Parents, you are integral in the success of the Bright Futures Project!  With your support and your encouragement, your children can help change your community for the better.  And selling CFLs are just the start.  Your children will explain to family members, neighbors, and friends about the importance of CFLs for reducing energy consumption and saving money.  Their advocacy for energy conservation will help change the energy consumption of your neighborhood, your town, Virginia, and the whole country.  Children are great advocates for positive change and see the world not for what it is and has to be, but for what it will and can be.

We hope you encourage your children while they sell CFLs.  Accompany them when talking to friends and neighbors.  And learn about CFLs yourself.  Make changes in your own homes, in your own daily lives.  Your kids will notice how seriously you take the message of the Bright Futures Project!

Many parents have expressed concern about the small amount of mercury found in CFLs.  The information below offers a concise summary of the issues related to mercury in the CFLs and the “hidden” mercury impacts in the continued use of incandescent bulbs.  Please read this information carefully, print out the sheet and post it on your fridge.

More detailed information about the mercury in CFLs, is located at:

The Energy Star Guide to Mercury in CFLs
The VA Department of Environmental Quality listing of locations to recycle CFLs
The VA DEQ CFL FAQ