Teacher Russ Yates (pictured here) believes it’s never too early to teach children to value the environment. As Director of Port Townsend, WA’s Swan School, he plays an active role in educating today’s youth about the importance of helping to conserve energy, protect natural resources, and give back to the community.

After hearing that Project Porchlight was coming to Port Townsend, Russ was intrigued. He looked us up in partner Puget Sound Energy’s materials and decided Project Porchlight was something he wanted his school involved with. “It fits well with (our mandate),” he says. “We value connections and, in particular, connecting people and their environment. We’ve always been very ecologically friendly and so it fit well within our school’s philosophy and mission to help save energy and do community service at the same time.”

On August 12, Russ led several of his current students—and some Swan School alumni—in delivering free compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs throughout Port Townsend as part of the town’s bulb blitz. He was delighted to see that his students, who range in age from 3 to 12 years, were all impressed by the power they had to influence change and help others within their community.

Project Porchlight isn’t the first community environmental initiative Russ introduced to his students. Each year, Swan School visits the Olympic Park Institute, an outdoor science education center located in Olympic National Park. “We have found that it’s a great place for us to do so much community building, as well as learning about the environment,” he says.

Russ is also committed to leading by example. He’d already replaced his incandescent light bulbs with CFL bulbs by the time Project Porchlight came to town. But he says that our campaign has helped prompt him to continue making smart choices to protect the environment. “We just got a new Energy Star washing machine that is a front loader instead a top loader, so there’s a lot less water use, a lot less energy use,” he says. “I also changed recently to a hybrid car, and I love it. I get about 50 miles to the gallon and it makes a huge difference.”

After having such a positive experience with Project Porchlight, Russ is looking forward to promoting other One Change initiatives to future generations of Swan School students. He’s very much in favor of empowering youth to believe that simple actions matter. “It seems like it’s a doable thing, especially for kids,” says Russ. “You can take that one little piece, make that one change, and it’s something that you can do (on an individual level). And then collectively, we can make a difference. I love that.”

Washington state’s oldest local energy utility, Puget Sound Energy serves more than 1 million electric customers and nearly 750,000 natural gas customers in 11 counties. A subsidiary of Puget Energy, PSE meets the energy needs of its growing customer base through incremental, cost-effective energy conservation, procurement of sustainable energy resources, and far-sighted investment in the energy-delivery infrastructure. PSE employees are dedicated to providing great customer service and delivering energy that is safe, reliable, reasonably priced, and environmentally responsible. For more information, visit www.PSE.com.