Bright Lights Shine at the Neighborhood Network

Beginning in October, we met at the Sisters of St. Joseph Neighborhood Network almost every Tuesday to do research and listen to guest speakers concerning global warming.

In November, Sr. Annette Marshall came and gave us a visual demonstration of the awesome age of our universe and planet using string and papers depicting billions of years. We were surprised how short the human history is compared to the planets’ existence.

In January we researched Global Warming and created a play. We put the play on for 100 youth attending an Earth Force Youth Training Day at Mercyhurst College. We will also perform the play for other groups during the summer.

On March 20th we received a grant of $400 from the Erie Community Foundation for compact fluorescent light bulbs. Twelve families will receive three fluorescent light bulbs to use in their homes. We will monitor the electric bills for next two months and educate the families about the benefits to the planet by using fluorescent light bulbs.

In March, Jon Turshak from the City of Erie came to the Center and talked with us about the energy efficient changes that had taken place in the City of Erie. We were pretty impressed when Jon told us that by changing the traffic lights, the City would be saving over $117,000 a year. We wrote an editorial about this in the Erie Times News, and an article in the News-in-Education section.