Project Porchlight Blog

Tamara Goldberg (pictured here, left), a resident of West Long Branch, New Jersey, first heard about Project Porchlight’s campaign to distribute energy-efficient light bulbs across the state from Veronica (pictured here, second from the left), her 11-year-old daughter. Veronica is a Girl Scout, and her troop was planning to participate in a bulb distribution in nearby Oceanport, New Jersey.

Tamara joined Veronica and her fellow Girl Scouts on September 19 for a very successful Oceanport Blitz. A total of 900 energy-saving compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs were distributed throughout Oceanport that day.

“After I did the first project in Oceanport, I became totally excited and just thrilled to be a part of Project Porchlight,” says Tamara. “It was amazing--I loved it! We had such a positive experience. We went from house to house and met lovely people. Everybody was so accepting. We just had a great time together, I wanted to do more and more and more.”

Tamara kept in touch with the Project Porchlight office in Forked River, New Jersey, and offered to help with future bulb distributions. When she got a call asking whether she would be interested in volunteering for the Monmouth Beach Blitz on November 15, Tamara decided this was an activity for her whole family. “We like to do family time together on the weekend, usually something recreational,” she says. “I said, ‘Let’s do something for the environmental cause,’ and so we did.”

This time, Tamara’s son Zachary (pictured here, 2nd from the right), 13, and her husband Barry (pictured here, right) volunteered, too. The results of the Monmouth Beach Blitz were incredible: A grand total of 1,000 CFL bulbs were distributed in a single day. Both blitzes were part of Project Porchlight New Jersey’s campaign to distribute energy-efficient light bulbs to residents across the state. Project Porchlight is an initiative of One Change, and the campaign is made possible thanks to funding by the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU) and New Jersey’s Clean Energy Program (NJCEP).

“It was such a great experience for all of us,” says Tamara. “We worked so cohesively together as a family. Volunteering for Project Porchlight made the children feel confident, because people were listening to them and accepting these CFL bulbs. It helped boost their self-esteem. They felt really good to be contributing to something that can help the earth.”

Eighth-grader Zachary enjoyed interacting with the people they met. “We explained all about the CFL bulbs to them,” he says. “And then they would understand how important it was and how big a change we’re trying to make.”

Veronica, a sixth-grader, says Project Porchlight made her feel great. “I liked seeing people’s faces when they understood why we were there,” she says. “It made me happy because now I know that those people are trying to save energy. I helped a lot of people to save the earth and energy.”

Project Porchlight empowers people to believe that simple actions matter and to make smart choices that protect the environment. “I just felt so empowered, so instrumental,” says Tamara, who works as a crisis secretary at a local hospital. “I felt that I was helping the environment by telling these homeowners that when they convert to CFL bulbs, they are saving so much energy. And the more energy we save, the less fossil fuels are being used, and that’s going to help us with the ozone and the air that we breathe.”

When it comes to protecting our environment, simple actions matter. Even something as simple as changing a light bulb is important. “This was a learning experience for us. Before we learned about Project Porchlight, we hadn’t switched over to CFL bulbs. Since then, we have converted our entire house to CFL bulbs,” says Tamara. “Now I’m trying to help bring Project Porchlight to West Long Branch. If everybody does their part to help the environment, the world would be so much better.”