball) and kicking plastic water bottles away while we held reusable ones.
This year he came up with a really fun idea that involved endangered species.He had us pose with an extinct animal—the Dodo Bird. Each of the Sprouts posed for numerous shots—and then we posed together. John printed them while we were there and then hung them on the wall. Later we got to take them home after we filled out a form about our summit experience.
We received T-shirts and bags full of coupons and snacks. It was really a great opportunity to meet new Roots & Shoots groups and to hear about the projects they are doing. The Youth Summit was a lot of fun, thanks to the incredible efforts of Roots & Shoots director Kellan Hays. Thank you, Kellan!
On a Sunday in late September, the Sprouts attended one of our favorite annual Roots & Shoots events: The Roots & Shoots International Day of Peace Celebration! This Day of Peace is a great way to meet new people, spread the word about Roots & Shoots, and celebrate peace with other Roots & Shoots members. At the Day of Peace, we ran a table where little kids could create and decorate musical instruments out of recycled materials.
Later in the day, we walked along Jamaica Pond as we carried Peace Doves. The kids who made musical instruments played them as we walked. It was a lot warmer than it was the last time we carried the Peace Doves—in the First Night parade in Boston on New Year's Eve. Here we are sitting with the Peace Dove we are about to carry.
At the table next to us, a woman named Danielle was giving out chocolate samples. She talked with people about fair-trade chocolate and promoted Theo chocolate, the company that she works for. Theo donates proceeds from certain chocolate bars to the Jane Goodall Institute, so this is why Danielle was at the Day of Peace. We thought that it was really cool how Danielle’s job involved chocolate, and she offered us the opportunity to help out at the next event that Theo would have a table at!
We gladly took Danielle up on her offer. In late October at the Boston VegFest, a big annual celebration that more than 10,000 people attend, we helped Danielle hand out chocolate samples, tell people about Theo chocolate, and run the table. It was a very fun experience, and it felt great to help an organization that donates to the Jane Goodall Institute and Roots & Shoots. We hope to continue the partnership that we have with both Theo and Danielle in the future.
On Tuesday night, June 22, the Sprouts of Hope had a gathering in the main Cambridge Public Library to announce and celebrate the launch of our book, "Energy Lite" along with Kill A Watt Meters into the library's system. This means that people in Cambridge -- and in surrounding communities that are part of the Minuteman Library system -- are now able to check out these two items together and use them to learn more about their energy use at home.
When we arrived early to set up our display table to showcase our book, we were delighted to discover a bunch of our books. It was really fun to see our words and pictures as a printed book and a bar code on the front; this will be used to keep track of the books when families check them out of the library. Seeing all of this meant that our idea of creating a book that families could use to teach their kids about smart ways to use energy really had happened -- and that felt good.
Next to the books we found specially designed packages, each containing a Kill A Watt meter and ready to be put on the library shelves, too. Each meter is inside of a molded plastic box and there is a lot of information about how to use the meters on the outside and the inside of each case. And it was very cool to find that our name -- The Sprouts of Hope -- is on the meter packaging, too. It also has a similar border design around the rim as the one I drew for the book's cover.
We are so grateful to P3 International -- the company that makes Kill A Meters -- for donating 20 of them to the Cambridge Public Library. Their donation made a big difference in making this project happen at the library; now every copy of our book has a companion Kill A Watt meter that can be checked out at the same time.
We also want to thank New England Roots & Shoots for ALL of its great support of us while we work on this book and for the mini-grant they gave us that enabled 50 copies of "Energy Lite" to be printed in a partnership with the library, which paid for the printing, too. We will use some of these copies as we work with Roots & Shoots and other partners to find ways to get this book into libraries in other communities.
At this event we held a raffle -- with the prize being a Kill A Watt meter that we bought to give away. Guests didn’t buy tickets to enter; they simply filled out a card pledging what they would do differently in their homes to conserve energy -- and they came up with some good ideas. A fellow classmate of ours turned out to be the winner.
Although mostly filled with mingling and refreshments, there were a couple brief speeches. My mom, Melissa, talked about the terrific partners we had that made this possible for us to do, and thanked our friends, John Taguiri, whose photographs of us illustrate the book, and Lois Fiore, who helped design the pages. Sally Sharp-Lehman, who directs the New England Roots & Shoots program spoke about how what we did fits into the spirit of Jane Goodall's vision of what kids can do to make a difference. [And Dr. Jane Goodall wrote words about our book that appear on its back cover, and we are grateful to her for doing that.] Henrietta Davis, the Vice-Mayor of Cambridge, praised our work, as did Sarah Kennedy, an assistant to Mayor David Maher, who could not be with us that evening. Hearing them talk so positively about the value of our project to the community made us feel like we'd done something very worthwhile.
Here's a photograph of all of us together.
Of course, the Sprouts of Hope got a chance to talk, too. Melissa asked each of us question about our work on the book or Kill A Watt meters or thoughts about the project in general, and I think by doing that the people who came to the event learned about why and how we decided to do this project. [Earlier on our blog we wrote how we went about creating Energy Lite, so I hope you'll go back and read that.]
The launching of our book at the library went really well, and now it’s up to people to check out our book about learn about energy conservation.
A story was published in Cambridge Day, an online news site, and you can read it at:
http://tinyurl.com/2bp48rl
Earlier in the day we had an amazing opportunity to appear on The Callie Crossley Show, a public radio program on WGBH in Boston, to talk about "Energy Lite" and some of the other things we do as the Sprouts of Hope. We were really nervous about doing a live radio show, so we practiced a lot on how to make our answers make sense. When we finally did the show, I think it went well. You can listen by clicking on this link and then listening to the show from June 22. We're the first ones on the show and she talked with us for about 20 minutes.
We are going to be looking for ways that "Energy Lite" can reach even more people. If you have some ideas -- or would like to work with us to see if you can have a copy in your library -- please let us know.
As the school year winds down, I cannot help but think about all of the amazing projects and events that the Sprouts have taken part in. Out of everything that the we have done this year, the thing that stands out most to me is our sisterhood with the Brotes de Esperanza – a Roots & Shoots group that we helped to start as a way to put the Sprouts of Hope fund into action.
I remember the day we talked about recycling and the Brotes de Esperanza kids drew some really cool signs that they were going to use to remind people to recycle. We did something like that at King Open, too, when we were working on our Waste Free Lunch campaign.
I realized how special our bond with the Brotes has been in early May at the Roots & Shoots Youth Leadership Summit with Jane Goodall, when, after asked what about Roots & Shoots made me most proud, I answered confidently: “Knowing that in a few short years, the Brotes de Esperanza could be having this same conversation with Dr. Jane. Knowing that these smart, passionate kids are following in my footsteps.”
To me, being able to pass down the magic of Roots & Shoots - as a Sprout of Hope - is way more special than starting a composting program, writing a book, cleaning a river, or attending a leadership summit. Mentoring the Brotes has made me realize just how lucky I am to be a part of Roots & Shoots.
I am so proud to be a role model for young Roots & Shoots members. I know that our partnership and sisterhood with the Brotes will continue for a long time -- We are already planning for next year! It has been so much fun to join forces with the Brotes. As Ryunosuke Satoro once said, “Indivually, we are a drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
This May, after a long, tiring Roots & Shoots-filled spring, the Sprouts of Hope participated in yet another exciting event with Dr. Jane Goodall -- an event that took place at our school!
Dr. Jane Goodall came to King Open, the Sprouts of Hope greeted her outside and showed her the murals the King Open community has painted. (You can see Risa with Dr. Jane in this photograph.) One of them is about immigrants who've come to Cambridge; the two other ones are at our school’s entrance. One is a replica of the Sistine Chapel, but with people from King Open painted on it, and the other shows Dr. Martin Luther King, with our school's name on it, too.
Then Dr. Jane went into the auditorium, where she greeted students with a pant hoot. Kids responded and it seemed like they were having a lot of fun.
She came to our school to congratulate us on a very successful year of composting. King Open’s composting program, which the Sprouts of Hope helped to start a little over a year ago, has saved more than 13,000 pounds of food waste that otherwise would’ve been dumped into a landfill!
Dr. Jane not only congratulated students at King Open for saving the planet, but she also came to our school to spread the word about composting. At the whole-school assembly where she spoke, she encouraged other schools to start composting – and since the mayor of Cambridge, the superintendent of schools, and some school committee members were at the assembly, we are hoping that her message (and ours!) will make a difference.
At the assembly, Dr. Jane spoke a little bit about her life, as well as the Jane Goodall Institute, Tacare, and Roots & Shoots. She encouraged students to get involved. Her message to us was that simple things – like composting our school lunches – make a difference. As she always says: “Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference!”
Four students – ranging from kindergarden to fourth grade – demonstrated for Dr. Jane how composting works in our cafeteria. It was a fun to watch, even though the kids got in the wrong order and some compost went in the trash!
Our science teacher, Donna Peruzzi, led the Q & A with Jane Goodall. Microphones were passed through the crowd and kids asked questions such as “What do chimpanzees eat?"
It was really special to have Dr. Jane come to King Open. Here is what Anne Driscoll wrote about her visit to our school in Tonic.com:
"The five girls who belong to Sprouts of Hope Roots & Shoots group had lobbied the Cambridge School Committee and the school superintendent to create a conservation plan and install special composting bins in the King Open School cafeteria. The group hopes to expand the program and replicate it at other schools.
In addition to the six and a half tons of garbage saved from a landfill, their composting program also prevented the release of additional methane gas, which becomes 70 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a green house gas. Besides, Goodall says it's the small efforts now that pay off big dividends later.
"You can't expect a child to suddenly become involved in everything," Goodall was quoted as telling the King Open students. "You have to start somewhere."
We gave Dr. Jane a King Open shirt. We hope she remembers her visit at our school as much as we remember having her with us that day. It meant so much to us that she took time from her busy schedule to come to King Open and congratulate us on our efforts to compost.
To read more about Dr. Jane's visit to our school, you can click on these links:
Outstanding Roots & Shoots Group in New England, 2009 and 2008, 2010 Award for Most Active Roots & Shoots Group
The Sprouts of Hope: Who Are We?
We are the Sprouts of Hope, a Cambridge (MA)-based Roots and Shoots group, part of a youth-focused organization founded by Jane Goodall. (www.rootsandshoots.org) We get involved with environmental issues in our school and community. On this blog, we describe our activites and share what we learn from our experiences. We hope you will add to our blog with your comments about what you are doing in your community and offer us feedback and ideas about our projects. We want to learn from you as you learn from us. Risa, Lilly, Eliza, Maya, Kaya.
If you want to contact us, please send an e-mail to Melissa at melissa.ludtke@gmail.com
The Sprouts of Hope Fund
To give ALLkids a chance to experience Roots and Shoots, we donated money we raised in a yardsale we organized in May 2008. With our contribution, the New England chapter started this fund to help pay the membership fee ($50.00 per year) and provide other support to families and kids who want to start a Roots & Shoots group but don't have the necessary funds. Since the fall of 2008, there have been 17 Roots & Shoots groups created with the help of this fund.
We hope you'll donate to The Sprouts of Hope Fund. Here is a way to do so on the Web:
http://tinyurl.com/mly2b3
Or you can specify this fund and send your donation to:
Roots & Shoots New England 89 South Street LL Boston, MA 02111 617-439-9090
We wrote these words when we made our donation:
“We think that Roots & Shoots is an amazing program that enables kids all over the world to make a difference and help make the world a better place. As part of our group’s personal effort to help make the world a better place, we would like to make a contribution…so that other kids will be able to join Roots & Shoots too. Thank you for inspiring so many people, including us, to make a difference.” Risa, Lilly, Eliza, Maya, and Kaya The Sprouts of Hope
Sprouts of Hope: GoGreen Recognition
May 2008: Cambridge honors green businesses
Children belonging to Sprouts of Hope, which is part of the worldwide Roots & Shoots program founded by Dr. Jane Goodall, were also recognized at the annual GoGreen Awards ceremony held at the Cambridge City Hall annex. They went before the Cambridge School Committee last October to request that the schools stop using polystyrene lunch trays, sparking an ongoing investigation into alternatives. The Sprouts organized a waste-free lunch day in the schools as well. (Cambridge Chronicle and Cambridge Tab: 5/27/2008)
Information about the GoGreen Awards can be found here:
