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Mar 08, 2008 12:03am
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Okay, so I’m a high school student in my final year (woohoo) and I’m a member of a club dedicated to promoting the idea of sustainable living and raising awareness about energy conservation. We do a lot of awesome stuff, like anti-idling campaigns, cell-phone recycling campaigns, and we even have our own commercial. One thing we’re trying to do right now, is find a guest speaker who can reach out to an audience comprised mostly of apathetic teenagers, who let’s face it, usually don’t pay attention to anything important anyone has to say 99% of the time. It’s important that we start raising awareness at a small scale NOW, because what we decide to do and NOT do will ultimately affect all our futures. We need to raise awareness about the significance of energy conservation and our need to redefine our lifestyles in terms of sustainable standards, and one of the best ways to do that is to involve a guest speaker, who is able to spark the interest of people MY age, who mostly care about clothes, music and cars anyhow. We’ve had guest speakers before, but they’re usually really dull and extreeeeeeemely political, so the majority of us resent ever showing up to hear them drag on and on, and don’t even bother to hear what they’re saying, because, let’s face it, they don’t phrase it in a way that involves US, and they usually lean on the political side of things, which has barely anything to do with the matter.
So I need help!!! I have to find a guest speaker who is passionate about issues concerning energy conservation and the environment, and who at the same time can peak the interest of the students in a way which would make those who could care less become more involved in participating in our movement to change the way we live now.
It would be awesome if some of you could tell me who I might be able to contact.
It would also be awesome if Jack Johnson could make it, but I know he probably can’t, what with touring and all.
So I want you’re advice.
Pleaaaaaaaase and Thank you :)
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Mar 10, 2008 06:36pm
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I’m actually trying to figure out a way to start a group like yours in my school, but it’s hard considering all the kids are immature and /or stoners. I tried asking around if anyone wanted to start a Darfur fundraiser and they ended up making fun of it. I know it doesn’t answer your question, but I could really use some help.
I’m sure you can find one on different environmental websites, some journalists come to talk and so on, since my friend was able to find Darfur speakers.
But, hope you can find someone!
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Mar 11, 2008 03:55pm
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ErikaGajda - Mar 10, 2008 06:36pm I’m actually trying to figure out a way to start a group like yours in my school, but it’s hard considering all the kids are immature and /or stoners. I tried asking around if anyone wanted to start a Darfur fundraiser and they ended up making fun of it. I know it doesn’t answer your question, but I could really use some help.
I’m sure you can find one on different environmental websites, some journalists come to talk and so on, since my friend was able to find Darfur speakers.
But, hope you can find someone!
Im in the same position. I want to form a group to raise awarness of climate change in the small scale and what we can do to help our environment. But everyone i talk to about it laughs at me. Even my own friends. I was wondering if anyone could give me some advise on starting my own group.
I hope you find your guest speaker. I would try and write to Oprea. Its worth a shot.
=]
Ben (15) (Aus)
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Mar 11, 2008 09:23pm
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Yeah, I totally know what you guys mean, but at my school, we have a lot of kids getting involved so it’s pretty neat. Our cellphone recycling campaign is doing really well right now. One way we got students involved in that is a draw for an Ipod touch! For every cellphone you recycle, you get a raffle ticket and are entered in the draw. You guys could try something like that. It totally makes a huge difference. With my school, it’s pretty easy to get students involved,they mostly understand the importance of the issue.
I’m sorry to hear that you got laughed at for what you tried to do!!! Maybe you can try another idea to get them involved haha.
Yes, on the whole guest speaker issue, I think it would be AMAZING if you got Oprah to come!!! We actually managed to contact David Suzuki as a club, and he was too busy to come, so that kind of sucked. I’ll look around, see who I could find. :)
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Mar 12, 2008 02:31am
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You are all bringing up a really important issue, how to get young people interested and engaged in these activities. I have 3 kids who are 11, 10 and 6, and I have seen how so many adults have no clue about what kids are interested in. You all could be very helpful to us adults in educating us about what kinds of things we could do to be interesting!
My suggestion would be to look around locally at who is doing something interested for the environment. There are individuals out there who are fun and interesting regular people, the hard part is finding them. Hopefully this community will help with that in the future. But someone is probably selling solar panels, building green roofs, an architect who is designing passive solar houses, running a recycling program, a car-sharing program. If you think the other kids would be more motivated by someone who is successful making money, find a business-person who is in an environmental field. Someone who runs a sewage treatment plant, IF they happen to have a good sense of humor, could actually be pretty entertaining!
Here’s another idea—one way you might have some success, which would be encouraging for you and helpful for them—is to organize some kind of program for younger kids. Younger kids would look up to you, and they are more open to new ideas. Put on a play, do an interactive demonstration, make a “Recycle Man” out of recycled materials, whatever. This would also get the attention of the adults around you, and you might discover someone who would actually know how to be interesting to your peers.
Good luck, and keep us posted on how it’s going!!
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Apr 14, 2008 08:24pm
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I think it’s a good idea looking here! I also think it’s somewhat interesting/odd, a bit funny, and also definately sad that it’s not just you “kids” having a hard time finding others that don’t mock you for caring about what you see! I’m 38 and a mother of 2 and the majority of the people surrounding me are just like the majority of the people surrounding you. Something to ponder while we keep doing our thing.
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