Eric Broadbent hangs kites decorated by elementary school students at Saturday’s “Winds For Change” rally to raise awareness of climate change. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Jordan McDonnell, Lisa Reedich, Elise Bilodeau, Emily Reedich, and Erica Schwiegershausen attach signed bow-tie petitions to the strips to be delivered to legislators.

“Winds For Change” brought nearly 400 area residents to the Harvard Common Saturday to support national action on climate change. Beneath 1,000 handmade kites above the Common, participants added personal messages to legislators Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and Marty Meehan on bowtie-shaped cards. Depot Road resident Josie Carothers and Bromfield students Helen Kilian and Erica Schwiegershausen plan to deliver the messages—attached to large kites—to the legislators’ home offices later this month.

Harvard Local and Groton Local, two grassroots organizations concerned with community responses to environmental challenges, organized the event, but it was the two high school tenth-graders, Kilian and Schwiegershausen, who enlisted the support of other students, faculty, and school administration. “We wanted to do something to get the word out to get others involved,” Schwiegershausen said.

By the end of the two-hour event, volunteers had attached almost 2,000 messages to Congress to kite-tail ribbons rising up the flagpole.

The crowd gathers for a photo to send to their congressmen.

Scott Kimball of Ayer Road displays an opposing viewpoint.