Green Medford: Reverse Trick or Treat Bewitches Columbus School Neighborhood

What would you do if your doorbell rang on Halloween and instead of saying “trick or treat!” your visitors handed you a new, curly-cue light bulb (or two)? This year’s Halloween saw an event that was a brand new take on the usual compact fluorescent light bulb canvasses that the CEA hosts.  We are thrilled to see that this creative event went off without a hitch, and that it has set a great precedent for following years!

Please see below for the post featured on the Green Medford blog:


A group of us from Green Medford and Fletcher Green (a Tufts graduate student group) trolled the streets around the Columbus School last night–Halloween evening–handing out bags of treats to delighted and laughing residents at 84 addresses. People who answered their doors expecting to give out candy were instead handed a bag containing two new energy-efficient lights. Event participant “Sherlock Holmes” noted, “It was gratifying to see how surprised and happy this made people.”

One resident told us, “This is such a great idea! We recently switched all of our bulbs to CFLs and are saving $60 a month.” She turned to her neighbor and said, “You have to take some. This is amazing!”

We gave out more than 180 CFLs that were donated by National Grid and the Tufts Office of Community Relations. The First Annual Medford Reverse Trick or Treat exceeded our expectations, and we are already looking forward to expanding on our success with a bigger event next year!

Thanks so much to all the sponsors and others who helped organize this event, especially JR Siegel, Allie Lipps, Becky Hemperly, Kim Wardwell, Catherine Smith, Alicia Hunt, Brad Steele of EFI, and Barbara Rubel at the Tufts Office of Community Relations.

Susan Altman
Green Medford

This entry was posted in Conservation & Efficiency, Electricity, Events, Home, Lighting, Massachusetts by JesseGorden. Bookmark the permalink.

About JesseGorden

I grew up in New England, spending ample time outside and enjoying plentiful family trips to the White Mountains. These activities unquestionably altered my life forever, fostering a love for nature that led me sure-footedly in the direction of a great environmental passion. I graduated in May 2010 from the University of Connecticut, where I earned a degree in Environmental Sciences with a concentration in Natural Resources. Through several personal revelations and much reading, I have come to the conclusion that the most effective way to save our planet is to have as many people as possible care about it in some way shape or form; only then will we make such significant progress as to alter history. So my mission has become clear: educate everyone I can reach in my lifetime. Teach them the wonders of our world, why we need to protect it, and how we can do this, together. I am at CEA for the summer through an internship program with The Student Conservation Association.

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