Any high school may find it hard to get students to focus on climate change. But at Bellflower High School, a Los Angeles County Title One school because at least 75% of students are on free or reduced lunches, the Roots and Shoots ACE Action team is making a difference. Every day, these students are proving that even the smallest of choices come together to create a large impact that affect the entire community.

Most of these challenges are related to the culture of the community. “Students aren’t in the habit of holding onto their trash until they find a garbage can,” remarks Melissa, the Faculty Sponsor for the Roots and Shoots Action Team at Bellflower. “Our principal and teachers will actually go around with those trash picker uppers at snacks and lunch to remind students to use the garbage cans.” To some, this may seem crazy, but to the students at Bellflower, this is totally normal.

But that didn’t stop these students from tapping into their potential to do some serious good.Even before Kristina von Hoffmann, ACE’s Southern California Lead Educator, presented at Bellflower last year, students recognized that they had the power to make a significant change in their community. They asked Melissa Wegner if they could start an environmental club at school and they excitedly set up a chapter of Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots Program. “This club is entirely student-run. I’m just around to make sure they don’t set fire to my classroom, “ jokes Melissa.

After the ACE Assembly last year, the Roots and Shoots club transformed into a full-fledged ACE Action Team. While they tackled a variety of projectsbefore ACE, such as hosting beach clean ups and revamping the recycling system, ACE’s Biggest Loser: Energy competition was the tipping point in terms of doing larger scale projects.

With very minimal faculty help, Roots and Shoots club members made a plan to tackle the competition. Club members targeted teachers that were receptive to the project and wanted to help the school shed pounds of CO2 and save money. They gave teachers the Biggest Loser: Energy tracking posters and carbon calculator. They officially enrolled 13 classrooms in the competition and got the entire school involved by making daily announcements over the school’s intercom about the importance of saving energy and turning off the lights. “My team’s successes can be directly associated with our diligence. We kept at the work and did not give up; we militantly collected data or would be sure that energy ‘vampires’ would be off, we were always on top of things,” says Nicholas, the appointed Communications Person for the Bellflower Roots and Shoots club.

Their diligence paid off. During ACE’s four-week Biggest Loser: Energy competition, Bellflower saved $26,621.54 in energy costs, coming in first place in a district-wide energy saving competition, reducing energy costs by $10,000 more than the second place winner district winner. They’re continuing to save their school money each semester by using standard measuring devices provided to the school through So Cal Edison. Melissa says, “I recently discovered that our rival high school as well as some other schools in the Bellflower District have ‘Smart Meters’ and ours does not! This made me even more proud (of my students) because we were able to beat out all the schools without the use of a smart meter.”

So what’s next for these students? They’re planning a river clean up to teach fellow students that every piece of trash they throw on the ground as opposed to in a garbage can eventually ends up in the ocean, by way of the nearby San Gabriel River.“I felt that joining the Roots and Shoots club would provide an outlet for me to help take just a bit larger share of responsibility and action to lead the world to a brighter, greener future,” says Nicholas, “ACE gave us both the tools and knowledge – not to mention motivation in some respects – to carry out these aims.”