You Can Vote for the Future: Tonight Till Midnight EST
Friends, please take 2 minutes NOW (or before midnight EST) to go to
http://bit.ly/Vote4Green (a link to the White House website) and cast a “5” vote for EnvironmentalCharter High School in LA.
Why? The voting closes tonight at midnight EST and Environmental Charter High is the only “green” high school among the six finalists competing to win President Obama’s Commencement Challenge.
I’ve been privileged to get to know some of these students through my work with my client Green My Parents. They are incredible, amazing kids who are leaders in building a brighter, greener future for all of us.
Here’s how they tell the story (from White House site):
ECHS is alive. We’re blocks from the world’s most congested freeway, yet we step onto campus with fruit trees and a running stream of reclaimed water, which was once asphalt, and we know we’re in an environment designed to envision a better life. As freshmen evaluate community health, sophomores debate the sustainability of progress, juniors examine the American dream, and we ask, “How are we powerful?” In our urbanite amphitheatre, we showcase art, host composting workshops, and train freshmen for success at ECHS. We give tours and present solutions and best practices, so 98% of us feel comfortable public speaking. With more graduation requirements than schools nationally, we pack our schedules with AP and college courses and exceed service requirements. ECHS is challenging; but, we thrive – we’ve learned education is empowerment and graduation is a milestone on our journey to a better world. We are 68% Latino, 20% African-American, 78% low income. Arriving 2.5 grade levels behind peers in math and English, by graduation we outperform national averages. 92% of us were accepted into universities in 2009 and most are first in our families to attend. We’re prepared to redefine the American Dream, rewrite our futures and heal our planet.
Go. Now. Vote. Please:
Thank you so much.
(And obviously, if you’re on Twitter or Facebook, please spread the word – hurry!)
Lynn
Filed under Uncategorized | Wordpress Comment (1) |Earth Day Reverie
For a green blogger, what one chooses to post on Earth Day carries quite some significance.
I debated.
I thought about adding my voice to those expressing disgust at the commercialization of Earth Day. But I tried that two years ago.
And this year?
The same company that I took to task on Earth Day 2008 had their PR firm approach me about publicizing their tactless displays…
I thought about writing an update about “A Travesty on Earth Day.” It was two years ago Earth Day when a Bethesda developer chose to chop down eight beautiful, healthy, four-story high, towering trees in the heart of downtown to make way for a condo building….
Two years later…and those trees are gone forever, with no luxury building in sight.
I thought about writing an update post on the launch of my client, Green My Parents.
But heck, I spent the better part of the day tweeting about Green My Parents anyway!
Instead, I decided the best thing I could do for Earth Day was to get outside.
Watched as my eldest boy admired a tree branch.
Let my younger son think that leaves were a type of “toy” from the Earth.
And me? There’s nothing like lying in the soft, sunlit grass – enjoying Mother Earth. (Even when reminders of the constant pull of our commercial culture are literally right at hand).
And your Earth Day?
— Lynn
Copyright OrganicMania 2010
Filed under Bethesda, Consulting Business, Green Kids, Holidays | Wordpress Comments (3) |
Think Raising Green Kids is Tough? Try Greening Your Parents! (And Vote Today at Pepsi Refresh!)
Maybe I’ve had it wrong all along. I’ve been blogging about helping parents to raise green kids, when maybe it’s the kids who need to green their parents!
That’s the premise behind Green My Parents, a green youth movement launching Earth Day to help young people teach their peers and parents how to work together to go green through simple, everyday actions that not only help Mother Earth, they save money! Starting with a small group of “Green My Parents Champions,” these kids are committed to recruiting 100 kids to help save their parents $100 at home through simple, energy savings steps. The movement will grow as those 100 kids recruit another 100 kids and so on until they reach their goal of saving $100 million for American families – and greening the planet at the same time.
I’m blown away by the kids behind this movement. Check out:
- Adora Svitak, a 12-year-old who is a published author and was the youngest speaker at the TED 2010 conference. She says, “ As one of the champions for GreenMyParents, I feel strongly that we can inspire our families, our communities and our country to successfully face and overcome the most important challenge of our time.”
- Jordan Howard, 17, a senior at Environmental Charter High in LA, Green Ambassador Youth leader, and prolific speaker and blogger who inspires at her blog jordaninspires.com;
- Alec Loorz, a 14-year-old who founded Kids Against Global Warming as a 12-year-old. He gave over 30 global warming presentations before being invited by Al Gore to be formally trained with the Climate Project in October of 2008. He is now the youngest trained presenter with The Climate Project.
- Ally Maize, who three years ago, as a 15-year-old started the Green Youth Movement, whose goal is to “educate kids all over the world on living green, and to one day establish this very important information as part of the curriculum in our elementary schools.” and
- Erin Schrode, a freshman at Columbia University and founder of Teens Turning Green who wrote a great blog post about just what Green My Parents means to her. Erin just returned from a trip to Haiti that was sponsored by Green My Parents. As Erin put it, “Every penny I raise for Haiti will go DIRECTLY to development efforts on the ground and the creation of a sustainable healthy peaceful nation for the future.”
Talk about positive role models for youth! (I don’t even want to imagine the college application essays these kids have put together!)
There’s a lot already going on – you can follow GreenMyParents on Facebook and Twitter and keep up with the movement on our website. But the official launch is on Earth Day, when the Green My Parents book (and more) comes out. So stay tuned for more deets! And please, join in! God knows, we need to green those parents!
Some of the other organizations behind Green My Parents are: National Wildlife Federation publisher of Ranger Rick Magazine, Environmental Protection Agency ENERGY STAR Program, Carbonfund.org, Environmental Media Association, Earth Echo, Alliance for Climate Education (ACE,) Kiva.Org, DonorsChoose.org, Kids vs. Global Warming, Green Youth Movement (GYM), Teens Turning Green, SlowFoodUSA, ProjectSprout, Rise Above Plastics, Plastic Pollution Coalition, Green Charter Schools Network, Environmental Charter High School, Green Ambassadors, and many others who are joining us every day. Care to join in as a sponsor or a member? Just leave a comment here, @ us on Twitter, leave a message on our Facebook page, or whatever is easiest. We’ve got a lot of work to do!
Note: GreenMyParents is a new client of my consulting firm, 4GreenPs. I’m thrilled to be working with them to help this movement take off!
— Lynn
Copyright OrganicMania 2010
Filed under Uncategorized | Wordpress Comments (7) |
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