Just Change It!

"We attend Lake Forest Academy in Illinois. We are sophomores at the Academy and working in our seminar class. We wanted to help the environment. We always see Lake Forest Academy giving to others (which is a good thing) but we wanted to do something for our own school. Our mission is to save money and electricity by changing incandescent light bulbs to CFLs in our school dorms. A CFL (compact fluorescent light bulb) can save $40 over its lifetime, uses 75% less energy than a normal light bulb, and can last ten times as long. It also produces about 75% less heat.

For our class project we took on the task of environmental protection. The first step was going around to each room in the dorms and asking for permission to change their desk incandescent bulbs to CFLs. At first many people were reluctant, but once we said they were free and educated them on the environmental benefits, many kids reconsidered. We then went to our business office to ask for funding, which we were finally successful in getting. Once we had the light bulbs we went room to room changing the light bulbs. It was a very successful project. We did face a couple of obstacles: many boarders did not take the project seriously and didn't care. But once we told them about all the money that they could save and how they could help our environment, right away they knew it would be a good idea to change their light bulbs. The whole group was affected because we made a big difference in our community's environment. Each light bulb we changed made us feel that we could change the world. Next we will try to get our families, friends and relatives to change to CFLs—our project may be over, but we are not! CFLs will be a huge help to save the environment!"

- Alex K., John L., and David D., Lake Forest Academy, Lake Forest, IL