By Thamires Nunes, a senior at Maynard High with a passion for reducing her carbon footprint on the planet

What does it truly take to be a leader? Such a common word, yet so broad and so obscure. The world is so full of haters, critics and people who just want to bring us down. And yet, a leader is expected to forcefully bulldoze through all these obstacles and come out standing. Being the leader of a group working to make a school more environmentally friendly has its own share of obstacles: teachers, lack of participation, non-believers, and most importantly, money.

Luckily, there is hope; there is a light at the end of the tunnel: ACE!

I remember 7th grade science class, the first year I was introduced to this “crazy” notion that they call global warming and the immense impact it had. The class watched “An Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore, and I remember thinking, why haven’t we already sprung into action to help stop global warming? The data is clearly there, the world is practically begging for our help and all we do is stand and watch. The older generation made this mess, and now who’s responsible to clean it all up for future generations? Yah, us.

The impact that movie had on my life was incredible, and yet, somehow it didn’t shock others the same way. Sure, I always recycled and saved paper, but now suddenly, I had a passion to do so! I didn’t recycle at home simply because it was cheaper to recycle then to throw away; it became almost a way of life. I didn’t change energy consuming light bulbs to fluorescent ones just to lower the electricity bill, but also to save the planet! One light bulb at a time. One double-sided paper at a time.

Enter: Maynard High School. A small little school in a small little town where everyone is in everyone’s business. The stereotypical cliques and coteries in a giant suburban school don’t exist in this tiny 329 student school. However, a small, yet organized Green Committee does, and here I found others that actually felt the same way I did!

So where does ACE come into the picture? During sophomore year, ACE came mid-winter and gave their mind-blowing presentation and I cried. No, I literally cried. Seeing the images of what the world could be; putting the last gas car in a museum — was beautiful. Moreover, the impact the ACE presentation had on tiny little Maynard High was impressive. Our little Green Committee grew significantly in the next few meetings – nearly doubling in size! But ACE’s resources didn’t stop there – they also invited our club to attend one of their awesome Leadership Trainings!

When the day came, the leadership training experience itself, was honestly breathtaking. Like I said before, the word leader is really a scary little six letter word, but ACE somehow made it attainable. Through simple, fun activities, we learned the true foundations of a great green group: working together, overcoming obstacles, setting goals, and most importantly, effective organization. Our club’s big hopes and dreams were totally attainable, and ACE provided us with the tools to make our projects a reality!

My favorite activity was making a list of what we wanted to get done and what our obstacles were. Why? Because I learned that our problems that seemed so unique and impossible to solve, actually had solutions! Janitors who argued that “recycling wasn’t part of the contract” weren’t only found at good ol’ Maynard High, they were everywhere, and other schools had found successful solutions!

In fact, the support we received from other ACE Action Teams was another highlight for me! The help we received from other student leaders was unbelievable. It wasn’t a competition of who had the greenest school or who recycled the most. it was a center of unity, where everyone shared a common goal: making each and every single one of our schools greener. Schools that were well on the road to green were willing to share their ideas and their projects with others.

The most exciting part of course, was applying for the $200.00 grant. We actually had to use all that we had learned throughout the course of the day to plan Maynard High’s Green Week, step by step. We got to use all our ideas, all our resources, and all our man power to come up with a fun proactive week in which the school joined in unison to lower our carbon footprint. Thanks to our new friends we made at ACE, our Green Week was perfectly planned by the time we left the training, down to the last detail. All we needed now was to put the plan into action and we hoped ACE would be able to come with some financial help to make Green Week as awesome as possible!

April rolled around, and our Green week went even better then we had ever expected. Our group came together and pooled all our talents to help make it great. The artists designed the cafeteria impeccably, the mathematicians went around taking tallies of participants, others helped serve ice cream in the cafeteria to the winners, and all the whole school had high participation. Most importantly though, we were able to use our planning guide from ACE to get things done, and on schedule.

Then one day, we received an exciting email. Due to our enthusiasm and teamwork, ACE chose Maynard High School to receive a $200.00 starter grant for Green Week 2012! To make our next Green Week even mores successful, we plan to buy sugar bagasse trays for the café, reusable water bottles to sell to reduce plastic, and my personal favorite, eco-friendly spray paint to decorate each and every single one of the recycling bins in school!

Being a member of the worldwide movement to lower greenhouse gas emissions has been a so rewarding. It’s a movement that begins with one person but should spread like wildfire throughout our communities. The pure agony I feel when I see a bottle being placed in the trash or when I receive a single sided test in school is certainly worth fighting for. I’m just one person, but I can do a lot to stop global warming.

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Thamires Nunes is a senior at Maynard High with a passion for reducing her carbon footprint on the planet. She hopes that she can influence others in her actions to do just one thing to stop global warming. ACE has made her goals more accessible and through their help, her tiny little school had a terrific and successful green week and as president of their Green Committee, she hopes to use the knowledge that ACE has given her to lead her team in accomplishing many goals.