Samohi students receive Presidential Commendation

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Presidential commendation recipients and Santa Monica High School students Charlotte Biren (left) and Jenna Perelman.

Santa Monica High School students Charlotte Biren and Jenna Perelman were awarded a Presidential Commendation from President Barack Obama at the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District meeting June 16.

The students received the award for their leadership of the environmental event “Bike It! Day,” which encourages students to get to school using forms of transportation other than cars.

The event is practiced throughout the district and has influenced others in the state. Biren and Perelman are also co-presidents of the Samohi Solar Alliance, the largest club at the school.

“It was just a great way to top this year off,” Biren said. “After pushing for and expanding our efforts throughout the district, this was just the accumulation, and it was really a confirmation for us that it’s spreading. The movement is going beyond our district at this point, and that’s what we’re hoping for.”

“It was a huge surprise, we had no idea we were getting the award,” Perelman said. “It’s one of the coolest things that’s ever happened to me.”

The students’ “Bike It! Day” started as a single event aimed at lessening car uses, and consequently carbon dioxide emissions. “One ‘Bike It Day’ can save more than 6,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the earth’s atmosphere,” Biren said. She added that one of her favorite parts of the event is getting the word out, especially by talking to students at the local middle school and inspiring them to carry on the tradition. What started as a single-day event at the high school has inspired many other schools to promote the usage of alternate transportation.

The Samohi Solar Alliance’s mantra is to “Think global and act local.” Biren says she believes the group has achieved this goal through the influence of “Bike It! Day.”

“I could not be more happy … I love doing this,” she said.