Teenagers often feel like no one listens to them — not parents, friends nor teachers — but two teens discovered just how willing adults were to take their opinions seriously when the spoke out against the Southlands project.

Jessica Rego, 17, and Caitlin O’Doherty, 13, are an unlikely pair. With five years between them they don’t have much in common socially. Caitlin likes karate and writing while Jessica prefers to be on the stage acting and singing.

They probably would have drifted through the halls of Bermuda High School for Girls not knowing one another.

But that all changed when the Government announced it was considering passing a Special Development Order to allow developers, Southlands Ltd., to transform the 37-acre property in Warwick into a five-star resort with condominiums and living quarters for the staff, while a new tunnel would put part of South Road underground.

If granted an SDO by Minister of Environment Neletha Butterfield, the whole project is anticipated to be completed by 2010.

The SDO would override environmental protection orders which are currently in place. Jessica learned about the project from a friend who knew she was interested in preserving open space.

Until this school year Jessica had not been involved in environmental activism, she first got involved in the Save the Gardens campaign because she had grown up spending time in the Botanical Gardens.

Last year the Government overturned its plans to build a new hospital on the gardens because of an outpouring of concern and anger from the public.

She said seeing the decision be overturned made her realise that large groups of people can actually make a difference — but she still wasn’t sure a teenager could make a difference.

“I thought the only part I could play would be to educate my classmates,” she said. “We often talked about it in the IB centre at school but I figured I could use Facebook (an online networking community geared to young adults) to spread the word.

“At first I just invited 50 people but they in turn invited their friends and it rippled. Now we have 538 members!

“It began as people speaking out against the project but we have also had people join who agree with it, so it’s also a debate forum. But the majority of people in the group are against the group and we have people who are away at university in the group.”

Caitlin joined the group as well. The 13-year-old has always been interested in the environment. Every day she posts a “eco tip” on recycled paper at her school notice board encouraging others to do small things to conserve and be green. So far she has completed 100 eco tips.

After she joined the group she was talking to a teacher about the issue and the teacher recommended she attend a public meeting on the topic to learn more about it. Caitlin went along and was impressed with what she heard. She in turn emailed Jessica and suggested she come along too — to keep group members updated up on the issues.

Together the two began attending weekly meetings of the Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce (BEST).

“They were really open to us,” Caitlin said of the environmental group. “I was surprised. They were actually listening to what we had to say and taking it seriously.

“After one of the meetings I suggested to Jesse that we set up a booth at our school with information about the development and get students to sign the petition, if they wanted to. We got a lot of signatures.”

The girls continued to go to meetings but the big surprise came during a planning meeting for the final public information session on the development before signatures were handed to Minister Butterfield.

“Stuart Hayward was talking about how they needed three speakers and the different options and then one member pops up and says, ‘why not get the two girls to talk,’” Jesse said. “It was one of those things where you say yes and then realise that you’ve just agreed to speak in front of hundreds of adults.

“But the group really thought people should realise the youth of Bermuda care about this, that we are the ones who are going to have to put up with the hotel and no green space when older generations are long gone.”

On March 22 the girls made their debut at a public meeting where over 200 people gathered at the West Pembroke Primary School. They told the audience they feared the environmental and economic impacts of such a large development and urged people to listen to their concerns.

“The whole experience was really positive,” Caitlin said. “I realised even though I am young I can do something and make people think about important issues on the Island. I think if we hadn’t worked so hard to educate our friends and peers many of them would not have realised what was happening.”

Jesse is glad she had the opportunity to speak out and make her voice heard: “Just because we are young doesn’t mean we don’t have an opinion and don’t deserve to be heard. BEST made me realise that there are people who are interested in what we have to say.

“And that’s a good thing because we are the future.”