GREEN team spreads energy message

HOLLADAY — The small group of students stands at the front of the room, their green T-shirts with the acronym GREEN, Get Really Energy Efficient Now, grabbing the audience's attention.

Their presentation begins with a pledge found on the bottom of a political cartoon, "I pledge allegiance to the cars of the United States of America," they chant in unison. "And to the consumption for which they stand, one nation, under oil, unsustainable, with gridlock and road rage for all."

The GREEN team is a group of sixth-grade students from Morningside Elementary School, 4170 S. 3000 East in Holladay. The state-winning team for Community Problem Solving has officially begun its presentation. The students and their teacher, Patti White, have been making appearances at community council meetings and various places around the valley spreading the word about their campaign "Stop, Turn Off and Save."

In their presentation, students explain what a big problem air pollution has become along the Wasatch Front and that nearly 200 dangerous pollutants have been found in the air. Much of the pollution comes from cars as more people are now driving more miles than ever before.

As a solution to this problem, students encourage community members to turn off their cars if they will be idling longer than 10 seconds. They also hand out window stickers with the campaign name and logo on them as a reminder for residents.

They feel they have been well received so far.

"We've gotten pretty good comments," said student Megan Dolle. "Most people didn't realize how much idling affects the air."

John Fresco, another student in the class, explains that many people think restarting their vehicle is more harmful than letting it idle, but this is a myth.

In addition to their idling campaign, the students have also educated more than 500 families about the economic and environmental benefits of using compact fluorescent light bulbs and have mailed more than 50 letters to school districts in Utah to educate them about alternative-fuel buses, encouraging the schools to develop an idling policy to avoid releasing excess emissions.

Students are glad their campaign can help those coming after them.

"I think that the future generations will have cleaner air and the asthma and lung cancer rates will go down," Lizi Zachary said.

Classmate Maya Lacey agrees.