PROFILE: Sarah Waddle, St. Paul Central High School

Sarah Waddle's eighth grade teacher inspired her to learn about Jane Goodall and her organization, Roots and Shoots. Sarah founded a Roots and Shoots group at St Paul's Central High School in her sophomore year.

One of Sarah's dream projects for the group is to install a green roof at St. Paul Central. Her Roots and Shoots club is fortunate enough to have Macalester College nearby and was able to meet with students and tour their green roof.

Roots and Shoots also held the first annual Earth Extravaganza in May of 2007. The auditorium was full each class hour to hear speakers from organizations like Aveda, The Climate Project, MacCares and Anne Hunt with the City of St Paul. In the evening, presenters included City Councilman Lee Helgen and Jim Geibel, Energy Efficiency Coordinator for the district. Because Sarah wanted this event to carry on, she included leadership from younger grades. Starr Brainard was very active in the 2007-08 year planning the event and networking with other high school clubs through YEA MN.

Both Sarah and Starr feel rewarded by their efforts. An exchange student from Serbia was inspired to take the ideas she learned at this year's Earth Extravaganza back to her home. Starr said, "It made my day knowing I had reached out to someone about living green and these ideas were going to hop oceans!"

After several years of effort, Sarah has come to know she is not alone in her concern for the environment. "No matter how vast the problems are, there are tons and tons of people who care just as much as I do."