Somers, Greeley Students win Bedford 2020 Greenlight Awards
Somers, Greeley Students win Bedford 2020 Greenlight Awards: Bedford 2020, recently held it’s Greenlight Award competition and announced its award winners on May 1 at the newly restored Bedford Playhouse. Students made their presentations before a panel of judges on the theatre’s giant. The judges named seven finalists in the competition and three awards were granted to Rachel Joseph from Somers High School, Warren Kennedy-Nolle and Kialin Yang from Rye Country Day School and Corey Schomilka and Andrew Hildenbrand of Horace Greeley.
The Greenlight Award program challenges students to take on Bedford 2020’s mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect natural resources and provides them with a framework and expertise to carry out their envisioned projects. This year’s theme, Changemaker 2020, additionally challenged participants to prove they could change behavior with their efforts. With a sponsorship from PepsiCo, Bedford 2020 also offers funding and prize money.
Rachel Joseph of Somers High School
The Winners
Rachel Joseph, a junior at Somers High School, won the $500 grand prize for her project to encourage water conservation by installing rain barrels in the Primrose Elementary School garden and raising awareness about water usage.
The teams tied for second place both ran anti-idling campaigns and showed how due to their efforts, idling decreased at their schools. Warren Kennedy-Nolle and Jialin Yang, juniors at Rye Country Day School, worked at their campus Lower School to educate and leverage pressure that elementary school students put on their parents to stop idling. The S.T.O.P. (Students and Teachers for Our Planet) Club at Horace Greeley High School, led by seniors Corey Schomlka and Andrew Hildenbrand, created an awareness campaign and provided gift card incentives to decrease idling at the high school. Students handed out educational “tickets” and chatted with drivers about the benefits of stopping idling.
Other Finalists
Horace Greeley High School S.T.O.P Club
Other finalists in the Greenlight Award competition included Fox Lane freshmen Mitchell Antin and Sam Dixon who incentivized students touse refillable water bottles. Bronson Cvijanovich and Sasha Levine, seniors at Horace Greeley, encouraged recycling by donating bottle refund money to a charity. Krishna Ramaswamy of Horace Greeley High School will install a kiosk in Chappaqua where people can take and leave reusable bags to use for free when shopping. Davin Bhatti, Dyllon Preston, and Pranay Talla of Horace Greeley have invented a water consumption sensor they will pilot to encourage water conservation and savings.
In addition to Pepsico’s sponsorship, local businesses donated items that were given out as door prizes at the event. They included American Ninja Warrior, Bedford Gourmet, Bedford Village Pastry, Frannies Goodies, Kis Coco Nails,The Outpost, Ristorante Lucia, Salsa Fresca, Saw Mill Club, and Truck. Faculty mentors were recognized during the event and given Soda Stream machines donated by Soda Stream. More information about Bedford 2020.
Photos courtesy of Sherry Wolf
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