Photos By: Carolyn Rundle Field

When adults talk about global warming, they often ask the question “what kind of world are we leaving to our children?” The two boys who started Little People, Big Changes and the student members of the Middlebrook and Wilton High School Recycling Clubs have decided they’re not going to sit back and wait for the answer. Instead they’re leading the charge to protect the environment, one step at a time. While many Wilton adults are doing their part, as evidenced by the recently established Wilton Energy Commission, and programs supported by the Wilton Library, the League of Women Voters, and the Fink Foundation, just to name a few, it is these children who will inherit the earth. They are the future. The work they’re doing now to inform residents about global warming and encourage everyone to reduce, reuse, and recycle is more than inspiring, it’s making a difference.

The film An Inconvenient Truth was the catalyst for best friends Jordan Reichgut and Alex Scaperotta’s environmental activism. Disturbed by what they learned in the movie, they wanted to make the world a better place. “The earth is becoming very polluted and dirty,” says Jordan, shaking his head sadly. Though only nine years old at the time, they founded a kids’ community action club in December 2006. Calling it Little People, Big Changes because, as Alex explains, “we believe kids can have a big impact on the world around them,” they also designed its logo: a scale with people on one side and the earth on the other to represent civilization and nature in balance. Through Little People, Big Changes, their goal is to learn as much as they can about global warming and then take action to help protect the environment.

Enlisting their parents’ help, the boys researched global warming in books and on the Internet. The facts they discovered surprised and galvanized them. “We learned unnecessary idling wastes gas and pollutes the air. If each person in the U.S. idled their car for five minutes less each day, this would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 32 million tons a year,” says Jordan with authority, and then continues, “but I thought this was even more interesting: when you idle your car for 10 minutes, it takes as much gas as it does to drive your car five miles.”

Noticing cars idling for long periods of time in places like school pick-up lines, bank drive-thru windows, and fast food restaurants, Alex and Jordan decided to focus on this behavior. With guidance from their parents and their third grade teacher, Mr. DiCrescenzo, they created a PowerPoint presentation explaining global warming, clean energy sources, and their “No Idle” campaign. Inspired by the data—idling a car for more than ten seconds requires more fuel than turning a car off and restarting it—they came up with a slogan: “If you’re stopped for more than ten, turn it off and on again.” To educate other kids and encourage them to ask their parents not to idle, they received permission to show their presentation and lead discussions in other classrooms at Cider Mill.

As a result of their efforts, over 50 other kids signed up to support Little People, Big Changes. Last fall, many of them got together at the Wilton Library, and with art supplies funded by a generous donation from the Fink Foundation, they created “no idling” posters. These posters, on display in many locations around town, explain why drivers should turn their cars off if they’re idling for more than 10 seconds.

Through Little People, Big Changes, Jordan and Alex embarked on a second major initiative—to encourage Wilton residents to sign-up for clean energy. After learning

Jordan (center), Alex (2nd from right) and other members of the Little People, Big Changes club set up a booth at Stop N' Shop to encourage Wilton residents to sign up for clean energy. Photos By: Carolyn Rundle Field

about CTCleanEnergyOptions, a Connecticut Department of Public Utilities Control program promoting clean energy from renewable resources, they worked with SmartPower and Community Energy to create a customized Little People, Big Changes clean energy sign-up form; homeowners can mail it in or fill it out online. The official sign-up tally to-date is 135 residents (2.4% of households). Rina Reichgut, Jordan’s mother, explains the real number is actually higher due to the lag time involved in registering new applicants.

Shortly after starting their clean energy sign-up campaign, the boys discovered that for every 100 Wilton residents who sign up, the town is eligible to receive a free 2kW solar energy panel from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund. But there was a catch. To be eligible, the town needed to commit to a resolution to purchase 20% of its energy needs from clean sources by 2010. So off went Little People, Big Changes to Town Hall, where they were instrumental in encouraging the newly created Wilton Energy Commission to secure town approval of the “20% by 2010” resolution in December 2007.

In the past year, Jordan and Alex have taken their message on the road. They’ve shown their PowerPoint presentation at the Wilton Library’s past two Earth Day celebrations, at Ambler Farm, and to the Rotary Club. They’ve set up a table with their materials at many local environmental events, and have been fearless in approaching people to ask, “have you signed up yet for clean energy?” Up next: “No Idle” bumper stickers with the Little People, Big Changes logo. Jordan and Alex have also published an article about clean energy in the Cider Mill school newspaper; in their monthly column in the Wilton Bulletin, they’ve encouraged residents to stop idling, turn their holiday lights off overnight, and offered other energy-saving suggestions. Their website, littlepeoplebigchanges.com, includes information about their “No Idle” and “Clean Energy” campaigns, a downloadable clean energy sign-up form, links to other energy conservation websites, and a list of additional ways people can reduce their energy consumption.