For the Loudoun County Public School System Energy Conservation not only begins at home it travels to the homes of all the students who attend the county's nationally recognized, award-winning, energy efficient facilities.

The buildings and grounds themselves become teaching tools and programs promoting energy efficiency, recycling, and care for the environment become a daily part of the lives of the system's teachers, students, and administrators.

In early April Guilford Elementary School kicked off its Third Annual Environmental Fair with a school-wide assembly featuring two of the systems most successful (and entertaining) conservation professionals.

Mike Barancewicz and John Lord, known in the public schools as "The Energy Guys," are both trained energy conservation professionals and educators.

At Guilford they engaged hundreds of elementary school students (the oldest were fith graders) with hands-on experiments using hand-cranked generators, and what can only be termed a real time "re-enactment" of a quintessentially dry training film on coal-fired generators produced by Dominion Power.

Students first watched the short film, with classic basso-profundo narration tracing energy production from coal mines to household outlets. Then, with Lord re-reciting the narrative, in character and in real time, Barancewiz orchestrated a living reinactment of the entire film, with students playing the roles of coal, trains, conveyer belts and pulverizers, water, steam, turbines, and distribution lines, all working together to eventually deliver a shock to their principal, who happily played the role of a house. The kids loved it, and everyone learned how coal is connected to light bulbs.

NBC4 Meterologist Tom Kierein, representatives of Loudoun Water and Waste Management, and Guilford's own SGA and K-Kids also contributed to an event which would not only teach, but have real impact on energy use at the school, and no doubt at the students' homes as well.

Loudoun County's schools run similar programs, tailored for young audiences from K through 12, all over the county.

And they work.

Last year the Environmental Protection Agency named the Loudoun County Public Schools one of only two national "Energy Star Partners of the Year," a designation widely regarded as the US Government's highest award "in recognition of energy conservation and efficiency.

From a taxpayers perspective the program also makes a difference. Through such programs, as well as conscientious long-term planning, he county's schools have avoided spending an estimated than $34 million on energy since 1993.