nothin Students Bike For A Greener Elm City | New Haven Independent

Students Bike For A Greener Elm City

Daniela Brighenti Photo

On the steps of City Hall, 11 kids became the proud owners of shiny new bicycles.

It was not any of their birthdays. The bicycles are one part of the city’s summertime energy conservation initiative, now in its third edition.

As part of the initiative, current high school and college students will canvass city neighborhoods throughout the next five weeks, offering residents information on ways to reduce their energy consumption and consequently New Haven’s overall carbon footprint.

Bartlett speaks to the crowd.

We are continuing the city’s pledge to reduce energy consumption dramatically over the next years,” Mayor Toni Harp said at the program’s opening ceremony on Thursday. A large part [of that] is active promotion of energy efficiency and renewable technologies.”

Sometimes biking, sometimes walking or taking the bus, the Youth Conservation Corps will walk through multiple city neighborhoods, aiming to knock at the doors of over 10,000 New Haveners in total.

For the past week, students have been trained on how to engage with the adults and provide them with information on the benefits of home energy solutions.” HES is a no-cost weatherization program designed to create more energy-efficient and comfortable homes and lower monthly energy costs.

For households that fall within a threshold of eligible incomes, the assessment is free of charge and performed by professional energy experts” who look for any possible energy saving improvements in homes.

Harp receives a check from Comcast.

The program is made possible through the donations of multiple partners. Representatives from Comcast and Bank of America each donated $5,000, and another from United Illuminating Company donated $10,000.

Devil’s Gear Bike Shop owner Matt Feiner was present at Thursday’s event. He said the shop offered overhead price so the group could afford to purchase more bikes. He added that the shop also fitted the students for helmets and taught them bike safety tips. At the end of the five-week program, the students will get to keep their bikes — an incentive, city Director of Youth Services Jason Bartlett said, to get the youth riding their bikes more in the city.

Rosario, who just finished her freshman year at Wilbur Cross High School, said she is looking forward to the chance of staying active throughout the summer, as she is part of her school’s track team. She heard about Youth Conservation Corps through her sister, who participated in the program last year.

I didn’t want to just be at home all summer,” Carielys Rosario said. That would’ve been just boring.”

Though Bartlett noted the program continues to grow and develop each year, he said he would love” to employ additional youth at any given time. He jokingly asked the crowd gathering at the City Hall’s steps if there was anyone else looking to donate to the program.

The event ended a few minutes after 2:30 p.m. Hobby and her group of students clad in green T‑shirts had to get going: they were walking to the Hill neighborhood to officially kick-off their canvassing efforts.

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