Schools

Los Altos High School Celebrates Earth Day

The 'blender bike' is always a hit, because there is a delicious reward at the end of demonstrating how pedal-power generates electricity.

 

The following report about activities in our community leading up to Earth Day was contributed by Sybil Cramer


The Los Altos High School Green Team held its "Carbon-Free Commute Challenge" (CFCC) on Wednesday in celebration of Earth Day.

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Students who biked, walked, skateboarded, or took the VTA's hybrid bus to school received a raffle ticket when they arrived in the morning. At lunchtime, the raffle tickets where redeemed for a freshly made smoothie created by student pedal power on the Fender Blender Bicycle provided by Safe Moves.

"The goal of CFCC is to promote green awareness and sustainability and to get students to use alternative types of transportation instead of taking a car to campus," said Club Secretary Elizabeth Bishop.

Kevin Glass is a Green Team member who bikes to campus daily. "I bike because it's better for the environment than using fossil fuels. Plus, it's great exercise and I don't have to depend on my parents for transportation."

While waiting in line for her smoothie, Hannah Cooke said she walked 2 miles to LAHS for her smoothie ticket. "Walking clears your mind. I'm wide awake and ready for classes by the time I get to school."

Green Team Co-President Sarah Jacobs, who has asthma, pointed out a salient fact. "There's another benefit of using other types of carbon free transportation in addition to not releasing greenhouse gases into the air, you are not releasing the pollution particles and gases that are harmful to people with breathing problems."

The "bicycle smoothies" have been so popular at LAHS that Wendy Wu, the Green Team's co-president, is writing a grant proposal for funds to purchase one of the pedal-powered "Fender Blender" Bicycles for LAHS from Rock the Bike in Berkeley.

By sponsoring CFCC Days once a month, the Green Team hopes students will see how easy and how much fun it is to bike, walk, skateboard, or take the VTA's hybrid bus to school and will continue to use alternative transportation every day.

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