The Dallin School Launches "Be Bright, Power Down" Campaign for Green Apple Day of Service

by Jennifer Devlin

The Dallin School Go-Green Club is so excited to be part of the Green Apple Day of Service (GADOS)! For GADOS the group launched our "Be Bright, Power Down" campaign. September 26th was our first day of implementing what will be a yearlong campaign and the first of it's kind in an Arlington Public School. We have read about campaigns in other schools and are inspired by the difference that changes in behavior can make in the amount of energy we consume as a school community. We hope to run a great pilot that has lots of success and inspire other schools to “Be Bright and Power Down”. We have many community members pitching in to help the campaign and have support from our town energy manager, club leaders including our town recycling coordinator, our new principal, PTO, and most importantly Dallin teachers, staff and students.

For the GADOS campaign kick off, the Go-Green club had a brainstorming session on ways to reduce consumption. Ideas included using less lighting, plugging in to power strips that can be easily shut down over weekends and holidays, using less heat, and using solar and wind power that we create at school! Some of these things can be done right now at Dallin and others we can work toward. We created a large banner to hang in the front entrance of our school to raise awareness of our new campaign and club members created artwork that shows the importance of energy conservation. We plan to replicate this artwork and create signs around every light switch in school telling folks to

“Be Bright, Power Down”. We are talking about energy consumption outside of school too and our Go-Green members are working with the PTO to promote the "International Walk to School Day"! We appreciate the GADOS Mini-Grant from USGBC MA and NSTAR! It will enable us to buy the supplies we need to implement our yearlong pilot!!