October was ACE’s first-ever Spirit Month! For those of you who missed the memo, Spirit Month was a month-long rally around DOT (or  Pledges to Do One Thing to Help the Environment). It was a competition to see which class nationally could submit the most DOTs. The final numbers are in, it’s time to reveal which class totally rocked ACE’s Spirit Month. This is a HUGE deal because ACE gave away the biggest prize in history- an iPad2 – to one student from the class that submitted the most DOTs.

In fourth place, with a total of 17% of DOTs submitted was the class of 2012, the big, bad SENIORS!

In third place, with a total of 20% of DOTs submitted was the class of 2014, the SOPHOMORES!

In second place, with a total of 31% of DOTs submitted was the class of 2015, the class you gotta watch out for, the FRESHMAN!

And, drum roll please, the winners of Spirit Month in first place, just barely in front of the Freshman with a 32% DOT capture rate were the JUNIORS!

Thanks to everybody who submitted a DOT. And now, the other moment you’ve all been waiting for, introducing the winner of the iPad! Emily Lizotte, a junior at RHAM High School in Glatsonbury, CT is the lucky winner of ACE’s biggest prize in history.

First, a little background about the Action Team at the school because they have done some pretty cool projects so far this semester. They lead a nature trail clean-up that resulted in trash-free trails, created awesome Lights Out signs and are currently working on a video contest at their school called “Live Green.” Pretty cool!

Let’s check out Emily’s story. Emily wants to be a vet so the animals in her community are very important to her.

My name is Emily Lizotte. I am a junior at RHAM high school. My DOT was to unplug Energy Vampires although I loved all of the options, like recycling, biking to school or using reusable water bottles, and would love to do anything to help our planet. I love the earth and our environment around us. I especially love animals and want to become a veterinarian when I get out of high school.

I first heard about ACE in my aquatic biology class when we were talking about our carbon foot prints and what we could to make our way of life better to help the planet. When we got to the ACE Assembly I was really excited to see what it was all about. When the Assembly first started I liked the most that it was a speech but also a power point and had  small video clips. Those video clips definitely kept the audience into what was being told.

My friends and I go out and clean up the streets and our neighborhoods on the weekends. We also live next to a lake so when we are on the beach we often see ducks and birds but we also see trash that people carelessly leave on the beach. So to make sure nothing harms the animals we pick up the trash and put it in the garbage can where it belongs.

Our Action Team at school has done a lot to help out. They provided recycling bins in our school cafeteria and in all of our school’s classrooms. They go around once a week to each classroom to pick up the recycled goods and dispose of them properly. They also stay after school and have meetings to talk about what they can do to help the community and communities around us.

My favorite part about helping out my community is knowing that one person an make a huge difference and possibly start a revolution. Knowing that I can help my friends, family and the animals around me makes me extremely happy to be there to help out.