Anti-Idling Contest Winners Announced

In celebration of Earth Day, the community and school district participated in its first online Anti-Idling Pledge Contest from April 9-29, under the slogan “Turn the Key—Be Idle Free.”

Voluntarily idling a car when it is not moving seems fairly innocuous, but it wastes gasoline, and increases children’s exposure to harmful emissions. Air pollution from vehicles has health implications for everyone, but children are more susceptible to this pollution.

The goal of the contest was to encourage families to join the school district and other like-minded Hillsborough families to take a pledge, on the honor system, to not idle their vehicles—especially on school grounds.

An astounding 667 families pledged through their school community. Woods Road and Triangle Elementary Schools tied for first place with a 37 percent level of participation in their schools.  Next was Woodfern with a 30 percent participation rate, followed by 24 percent at Sunnymead, 16 percent at Hillsborough Elementary, 14 percent at Auten, 11 percent at Hillsborough Middle School (HMS), 10 percent at Amsterdam, and 6 percent at Hillsborough High. 

The high school had 156 pledges, which was the third highest number of pledges for a school but its student population is five times larger than the elementary schools, which accounts for the low percentage.

Woods Road School Green Committee member Laura D’Andrade noted that she sent email reminders and created an attractive informational flyer that was readily available to the members of the WRS community. 

The Recycling Club at HMS, the Tree Ring Club at HHS, Daisy, Brownie, and Cadette Troops 60644 and 392, and Boy Scout Troops 186 and 1776 supported the “Turn the Key—Be Idle Free” campaign at different Hillsborough Schools.

BoroGreen members Clare Liptak and Nadine Sapirman spoke at different Scout meetings to engage the scouts in the pledge contest. 

“When I spoke to my son's cub scout pack, they knew immediately that keeping the car on when you're not going anywhere was bad for the earth and a waste of money and gas,” Sapirman said.

BoroGreen members also fanned out to local businesses to ask for prize donations from Ambleside Nurseries, Lowes, Applebees, Petrocks, Dunkin Donuts, Rita's, and Super Sundaes. 

In addition, two permanent signs have been installed per school at pick up and drop off locations under the direction of Director of Facilities, Dave Frusco. These signs were ordered from the NJ DEP and donated by GeoGenix, LLC, a NJ-based company that has installed solar power at dozens of Hillsborough homes and wanted to support the anti-idling efforts when they first learned about it at the 2010 Sustainable Hillsborough Family Fair.

Another factor for the success of the contest was that Director of Technology, Joel Handler, Kate Shaughnessy from the Administrative Office, and Thuy Anh Le, Facilities Chair for the Board of Education, all collaborated to make it an online pledge instead of sending paper flyers home. The paperless contest reinforced the sustainable action of turning the key to be idle-free. Handler was then able to identify every 50th pledge at the district website to award prizes that were donated by local businesses, BoroGreen, Sustainable Hillsborough, and Board of Education members.  The contest was truly a community effort as shown by the different groups and people involved.

Why did the idling contest target schools? Children breathe at a faster rate than adults and they also inhale more air per pound of body weight. Air quality is often worse in the afternoon, just about the time that students are dismissed from school.

Idling engines at parent pick-up affect the air quality around the school—when our students are leaving to come home.

“The safety and well being of our students is a top priority for me,” said Dr. Jorden Schiff, Superintendent of Schools.  “Promoting environmental concerns that will improve our health and reduce our carbon footprint, it is not only our responsibility as educators but also a valuable life-long lesson for all stakeholders in the Hillsborough community.”

The Hillsborough Board of Education approved a resolution to endorse the “No Idling” pledge on March 28, 2011. The Board of Education and the district transportation department in Hillsborough are endorsing national, state, and local programs to reduce emissions and are working with local school principals.

Liptak, Boro Green volunteer, said, “The simple step of shutting off your engine can help everyone breath cleaner air, save money, conserve gas resources, and reduce emissions all at the same time”.

 Contact BoroGreen at info@borogreen.org or visit www.borogreen.org if you want to get involved in other sustainable projects. We’ll be reinforcing the anti‑idling campaign this coming Fall. BoroGreen members are available to be advisors for Eagle, Silver, and Gold Award projects pertaining to sustainability–which ensures the future by acting in the present.