By Abbie Preston, Staff Reporter

As part of a leadership conference, a group of students from across the county were tasked with finding ways to make a positive impact on the environment. Their solution was creating Students Protecting the Environment of Chester County (SPECC), a youth-led organization that combats global climate change.

SPECC specifically focuses on mobilizing the youth in Chester County to take action against climate change. The students who founded the organization believe that young people tend to be eager to help with issues significantly impacting their future.

“The problems or issues of the world are put on the backs of the newer generations,” said Gabby Edmondson, junior at Downingtown STEM Academy and science writer for SPECC. “Not only that, but they’re easier to influence as they’re able to criticize the things they notice from older generations. And they’re easy to give more knowledge to because they’re craving it.”

After seeing local parks littered with trash and a lack of awareness of environmental changes among community members, the members of SPECC knew they needed to tackle climate change in Chester County.

“The way to make a global impact is to have a local impact first,” said Maeve Zeloyle, website designer for SPECC and junior at Downingtown STEM Academy. “You are not going to be able to make any kind of big change without making a small change first. It’s like a domino effect.”

The founders of the organization met at the 2023 Pennsylvania High O’Brian Youth Leadership Program, a three-day series of seminars. The conference grouped the attendees from Chester County together to discuss how they can enact change locally. They shared a passion for addressing the climate change happening in their communities.

“We really bonded over the fact that the parks we grew up in are really dirty now and aren’t cared for as much as we wish they were,” said Kyle Ngyuen, junior at Conestoga and social media manager of SPECC. “The pollution in our community is not what we remembered back when we were kids.”

To spark change in Chester County, SPECC hosts small events such as trash clean-ups and paper making sessions. The organization hopes to use these events as vehicles to raise awareness of global warming.

“The first step in order to take action is to know what the problems are,” Edmondson said. “And so, if we can have the knowledge of how to take care of our environment, we can work on reducing the issues.”

Though only recently started, SPECC has already started to receive positive feedback as it provides community help.

“Some people messaged me about the organization,” Ngyuen said. “They felt like they weren’t alone in trying to be more eco-friendly and more aware of their environment.”

Abbie Preston can be reached at [email protected].