Cherry Hill Schoolgirl Shows How Small Conservation Efforts Can Pay Off Big
By Mike DeNardo
CHERRY HILL, N.J. (CBS) -- A South Jersey fifth grader is out to show that simple actions can save energy -- perhaps a lot of it.
Ten-year-old Katarina Dedes says conserving electricity really isn't very hard.
"Most people just say, 'Uh-huh, yeah, I know that,' but they don't really take action. They don't really do it," she tells KYW Newsradio.
But one day last year, Katarina and a few classmates at Resurrection School in Cherry Hill took action.
"Our project was to shut off the lights in our school to see how much electricity we could save," she recalls, saying that they cut the school's electric usage by one third that day.
It's a lesson, Katarina says, for everyone:
"It just takes a small effort -- by turning off unused televisions or lights, and unplugging unused appliances. It's very simple."
Katarina's efforts won her a Green Challenge award from the nonprofit Educational Information and Resource Center. She'll be presenting her energy conservation project at the Art Blooms Earth Festival in Cherry Hill, later this month.
