Kids Campaign: If You're Stopped for More Than 10 Seconds...

Alex Scaperotta and Jordan Reichgut noticed that many people in the school pick up lines idle their cars.  They learned through research that unnecessary idling wastes gasoline and releases CO² into the atmosphere, which accelerates global warming.  They thought that a good place to start would be to get parents of Cider Mill School students to commit to not idling their car in the pick up line or anywhere else. Their message is simple:  IF YOU IDLE YOUR CAR FOR TEN SECONDS OR MORE, YOU ARE USING MORE GAS THAN TURNING YOUR CAR OFF AND ON.  In addition, they learned that idling is unnecessary to “warm up” your car (the best way to warm it up is to drive it) and idling is in fact harmful to engines – causing more gasoline residue to build up in the engines, exhaust system rusting, and more.

The children's action group, Little People, Big Changes, will give a brief presentation to kids in grades 2-6 on how idling one's car contributes to global warming--all in terms that children can understand and appreciate. The presentation will be given by the founding members of Little People, Big Changes, Jordan Reichgut and Alex Scaperotta, 4th graders at Cider Mill School from 4 to 5 pm. Following the presentation, the participants can create posters to support the local "No Idling" campaign. The posters will be displayed at various central locations throughout Wilton by businesses supporting the LPBC No Idling effort. Space limited. Advance registration required.

Source: Little People, Big Changes

Comments

[Rob from Real Estate Chocolate - Ridgefield, CT Real Estate]

This is awesome and what these kids have done just shows that the message is getting through to some people. 10 seconds is a short amount of time so practically any stop calls for turning off the car.

One challenge that I have is with all the folks who lived through the oil crises of the 70's where the common knowledge was "if you stop for more than a minute". These people are all thinking "a few minutes" and still believe they are doing the right thing.. gotta change that mindset.