Turning Grease into Fuel Service-Learning Project Wins National Award
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Members of the Turning Grease into Fuel project of Westerly, R.I., are receiving a national award for their leadership and service. The Youth Leadership for Service-Learning Excellence Award, given by the National Youth Leadership Council, will be presented to members of TGIF during the 24th Annual National Service-Learning Conference® on March 13, 2013 in Denver, Colo.
The TGIF project was started in 2008 by the Junior WIN (Westerly Innovations Network) team and aims to recycle used cooking oil from local restaurants into biofuel to help families who need emergency heating assistance.
“We first convinced our town council to place a waste cooking oil (WCO) receptacle at the town’s transfer station,” said Cassanda Lin “Then we visited hundreds of restaurants to ask them to donate their grease, and partnered with grease collectors, biodiesel refiners, and charitable organizations to collect, refine and distribute BioHeat® to families who needed emergency heating assistance.”
The project has set up ten cooking oil recycling centers in five cities and two states, covering an area with 250,000 residents and has donated a total of 21,000 gallons of BioHeat® fuel (approximately $81,000) to six charities. The youth team has also created a toolkit which instructs others on how to implement TGIF. To date it has been distributed to four other states and Canada.
The Youth Leadership for Service-Learning Excellence Award is presented by the National Youth Leadership Council to recognize k-12 service-learning programs and projects that demonstrate outstanding youth leadership. It is awarded annually during the National Service-Learning Conference. As the winning team, TGIF will receive $1,000 to maintain and further develop their service-learning project.
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At the National Youth Leadership Council, we strive for a world where all young people are valued and called on to lead. With passion, creativity, and ingenuity, young people can address world issues while strengthening academic, civic, and learning outcomes through service-learning. To that end, we provide programs and services that develop young leaders, support educators, and advance the field of service-learning. Visit www.nylc.org to learn more about NYLC and service-learning.
