Posts Tagged ‘Earth Day’

10 Ways to Serve the Planet this Earth Day!

Friday, April 20th, 2012

Spring is in full force! And with it comes Earth Day, a celebration of the day the modern environmental movement was born. Our friends at Earth Day Network are celebrating with acts of service, so why shouldn’t we? Read on to discover how you can serve on Earth Day this Sunday!

Go local Consider participating in a in a local environmental festival or event. If your community doesn’t have one, why not organize one? There is no better time than Earth Day to start a recycling competition at work or organize a cleanup day in your community!

Conserve water Turn off the faucet while you brush your teeth. Adjust your sprinklers so they don’t run in the middle of the day when the sun will simply absorb it. If you have a dishwasher, only run it when the machine is full. If you wash by hand, consider filling one side of the sink to wash in rather than leaving the faucet running. A few simple adjustments can make a world of different on your water footprint!

Pledge an Act of Green Earth Day Network has set a goal of a billion Acts of Green. Be it big or small, pledge to do something good for the environment today!

Grow your own produce We encourage your to get out and embrace this beautiful spring weather, by starting your own garden. In addition for being good for the environment, food from one’s own garden just seems to taste better! Not sure how to get started? Check out our post on community gardens.

 E-cycle Recycle and/or properly dispose of electronic waste such as computers and other gadgets. Dell, Hewlett Packard, Apple, and IBM, among others, offer recycling programs. Add e-cycling to your spring cleaning list!

Support your National Parks Volunteering at a National Park is a great way to spend Earth Day. Contribute to everyone’s enjoyment of the great outdoors while enjoying it yourself! The United States Forest Service has plenty of volunteer opportunities to get you started.

Pass on gas Take public transportation, carpool, plan your day to reduce trips and vehicle emissions. Consider using human powered modes of transportation to get from place to place! Walk, jog, skip, ride a bike instead.

Conserve energy Turn off lights and electronics when you leave the room. Unplug your cell phone charger from the wall when not using it. Turn off energy strips and surge protectors when not in use (especially overnight).

Go zero Log on to the Conservation Fund’s Carbon Zero Calculator and in less than five minutes, you can measure and then offset your carbon dioxide emissions by planting trees.

Spread the word Do you use social media? If you have friends and followers, consider loaning some of your social media updates to raise awareness of World Water Day. Social media is a powerful tool, and you may very well incite your friends to action!

How do you plan to celebrate Earth Day on April 22? Let us know in the comments below!

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Tips for Engaging Youth in Service on Earth Day

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

Tree planting and light bulb replacement drives are great activities for Earth Day, but how can younger volunteers get more involved in service on Earth Day? How about trying some of these ideas:

  • Start the project off easy. Try to set up the project in a way that’s easy to understand for your younger volunteers. Take some time to bring them all together to talk about what you’re going to do that day and why you’re planning on doing it. If there’s enough time built into your project, try taking the time to read The Lorax with your volunteers.
  • Small tasks for small hands. Youth volunteers probably aren’t going to be able to help plant a six foot tall tree, but there is a lot that young volunteers can do! Try to think of things that are part of a project that you have planned that can be broken into small tasks that younger volunteers can do. If you’re planting flowers, younger volunteers can plant flowers into holes that other volunteers have dug, or holes that someone has helped them to dig.
  • Be a teacher for a day. Stop to think about the type of task you have planned for younger volunteers. What parts of the task might you know well, but your volunteers might not know? If you’re planting seeds, take the time to explain what a seed is and how they “work.” Teaching your younger volunteers about what they’ll be doing in a way that is fun will help to get them engaged in the task!
  • Honor the work that volunteers do. This is important no matter how old your volunteers are. It’s especially important for younger volunteers – it helps to enforce that they can make a difference in the world. At the end of the project, take the time to point out the work that volunteers have done and explain how it’s helped to improve the environment. Be sure to emphasize the impact that the volunteers made today!

Do you plan a lot of service projects with younger volunteers? What have you found that helps to keep them engaged with the service they’re doing? Let us know in the comments! Happy Earth Day!

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Six Tips for Earth Day Projects

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

Earth Day is April 22! Do you have an event planned to celebrate? Here are six tips for an awesome project:

  • Be sure to explain the impact of the project. Whether you’ve got a project planned to pick up litter in a park, plant trees in your community, or transplanting native grasses to help reduce sand dune migration, take the time to explain the impact of the project. It will help volunteers understand that the work that they’re doing has an impact outside of the work they’ve done that day.
  • Involve everyone. Try to involve as many people as you can in the project. While children might not be able to move a six foot tree that you’re planning on planting, there are things that they can be involved in that help to support bigger jobs. Someone needs to water the tree after it’s been planted, after all!
  • Remember that ‘environment’ doesn’t have to mean ‘global.’ Tree plantings, park clean ups, and painting drain covers that lead to larger waterways fit into the big picture of environmental preservation, but these projects have a large local impact, too. Projects that celebrate Earth Day don’t have to have a global impact—projects with a local impact are great projects for Earth Day.
  • Education is as important as action. Earth Day started as a way to bring people together to share information about environmental issues that they cared about and has grown into a day of action and education. Sharing information about how others can help to preserve and improve the environment is as important as acting to preserve the environment.
  • Make sure your volunteers know they might get dirty. If your project involves cleaning and planting, make sure your volunteers know that they might get dirty. Provide them with gloves or ask them to bring their own, and try to give them a way to clean up after the project.
  • Make Earth Day every day. Don’t forget about volunteer projects that have an environmental impact next week because it isn’t Earth Day anymore. If you can, offer multiple projects throughout the year that focus on improving the environment.

Have a great Earth Day! We’d love to hear about the projects that you have planned, let us know in the comments!

 

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Lenny Lend-A-Hand Asks YOU to Volunteer!

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

Today’s blog post comes from Lenny Lend-A-Hand, HandsOn Twin Cities Mascot & Community Volunteer

Hellloo- Dolly! Lenny-Lend-A-Hand here representing HandsOn Twin Cities from the great state of Minnesota (I FINALLY was able to hang up my winter jacket, WOOT!).

Now that spring has sprung and spirits have been rejuvenated, it’s perfect timing to get out in the community and volunteer for National Volunteer Week.  HandsOn Twin Cities has been busy organizing over 60 projects, mobilizing over 1,000 volunteers in the metro area.

With the highest number of volunteers per capita, I’m proud to celebrate the great community members who make a difference here in the Twin Cities. Without our great volunteers, we wouldn’t be able to accomplish as much good as we do. Just one week isn’t nearly enough to squeeze in all of the thank yous we owe to our volunteers.

Since Earth Day is right around the corner, the majority of our projects are environmentally focused. There will be lots of rakes, gardening gloves, and mulch to go around! Staff will also be working with volunteers packaging food for local food shelves, as well as making hygiene kits and nutrition packs for families in need.

Personally, I’m looking forward to putting an artistic spin on community education by painting storm drains with the message “PLEASE DON’T POLLUTE! Drains to the Mississippi River!”  With the longest river in the nation rushing right between our Twin Cities, it’s our civic duty to engage, inform, and remind patrons to do their part in improving local water resources. (Plus with clean water, I’ll be even more excited to take a summertime dip in the good ole Mississippi!)

Speaking of civic duty, our nation’s President has called on the American people to not only appreciate their volunteers during National Volunteer Week (April 10th-16th 2011) but to engage in service as well.

“During National Volunteer Week, we celebrate the profound impact of volunteers and encourage all Americans to discover their own power to make a difference.  Every one of us has a role to play in making our communities and our country stronger. I call upon all Americans to observe this week by volunteering in service projects across our country and pledging to make service a part of their daily lives.”

– President Barak Obama April 7th, 2011

I couldn’t have said it better myself! So come on nation of do-gooders- go that extra mile, support your favorite cause, and Lend-A-Hand this week! Together we ALL can make a difference!

Cheers to Volunteers!

Lenny Lend-A-Hand is HandsOn Twin Cities Mascot & Community Volunteer. He can be found at volunteer projects around the Twin Cities. You can read about the work he’s doing at his blog.

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Earth Day Recognition for Charles Bell

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

Today, as we celebrate Earth Day I’ve been thinking about our recent University of Phoenix Volunteer Leader Award honoree, Charles Bell.

Chuck, as his friends call him, was so excited to hear that he was recognized as an honoree that he called me from Uganda where he was on an international trip to talk through the details of the award!

I hope in hearing his story and seeing how much fun he has protecting our natural resources that you too will be inspired to live in an environmentally friendly manner.

In 1995 Charles “Chuck” Bell,  a volunteer ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, became extremely worried about budget cuts to the ranger district’s staff.

To counter the effect of those cuts, and to ensure that that the Northern Colorado community could continue enjoying the surrounding the trails and wilderness areas of the Canyon Lakes Ranger District, Chuck founded Poudre Wilderness Volunteers (PWV).

Poudre Wilderness Volunteers recruits, trains and equips citizen volunteers to serve as “ranger-educators” for the U.S. Forest Service lands of northern Colorado.

The organization assures visitors have a safe, enjoyable wilderness experience and minimize their impact on the land.

Through Chuck’s leadership, PWV has become the largest, all-volunteer organization in the nation, with more than 250 volunteers dedicated to educating and assisting users of the back-country.

In addition to PWV, Chuck’s passion for the environment led him to create and lead other organizations.

In one case, he used his experiences with Ski for Light International, which offers cross-country skiing for the visually impaired, to create a similar experience in the back country.

Chuck also founded “Trek for Light,”  a llama trek for visually impaired persons who want a safe but exciting wilderness experience.

Over the last 20 years, Chuck has dedicated his life to conserving natural resources and educating wilderness users.

As a 2010 University of Phoenix Volunteer Leader Honoree, Chuck says, “I feel I have energies and talents that can help others. I’d get terribly bored if I wasn’t out there …starting something that will benefit others and the environment in which we live.”

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