Oradell Public School Students Take Challenge to Cool the Earth

What can Oradell kids to do fight climate change? They can influence their parents, as shown by a pioneering climate change program, Cool the Earth running in Oradell Public School (OPS) this spring.

On March 27, students at Oradell Public School watched a fun, inspiring play starring OPS teachers and administrators which explains the concept of climate change to kids.

“In addition to increasing awareness of climate change in our school community,” Cathy Sears of the PTA’s Enrichment Committee, who brought the program to OPS said. “OPS’s participation in Cool the Earth will take Oradell one step closer to becoming  a “Sustainable Jersey” town, which is a state-run program that provides access to grants and funding opportunities to municipalities that want to go green and save money.  It seems like a win-win to me.”  

After the assembly, each student received coupon books to encourage them to take carbon-reducing actions such as taking shorter showers, packing a no-waste lunch, and biking, walking, or carpooling to school.

Many OPS students and their parents will pledge to take energy-saving actions as outlined on the coupons and return the coupons to school where they are tracked on a banner. Through the actions pledge in the Cool the Earth program, the OPS school community will save an estimated 600,000 pounds of carbon from being emitted into the atmosphere.

“This program combines grassroots activism with environmental stewardship to inspire kids to take action on an important issue that affects everyone,” Sears said. 

Assistant Principal Megan Bozios adds, “Cool the Earth allows children to take responsibility for their actions and empowers them to share these energy conservation tips with their families; that seemed like a great way to teach our children that even small changes, when taken by many people, can add up to big results.  I think that’s a great lesson that can be applied to many areas of one’s life.”

Running in over 100 schools nationwide, this transformational community-based social marketing program has already been responsible for motivation thousands of kids and their families to reduce their carbon emissions – eliminating millions of pounds of carbon from the atmosphere – with positive environmental benefits for the entire country.

Cool the Earth was founded by Carleen and Jeff Cullen, San Francisco Bay Area parents, who were inspired to take action in their community after learning about the dangers of global warming. Determined to influence others to make positive behavioral changes, they set about developing a program which would motivate households to make changes instantly – what they call “education through action.”

“Global warming is such a complex and overwhelming issue that most people feel powerless to make a difference," said Carleen Cullen. "In contrast, families in our program see that taking easy, low cost actions results in a meaningful impact on the future of the planet.” 

Oradell Public School is one of four schools in Bergen County currently running the program, but Cool the Earth has funding to enroll additional schools in its free program this year. With a state-of-the-art web-based toolkit at cooltheearth.org, the program supplies volunteer program coordinators with everything they need to operate the program. 

“It’s a turnkey program, it’s educational, it’s motivational, and it’s free for schools to run,” notes Sears.

In the spring of 2010, Cool the Earth collaborated with a behavior change researcher, senior scientist June Flora, Ph.D., at Stanford University to assess the efficiency and impact of its program.  Results from the study confirm the effectiveness of the program in its ability to encourage continued action and inspire new actions in kids and their families.

Cool the Earth has won excellence awards from several Bay Area municipal and private organizations.  In addition, executive director Carleen Cullen was the recipient of the Jefferson Award, a program of the American Institute for Public Service.  Cool the Earth has also established key public/private partnerships with the EPA, The Climate Project, Girl Scouts of America, Safe Routes to School, and many other organizations.

The cast included Sara Bright (Instructional Supervisor Grades K-3) as Mama Polar Bear; Traci Killeen (Teacher of the Talented and Gifted Program) as Polar Bear Cub; Carol Riccardi (Music Teacher) as Mother Earth; Amy Kennedy(Kindergarten Teacher) as Mother Nature, Kevin Stokes (Instructional Supervisor Grades 4-6) as Mr. Carbon, Megan Bozios (Assistant Principal) as Narrator, and James Butcher (Music Teacher) as Technical Director.