On Tuesday, Kyeesha Fountain, a young student from the South Bronx, won applause for finding and replacing every energy-guzzling incandescent light bulb in her apartment building - 410 in all - with compact fluorescents. The awards ceremony in Hunts Point celebrated a light bulb census, which engaged 500 students, who found and listed the location of 4,000 bulbs in all.

The ceremony was the culmination of a campaign by RelightNY and Sustainable South Bronx's "Green the Ghetto" program to promote the energy- saving virtues of fluorescent bulbs that can be screwed into standard light fixtures.

ReLight is the invention of high school students, who decided that instead of waiting for 2014, when federal legislation will end the use of incandescent bulbs in their current, energy-sapping form, they would raise awareness by giving away compact fluorescent bulbs to low-income families.

But there's no reason to confine this crusade to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and slow global warming to the Bronx's poorest neighborhoods.

In our own neighborhood, the Riverdale YM-YWHA has launched a "Greening Riverdale" program. As part of its celebration of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, it sold compact fluorescents in mix-and-match six packs at its front desk.

The bulbs, the Y notes, use up to 75 percent less energy than regular incandescent light bulbs, while lasting seven to 10 times longer. According to RelightNY, if every American replaced just one incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent, the savings would be spectacular: measured in dollars, more than $8 billion; in coal burned, 30 billion pounds; or in greenhouse gas, the equivalent of the emissions from two million cars.

Sustainable South Bronx reached out to families through children and their schools. For younger children, its contest was not only an ecology lesson but an arithmetic lesson. Here's its list of instructions:

"Start with your home:

"Make a list of all the rooms in your home.

"Count the light bulbs in each room.

"Add up each room for the total number you need.

"Then go to your neighbor, and ask them if they want free light bulbs that reduce their energy bill.