Teen Competition Seeks To Identify Fairfield County’s Environmental Leaders Of Tomorrow

Westport-based energy company Gault, Inc, and the nonprofit organization Polar Bears International (PBI) has launched Project Polar Bear, a competition that challenges Fairfield County high school students ages 14 to 18 to develop community projects that will help reduce the carbon dioxide load in the atmosphere.

Four finalist teams, selected from a pool of national contestants, will be flown to the San Diego Zoo in spring 2009 for an awards ceremony. The team judged Best Overall will travel to Manitoba, Canada, in October 2009 to study the great ice bears in their native habitat. Fairfield County teens must register their project by September 15, 2008, at www.gault-pbi.com. Projects must be completed and a results report submitted by December 31.

The groundbreaking ten-year alliance between Gault, a home heating oil, propane and cooling company that has been serving Fairfield County homeowners for 145 years, and PBI, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the polar bear’s habitat through conservation, research and education, was formed in June 2008 as part of a growing grassroots energy conservation movement to help consumers reduce their carbon footprint and preserve the polar bear’s habitat. Added to the Endangered Species list in May 2008, the polar bear has become the ultimate living symbol of global warming.

According to Sam Gault, president of Gault, Inc, “Today’s teenagers represent our best chance for finding energy solutions for a greener tomorrow.

“At Gault, we believe that teens hold the key to educating children and their families about the effects of global warming on the health of our neighborhoods, our planet and, especially, the polar bear’s habitat,” he said. “Project Polar Bear is a way for small groups of young people to make a big difference in the way their communities approach energy consumption.”

Gault is spearheading this Fairfield County teen competition in the wake of one of the biggest energy crises in American history, in which home heating oil prices soared to well above $4 per gallon.