Editor's Note: Chad Vincente, 12, from Mansfield, CT, won a Climate Change Leadership Award in April from Gina McCarthy, the commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection. Vincente helped sign up more than 100 households to switch to clean electricity. For his efforts, the town of Mansfield received a solar panel. The 40-Year Plan is proud to present this essay by such a young leader.

W hen I look back upon my project, I think about how much I learned about clean energy, the environment, energy reduction, and projects like mine and how they can help people and the world around us. It has been a long time since my project began, which was around the beginning of the year 2006, and when I look back, I think my efforts have really been worthwhile.

I began my project when I was assigned by my teacher to do something to help the environment. After researching local papers, issues, and events, I noticed that my town was striving to reach a goal of getting at least 100 residents to sign up for clean energy. I then decided to help the town out by urging town residents to sign up for clean energy as my project. I started by creating a flyer about clean energy and distributing it to all of the students in all of the public schools in my town.

These flyers successfully reached at least 1,600 students. Soon after, I became aware of results as I was notified by several students about how their families had signed up for clean energy because of my flyer. I was also contacted by a representative from Smart Power (an organization that markets "clean energy" - electricity generated from renewable resources) and they told me that they had received several calls in response to my flyer.

After that, I tried more strategies to get my message out there. First I posted my flyer on a newspaper's website, hoping that some residents might notice it. Then, I sent an informational e-mail to all of my town's employees. This e-mail successfully reached over 700 people. Soon after, I set up a clean energy display at the town community center since it is a very popular place and many residents visit it.

Meanwhile, I was welcomed in by the town's clean energy team (which consisted of town officials, residents, a representative from Smart Power, and a representative from the Department of Environmental Protection), with whom I met with every once in a while, to discuss clean energy and ways to promote it.

After a while, the town reached its goal and got 100 clean energy sign-ups. As part of an incentive, the town also received a free 1 kilowatt solar panel (the site selection is currently under way). The team and I then decided to celebrate this milestone by recognizing the one-hundredth sign-up family at an event at my school. At the event I made a speech to further encourage families to sign up for clean energy and I presented the one-hundredth clean energy sign-up family with a certificate.

I was then pleased to notice that there were several articles about my project in local newspapers including The Willimantic Chronicle, The Journal Inquirer, Horizons, and The Hartford Courant. I knew that with my story out in the public, more people all around the state would become aware of clean energy and they would consider signing up themselves.

After my project was finished, I received a couple awards for my efforts. I was one of the five individuals in the state to receive the Connecticut Climate Change Leadership Award and I received a proclamation from my town. Hopefully, these awards also publicized my story and made more people aware of clean energy.

Today, I am still meeting with my town's clean energy team and we are looking for more ways to get over 200 clean energy sign ups for the town so we can acquire an additional solar panel, free from the CT Clean Energy Fund.

My project really opened my eyes to the real world of activism, and it has made me strongly believe that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it and that you can do a lot of things to help people and the natural world around you if you do so.

I really hope that my project has inspired other young people, because we are the future of this nation and this world, and we have the responsibility of protecting it. In the next 40 years, I will continue to be constant supporter of clean energy and of energy reduction, and I will always do everything I can to help protect and maintain the environment and the future.

7/26/06

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Mansfield Middle School student Chad Vincente led an effort in his town to sign up 100 people for clean energy with Smart Power.

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Middle-Schooler Signs Up 100 For Clean Energy