By Michelle Yousefzadeh
Allison Lerner â09 was featured as KABCâs “Cool Kid of the Week” for working with and teaching her peers about the environment.
Lerner wrote a childrenâs book, “The Green Street Kids: The Earth Warriors,” which was published in September.
She has read the book to kids at her elementary school, Valley Beth Shalom Day School.
Lerner will also be featured in the Jewish Journal later this month.
The book is currently being sold at the student store.
“This book is meant as an introduction for kids to learn how their daily actions can impact the environment,” Lerner said. “It helps children understand how our planet is changing by educating them about the basic concepts of global warming, energy consumption, and reducing, reusing and recycling. It provides them with kid-friendly simple ways to âgrow up greenâ and help our planet.”
Lernerâs book is about four children who decide to start a club to save the world.
They talk to family members, scientists and friends to learn more about what they can do to stop global warming.
The Green Street Kids come up with a list of tips to save energy like changing incandescent light bulbs to fluorescent bulbs, turning off light switches and running the washing machine only with a full load.
“As an active environmentalist, I recognized the challenges in trying to have people change their habits to become more environmentally conscious,” Lerner said. “Doing small tasks such as remembering to turn off the lights when you leave the room or unplugging electronics while they are not in use seem simple, but if people are not accustomed to these green habits, it is hard for them to change.”
Lerner began drafting ideas for the book in the summer of 2007, taking almost a year to complete it.
The book was meant to encourage people to become more environmentally friendly in order to preserve the earth for future generations, Lerner said.
“With our world dramatically changing and habitats being destroyed because of our overly destructive ways of life, I wanted to help establish a brighter future for the earth,” Lerner said.
“By writing this book, I hope to educate children to become more environmentally aware and share this knowledge with their friends and families to work together to make a difference,” she added.
As co-president of the Environmental Club, Lerner works with administration to encourage students to be more environmentally-friendly.
“We are planning to incorporate a day of environmental education in the Choices and Challenges curriculum, to provide refilling stations for Nalgene type bottles so that students no longer use plastic water bottles and to post environmental reminders around campus,” Lerner said. “I truly believe that if we all work together, we can make a difference.”
