Idling cars are a major pet peeve for New Canaan High School sophomore Will Santora.
The 15-year-old is aware that it’s illegal in Connecticut to idle a motor vehicle for more than three minutes, yet he estimates that up to 80 percent of the cars that back up at the NCHS lot when school lets out are idling.
“You waste gas, you waste money, you are polluting—and all for no reason,” Santora said from Room 115 at the high school on a recent afternoon, surrounded by a half-dozen likeminded sophomores and juniors. “You don’t need to leave your car running at all. And people sometimes just forget to turn off their car or they don’t realize it’s going, so that is a big issue because it does pollute a lot and if you idle for more than 10 seconds, you are already starting to waste gas.”
Active members of the New Canaan High School Friends of the Earth Club. In front, L-R: Cara Michael and Regina Rivera. In back, L-R: Brian Sandor, Will Santora, Kaitlin Karr, Rhian Ball and Kaylee Paladino. Credit: Michael Dinan
In the next month or so, Santora and this group of high school teens—together they are the Friends of the Earth Club, an extracurricular group—will purchase and install a “no idling” sign on school grounds.
It’s a typically manageable and clearly messaged campaign for the group, founded 18 months ago by Cara Michael and Kaylee Paladino, both 16-year-old juniors now. Drawn together by a common interest in the natural world, its members say the Friends of the Earth Club offers hands-on work that benefits the environment, friendship though shared purpose and the satisfaction of making a difference.
Michael said she and Paladino co-founded the club because they felt structured activity for environmentally minded teens was needed.
“I think it’s under-represented in our age group, and we know there are people who care, so we formed the club for likeminded people,” she said.
Now halfway through its second year, the club’s active members number about one dozen. They meet weekly year-round and regular weekend projects have included collecting bottle caps at the school, picking up trash, doing trail work at public parks and creating “brush piles”— sanctuaries for small mammals such as rabbits, mice, squirrels and skunks that are made of natural found materials and help restore wildlife species and habitat.
“We like to be involved the community and anything that can help New Canaan,” Paladino said.
It’s appreciated.
Land Trust President Chris Schipper called the Friends of the Earth Club a “delightful initiative” that already has seen the teens volunteer on cold days to build five or six wildlife brush piles.
“They are not just willing to advocate for a better environment—they are willing to get out there and do some work, as well, and put some sweat and effort into it,” Schipper said.
“We asked them if they’d like to help with the brush piles at the W. Pritchard Brown Wildlife Sanctuary and they said, ‘Yes, we’d like to be involved,’ and our hope is that in the end this is really a good sign for New Canaan. This is a town that should produce future environmentalists, conservationlists and natural biologists. There is no question that it will produce great finance and business leaders, but we need that balance and I like the club for that momentum.”
We spoke to a few more of the club’s members about what drew them to Friends of the Earth and what sustains them in the group. Each of these members signed on as soon as the club came to be, prior to the NCHS Club Fair in October 2013:
Regina Rivera, 16, junior, plays softball and also does stage tech: “I didn’t really see a problem with trash around here [at New Canaan High School] so I kind of wanted to help with keeping the high school clean, inside and outside. In the parks, I do see some trash, so I wanted to help with that and also see what else I could do with preserving nature. Doing the brush piles with the Land Trust, I didn’t know anything about that before we did it. We went to the Land Trust property on Valley Road, and we gathered sticks and logs and slowly started making pyramids with them to make shelters for the animals.”
Brian Sandor, 16, sophomore, runs cross-country, plays clarinet and trombone in the band: “I’ve always liked nature. I love being outside and everything, so I’d like to preserve it, of course. It’s also a small time commitment. We come here every Wednesday for a few minutes and then do something on the weekend, and I’m never busy on the weekends so it doesn’t really bother me at all.”
Kaitlin Karr, 17, junior, plays volleyball and softball: “I joined it right at the start. It’s nice because I joined sophomore year after seeing that it was a club that ties in with the outdoors. I’m at Waveny a lot, partially for sports and partially just for enjoyment, and knowing I could tie into a club that works there—we may do a project there soon—it’s kind of nice. And also, this was branching into a club with friends I know. Cara and Kaylee are both good friends of mine. So going into this at least knowing a couple of people and then I also got to meet Brian and Will and we’re all friends now. It’s very relaxed, which is nice. And we get things done. It’s not where you just talk once a week. We actually see each other on weekends.”
Rhian Ball, 16, junior, belongs to a Food Drive Club, and plays field hockey and softball: “I knew when I started that stuff would get done and it’s easier to stay in contact when it’s a small club. Everyone knows each other and you can all go do stuff together. I’ve met other people here and we actually get along really well. I like some of the things we do outside, the brush piles and trash pickups and all the physical stuff, because you’re actually helping.”
And that real-life environmental work is not all-consuming for the club’s members. Michael plays softball while Kaylee also belongs to the Book Club and Yoga Club at New Canaan High School. Santora plays saxophone and runs cross-country and also belongs to the Student Advocate Club.
He also was a New Canaan Land Trust summer intern last year and plans to participate in the program again. For now, his mind is set on the local anti-idling effort. Santora and other club members, including the co-founders, last month attended a meeting of the New Canaan Conservation Commission.
The municipal body’s chairman, Cam Hutchins, said he and the other members were “really impressed that they had done their homework.”
“They have a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm, but they also have channeled it,” Hutchins said of the Friends of the Earth Club’s members. “So they have actual things they are going to accomplish, and anything we can do to help them, we will be glad to.”
The next steps for the anti-idling campaign are to raise money (partly through a bake sale) to purchase the sign, post and clamp, and to bring attention to it, they also plan to create some of their own signs and carry them through the lines of idling motorists who crowd the high school access road and lots at the start and end of the school day, Santora said.
“They [motorists] are waiting there for 15-plus minutes and creating a lot of pollution and wasting gas and money, and so if we have a sign out there, we are hoping that the drivers will see it,” he said.
Santora added: “I connect a lot with nature and I realize that what we are doing right now is not sustainable at all, and our methods of living are not sustainable, and we need to solve these issues as soon as possible and not wait until tomorrow and so this is no idling sign is just a good way to get out into the community, to share our ideas and to take action.”