By Carol Bowe, student from Boston Latin School YouthCAN

Last Tuesday on September 7^th at the old South Church in Boston, 350.org held an event about putting solar on the white house. Bill McKibben and some students from Unity College in Maine traveled there with a solar panel from their rooftop (that was actually on the White House back in the day!) that they wanted the President to put back on the White House.

I was there with a few other people from Boston Latin School YouthCAN to support this amazing attempt to get the government to start acting upon climate change again. And along with us we took this blown up version of two letters, one written to the American people from American Industries and one written to American Industries from YouthCAN.

Here’s the backstory. The letter appeared as a full page add in the Boston Globe in 1977. It urged the American people to join the industries and try to help the environment; it said that, “Time is running out.”

In our letter back we asked, “What Happened?” and we called upon them to join us and President Obama to make a new energy policy.

The whole night was really about the fact that in 1979 Carter put solar panels on the White House and that in 1986 Reagan took them down and sent them to Unity College in Maine. Since then the college has used those solar panels but now they along with Bill McKibben believe that they should be put back where they belong, on the White House.  After all we do need them more than they did in 1979 not only to help climate change but also as a symbol that something is being done and there will be change.

So, we carried our message and also had some fun on the way. A band called Melodeego rocked the house – they were very energizing and exciting. We also got a chance to watch a documentary called “The Road not Taken” about the solar panels. They even allowed us to sign the solar panel that they brought to the White House!