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NORTH CANAAN — The war is over. Let the peeling and sorting begin —of more than 160 pounds of crayons, that is.
Let’s see, given that one crayon weighs about an ounce, and that many crayons have been used to varying degrees, well, let’s just say that translates to thousands of crayons.
A “crayon war†at North Canaan Elementary School culminated Feb. 2 in a crayon-strewn cafeteria where families peeled the paper off the crayons, sorted them by color and donated them to Crayons for Cancer.
The PTO-sponsored event encouraged the donation of a seemingly endless supply (at least to those doing the peeling and sorting) collected in a competition among the classrooms. Linda Peppe’s first-grade class earned the pizza party, with more than 18 pounds of crayons. Second place were Tracy Augustine’s fifth-graders, with more than 16 pounds, followed closely by Shelby Diorio’s fourth-grade class.
The bigger picture is an effort that began with a simple idea.
The Christiansen family (Tim, Charlene, Emily, 7, and Ethan, 5) live in Manchester. They attend the Wethersfield Evangelical Free Church, which takes part in a sort of “pay-it forward†challenge.
A small amount of cash is given to members, who must parlay it into a way to help someone else. Tim and Charlene each received an envelope with $20. A friend gave them the $10 she had received. A lot of thought and prayer went into potential ideas.
One day, out of the blue, as Charlene walked Emily to school, their crossing guard, Shirley, handed her a bucket of used crayons. Shirley knew only that her kids had grown too old for them.
But it was then-6-year-old Emily, who had lost her friend TJ to cancer just before his fourth birthday, who came up with the idea to melt and remold the crayons. She remembered her mom doing that when she taught pre-kindergarten.
“The light bulb just went off over my head,†Emily said. “I wanted to do something to remember TJ.â€
“We used the $50 to buy molds, and got melting,†Charlene Christiansen said. “It’s TJ’s legacy. His parents are very touched.â€
They began selling their special crayons wherever they could in November 2008. In a little over a year, Crayons for Cancer has taken over a large portion of their home, has its own Web site, and rallies schools and others across the state to help families of kids with cancer at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford.
“It goes into the Family Fund at the hospital, which helps family with things like parking, or a meal in the hospital cafeteria. It’s like a hug from a friend,†Charlene said.
The Christiansens travel around the state, about once a week, and meet with groups collecting and processing crayons, spreading their message and adding to their endless crayon supply. Last week, they came to North Canaan.
This small grassroots effort is spreading and growing.
Restaurants such as Friendly’s and Bertucci’s, who give crayons to young patrons to color placemats, are now donating crayons left behind at tables.
Tim devised, out of a stair tread, plastic pipe and other odds and ends, a contraption that neatly slices the paper on the crayons, without threatening little fingers. It makes peeling a cinch.
The effort is having a profound effect in unexpected ways.
Tim related the story of a severely autistic girl who has been drawn out of herself to a degree while sorting crayons by color.
A teacher at Manchester High School offered to take crayons and have them peeled by students in detention, as a punishment.
“I think it may have backfired,†Tim said. “Apparently the kids like it.â€
He could not say if it has had an impact on the number of students receiving detention.
In December, Crayons for Cancer donated $2,000 to the Family Needs Fund at the Minneapolis Children’s Hospital, and has begun raising funds for The Tomorrow Fund at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Rhode Island, marking the launch of statewide efforts in those states.
And so it grows.
They had set a fundraising goal of $200 with their first sale. They took in more than $350. Seven months later, they hit the $4,000 mark, during a trip to Los Angeles where Emily and their church received a Well Done Award.
She was thrilled with the unique trophy, which has her name printed on it. And she got to meet “American Idol†contestant Sanjaya Malakar and “iCarly†star Nathan Kress.
“I had to get up and speak in front of about 1,000 people,†Emily said. “I was a little nervous.â€
The North Canaan Elementary School PTO plans to continue to support the effort.
To order crayons or to find out about ways to help, go to crayonsforcancer.org.
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Telecom Reg’s Best Kept On the Books
When Connecticut land-use commissions update their regulations, it seems like a no-brainer to jettison old telecommunications regulations adopted decades ago during a short-lived period when municipalities had authority to regulate second generation (2G) transmissions prior to the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) being ordered by a state court in 2000 to regulate all cell tower infrastructure as “functionally equivalent” services.
It is far better to update those regs instead, especially for macro-towers given new technologies like small cells. Even though only ‘advisory’ to the CSC, the preferences of towns by law must be taken into consideration in CSC decision making. Detailed telecom regs – not just a general wish list -- are evidence that a town has put considerable thought into where they prefer such infrastructure be sited without prohibiting service that many – though not all – citizens want and that first responders rely on for public safety.
Such regs come in handy when egregious tower sites are proposed in sensitive areas, typically on private land. The regs are a town’s first line of defense, especially when cross referenced to plans of conservation and development, P&Z regulations, and wetlands setbacks. They identify how/where the town plans to intersect with the CSC process. They are also a roadmap for service providers regarding preferred sites and sometimes less neighborhood contention. In fact, to have no telecom regs can weaken a town’s rights to protect environmental, scenic, and historic assets, and serve up whole neighborhoods to unnecessary overlapping coverage and corporate overreach. Such regs are unique to every town and should not follow anyone else’s boiler plate, especially industry’s.
Connecticut is the only state that has a centralized siting entity for cell towers. The good news is that applicants must prove need for new tower sites in an evidentiary proceeding and any decisions have the weight of the state behind them. The bad news is that the CSC used to be far less industry-friendly and rote in their reviews, which now resemble a check list. There is an operative assumption at CSC that if an applicant wants a tower, they must need it, otherwise why spend significant money to run the approval gauntlet? This reflects a subtle shift over the years at CSC from sincere willingness to protect the environment toward minimal tweaking of bad applications with minor changes. The bottom line is that towns really cannot rely on the CSC to do all the work for them.
What CSC issues telecom providers is a “certificate of environmental compatibility” after an evidentiary proceeding (not unlike a court case) with intervenors, parties, expert witnesses, and the service provider’s technical pro’s sworn in and subject to cross examination. Service providers get to do the same with any opposition from intervenor/party participants – like towns and citizens -- and their experts. It’s an impressive process whose ultimate goal is the fine balancing between allowing adequate/reliable public services and protecting state ecology with minimal damage to scenic, historic, and recreational values. They unfortunately often fall short of their mandate – like approving cell towers with diesel generators over town aquifers -- evidenced by CSC only rejecting about five cell towers in the past 15-20 years.
The CSC was founded in 1972 and clarified its mission in the 1980’s to prevent the state from being carved up willy-nilly by gas pipelines, high tension corridors, and broadcast towers. With the sudden proliferation of cell towers beginning in late 1990’s, it became the most sued agency in Connecticut by both an arrogant upstart industry if applications were denied and by towns/citizens when bad sites were forced on them. CSC gradually formed a defensive posture that drives their decisions toward industry with deeper pockets and attorneys on retainer.
For citizens, nothing can wreck one’s day like the CSC. It behooves towns to protect what little toolkit they have, and understand the legal parameters of the CSC’s playing field. The CSC is not a “normal” government agency where municipal/citizen redress is based on logic and local support. Their process is largely immune to everything but specific kinds of evidence – like town regs with setbacks/fall zones, radio frequency transmission signal strengths, sensitive areas identified, and detailed wildlife inventory, among others.
There is a current cell tower fight involving two intervening towns -- Washington and Warren; both with good cell tower regs – over a tower site within 1200’ of a Montessori School, near Steep Rock’s nature preserves with comprehensive geology/wildlife databases that include endangered, threatened and special concern flora and fauna, on established federal/state migratory bird flyways, within throwing distance to a historic site capable of being listed on the Underground Railroad, and with an access road on a blind curve entering a state highway that will permanently damage wetlands, vernal pools, and core forests. There are well credentialed environmental experts, including Dr. Michael Klemens, former chair of Salisbury’s P&Z, as well as the former director of migratory bird management at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and an RF engineer testifying to alternative approaches, plus three attorneys representing intervenors. It is the most professional challenge I have seen at CSC since Falls Village successfully mounted one that protected Robbins Swamps several years ago.
The hearing is ongoing, with uncertain results. To see what it takes today to stop an inappropriate tower siting, see Docket #543 under “Pending Matters” at https://portal.ct.gov/csc before removing local cell tower regs – the lowest hanging fruit that any town can possess in case it’s needed.
B, Blake Levitt is the Communications Director at The Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council. She writes about how technology affects biology.