A New Kind of TGIF

Some 10th grade girls ask their mom to take them to the mall on the weekend. Cassandra Lin asks her mom to drive her to local restaurants so she can collect used frying oil. It all started in fifth grade when Cassandra and a group of friends were looking to make the world a better place. “We started a community service team, but we didn’t know what we wanted to do,” Cassandra says with a laugh. “We researched and read in a newspaper an article about a local family who couldn’t heat their home. We didn’t know that was happening in our own community. We wanted to find a way to help them.”

The Westerly resident attended the 2008 Energy Solutions Expo at University of Rhode Island, which showcased innovative and practical strategies to help both residents and businesses manage rising energy costs. It was there Cassandra learned grease could be turned into clean-burning, sustainable fuel used to, among other purposes, heat homes. “[We needed to] convince people to recycle their cooking oil and turn it into energy,” explains Cassandra.

The group of eight pint-sized entrepreneurial minds created Project T.G.I.F. (Turn Grease into Fuel). The recycling program established depots at transfer stations at points throughout Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut where residents can leave their used grease and oil to be collected and turned into fuel. More than 100 restaurants donate cooking oil as well. The result is gallons of renewable fuel to help those in need throughout the community. To give a sense of impact, in 2010, Project T.G.I.F. donated of 21,000 gallons of bioheat for emergency heating assistance — that’s a market value of more than $81,000, which helped heat the homes of 210 families.

Today, the group is part of the impressive Westerly Innovations Network, or WIN team, a student community service organization started by Cassandra’s father. Their efforts have not gone unnoticed. Project T.G.I.F. has been recognized by the United Nations, received countless awards from prestigious organizations and has garnered national media attention by Reader’s Digest and The Huffington Post. In 2012, Cassandra was invited to participate in the White House Science Fair where she met President Obama, and at just 13, she gave a talk at TEDxEast entitled, Be Your Own Superman. Named one of the 25 Most Influential Young People in the World by Youth Service America, it’s clear Cassandra and the Project T.G.I.F. team, like Superman, are soaring to new heights.