Area Teens Make a Mark
Melissa Rice
Early-Life Environmentalist
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It was hot and sticky inside the polar bear suit, -- and the feeling gave Melissa Rice, 18, new insight into the meaning of global warming. But she stood in front of the State Department on an 80-degree day in September to make a point. In her faux fur paws, she clutched a sign that said, "Bush: My Home is Melting."
Now that's devotion.
Melissa, a senior at Bethesda's Walter Johnson High School, said she has a passion for making the world a greener place -- for polar bears, for her generation and for the generations that will follow.
As a young child, she carried a cloth bag to the farmer's market when she shopped with her mother. She was the one cleaning up trash along the trails on which they hiked.
At Walter Johnson, she persuaded the principal to install more recycling bins for white paper. Currently, she's trying to figure out how to reduce bottled water usage.
"The environment is a topic where it's very easy to make a personal connection," she said. "We're all in the same boat."
In the fall, she'll start Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, where she plans on continuing her green activism. Her goal is to be a career organizer.
"The appeal is that I'll get to meet all kinds of folks -- scientists, lawyers, activists -- and will be able to bring them all together."
As a member and, this year, president of the Montgomery County Students for Environmental Action, she has been noticed. She and fellow club members were singled out by Montgomery County Council member George L. Leventhal (D-At Large) for their push to get the county to use alternative sources of energy, such as wind power, and last year received applause for their support of the use of biodiesel fuel in the county fleet. The county has formed a working group to study the issue.
Politicians have been surprised to encounter young people with such strong beliefs, Melissa said. And although that's nice, she said, people "have to get used to seeing teenage leaders."
Despite the defeat of a package of bills that would have put Maryland at the forefront of states in the battle against global warming -- something she and her classmates lobbied for -- Melissa remains optimistic.
Melissa jokes that she's trying to turn her friends and the rest of the world to the "green side."
