Project Polar Bear During the next three months, the “Energy Angels” from South Allegheny High School in Southwestern Pennsylvania will be participating in Project Polar Bear to educate our community about the benefits of switching to CFL bulbs with the goal of working to improve the environment and reduce our carbon footprint to save the polar bears and their shrinking habitat. Our adult advisor is our former science teacher and mentor Mrs. Jenna Whitney. Our project will incorporate the theme of Power Down and we have established two goals. Ours first goal in Power Down is to educate the community about the benefits of using CFL bulbs and to provide as many free CFL bulbs to residents as we can. We will partner with our community corporations to ask for donations to purchase the CFL bulbs for the purpose of being able to give them away at community events such as: senior citizen meetings, parent teacher conferences and Zoo Boo at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. Did you know that if every American home replaced just one light with a CFL, we would save enough energy to light 3 million homes for a year, save about $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to those from about 800,000 cars? Our second goal for the Power Down project is during the months of October, November, and December, our team will be hosting a “Power Down Challenge” at South Allegheny School District. Teachers, staff, and parents who are interested will be competing to reduce their electric bill. The top five participants that reduce their electric bill the most will receive prizes such as reusable water bottles, water filtration systems, passes to the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, and CFL bulbs. By the end of our project, we hope that we can influence our community to lead a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. The first steps we will be taking as a team to accomplish these goals is to first contact U.S Steel Clairton Works. We will be asking Clairton Works to fund the community project with a donation to our cause. South Allegheny and Clairton Works have long been linked in the local and national media for poor air quality. It would be great if we could partner with them on this project so that we could receive some media attention on how we are working together for environmental issues. We will be asking Clairton Works for $750.00. $650.00 will be used to purchase CFL bulbs and $100 will be used for incentives for the “Power Down Challenge.” We will also be contacting our local Home Depot and Duquesne Light Company to ask them to assist us with our project by donating to our team as many energy efficient bulbs (CFLs) as they can. Our plan is to distribute energy efficient bulbs (CFLs) at a variety of community events, such as senior citizen meetings, parent-teacher conferences, and Zoo Boo at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. A condition of receiving the CFLs is that the recipient must sign a pledge that they will use the CFL and consider buying CFL bulbs instead of traditional light bulbs in the future. Using the total amount of CFL bulbs that we will give away, we will have the capability to calculate the amount of energy saved by community members. After securing the donations of CFLs and money for prizes for our “Power Down Challenge,” we will introduce the Power Down Challenge to the South Allegheny staff and interested community members. Part of introducing the challenge will be for us to suggest ways for families to “Power Down” meaning ways to reduce you electric usage at home. We will create a pamphlet listing energy saving strategies. To enter this contest, all you have to do is show us you last month’s electric bill, sign a pledge that you will do some of the things on the Power Down list, and then show us your next month’s electric bill. The households that reduced their electric usage the most (percentage) will receive prizes. During our project we also hope to get our local media and newspapers involved. By having the paper advertise the winners of the “Power Down Challenge” and perhaps putting a picture in the paper of us giving away CFLs at community events it will encourage the readers of the newspaper to do the same!