LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Trying to save the world is no easy task, especially when you’re 9-years-old. But like any great idea, you have to “plant” it.

It’s why Kennedy Gustie and her classmates have been working on an Earth Day project that started following a conversation with her father, Kyle.

“We are trying to help the Earth,” Kennedy told WGN News. How so? “Posters, so that people will know to turn their car off,” the 9-year-old replied.

While waiting to pick up his daughter at school, Kyle Gustie said he’d noticed cars idling in the pick-up line. As a result, he suggested the class try to get parents to help cut emissions and cure the air. 

Kennedy loved the idea.

Along with her fellow schoolmates at Everett Elementary, Kennedy and company decided to take action.

With posters in hand and thank-you bags at the ready, students asked each parent Monday to switch off their running vehicles, reducing those rumbling engines to silence. 

“It’s a lot more quiet, so it’s great,” one parent said.

Those in line were very impressed with the plan, proving not a lot is needed to change the whole world, but a slight difference can alter the planet around you. 

“They said, ‘great job, keep doing it, and thank you,'” Kennedy said.

And a proud parent grateful that his little one is taking steps to better her future.

“It makes me really, really proud,” Kennedy’s father said. “It lets me know that they can do something to make a difference.”