Choosing to Participate:
A Social Justice Service Project on Sustainability

The day of learning was a fulfilling fun day. It was very interesting learning about how hard it is to be a teacher. For me it was very easy and I was very prepared for my workshop. It was so fun to engage with the kids and show them your ideas. It is also a great feeling when people are interested in what you are doing and have prepared. As for the day, it was amazing for students taking action and i was intrigued by the speakers. I think it was a great experience for the younger kids because I think that they all really loved the workshops. I also thought that it is so so important to teach the younger students about how important this is because we all share the next generation. I loved how enlightened Josh was about all off this and he had, had hands-on experience with sustainability as we did and it made me feel more like an adult. I thought that the whole school was also very impressed with us and all off our knowledge and hard work about these topics. At the end of the day I was very proud (even though it felt like a Friday).

On Friday I went to the Learn green NYC Youth Forum at Columbia Teachers college.  It was really really interesting.  It started with a representative from mayor Bloomberg’s office talking to us about the mayors sustainability plan called Plan NYC 2030.  He explained that by 2030, NYC will produce 30% less greenhouse emissions.  Then he explained that by 2030 there will be 1 million more new yorkers than there are now and that Plan NYC aims to deal with the effects and how best to be prepared for them.  Four girls from Parsons had made a short film about personal space and how population growth will affect that.  Then everyone broke into groups on the floor with each group having a great big piece of paper and lots of markers and pens.  We were then given 4 questions and they set it up so that we would all rotate into all the different groups.  Basically the questions were about ideas for sustainability for NYC.  There were kids and adults and everyone brainstormed together.  Everyone wrote or drew their ideas onto the big pieces of papers.  There were many representatives from many schools, but none had as many representatives as LREI.  The representatives were Me, Nick O’Han, Kai, Celi, and Gabe.  I met some cool people and learned many good ideas on how to be more sustainable.  It was a great experience and by the way, they had amazing organic ginger cookies.

Yesterday I had an interview with Kevin Uhlingheur. I spoke with him about the initiatives of Patagonia and many of their campaigns. He talked about how they recycle used fleeces and plastic bottles to make clothes. He also discussed how Patagonia uses 100% natural coton without pestasides. He told me a lot of information about saving the national wildlife refuge and my topic. He also talked about roam free.

In the interview I was interested in one of Patagonia’s campaigns. It is known as “Freedom To Roam.” What this campaigns is all about is helping animals have a safe environment to migrate from and into as the seasons change. For example the bears when moving to warm places during the summer usually are forced to travel over highways or through suburbs to migrate. This program is raising money to ease a large strip of land in the rocky mountains that gives bears and other animal a safe place to migrate to and from.

I have been unable to get into contact with anyone at Mooshoes. I have called a total of three times and I have never even gotten an individual on the phone. I gave them all of my contact information and still have heard no reply for almost a week now. After speaking to Leila, we decided that instead of this particular organization I would research other sustainable clothing manufacturers. I decided that Patagonia was both convenient and perfect for the project.