By ANTHONY BOTTAN
Some protested, others signed petitions, but Skylar Kettering decided to fight global warming in different way: baking pastries.
Skylar Kettering, a freshman at Valley Stream South High School, was so moved by Gore's documentary, it inspired her to contribute to the solution for global warming and no longer be a part of the problem. Kettering started "Skylar's Scrumptious Sweets," a community service project in which Kettering bakes an assortment of confections and donates all the profits to the National Wildlife Federation campaign to protect wildlife from the effects of global warming.
"When I saw the 'Inconvenient Truth,' I really wanted to get involved," Kettering said. "Once I came up with idea, we (Skylar and her mother) developed a menu."
Her menu includes butterscotch cookies, chocolate chip brownies, maple pecan muffins and vanilla cupcakes. Two dozen cookies or brownies cost $15, while a dozen muffins or cupcakes go for the same price.
Kettering began putting this project together in late September and it has flourished ever since. Along with her mother Linda, the two mass e-mailed everyone they knew and have already shipped out 23 orders, amassing more than $300 in profits. Kettering said the goal for her project is to collect $1,000.
"She really wanted to do a service project," Linda Kettering said. "So I told her the best thing to do is contribute with something you are passionate about. She took the ball and ran with it."
Kettering devotes 11 to 12 hours every weekend to the project and does all the baking and packaging on her own. She said she doesn't think any barriers will stop her from accomplishing her goal. "I feel I'm good because I'm doing it for a good cause," she said.
Kettering said it would be "cool" if she could garner the help of others in the fight against global warming and has recently sent out orders to some of the faculty at South High School.
The ninth grade philanthropist said when she gets older, she would love to open a bakery. Even with two years ahead of her before she takes the SAT's, Kettering already visited Johnson and Wales University, an upper echelon cullinary school in Rhode Island.
"Whenever I walk pass a bakery, it's so pretty, the smell catches you," Kettering said. "It just makes me happy seeing all the pastries."
