Redesigning Our Future

Photo by: Emily Pieper Summit campers Justine, Shaina, Chas, and Emma (L-R) take a short break before working hard on their student Action Plans. Shaina (second from the left) plans on starting a United Students Against Sweatshops club at her school and eventually have them purchase spirit wear from sweat-free companies. A Quick News Note from Green Ink Blogger Emily Pieper 

Communicating Your Initiative: Workshop by Amanda Lanier   By Emily Pieper Y esterday w hile I listened to Amanda Lanier teach us about effective environmental communication, another light bulb lit up in my brain when she showed the slide pictured below. Instead of just interpreting the word "resolution" as the ending or solving of a problem, I found myself looking at it in a whole new way. To me the word suddenly looked like "re-solution". Photo By: Emily Pieper <> N ow, maybe this doesn't seem like that big of a change, so let me explain my crazy thought. What I started to think was that "resolution" could also mean to come up with different ways to "re-solve" a problem. S o, why does this matter and why should you still read this? W hat Amanda explained to us was that today in the 21st century, thanks to new technologies that develop every day, we have thousands of ways to communicate our ideas. Right now as you ...

Anna Harrison Anna Harrison - Making a Difference During a break between focus group and workshop time, Anna took a few minutes to describe an ongoing project she has already been working on back home.  Collecting 800 clear 2-liter bottles, some old tires, used corrogated plastic, donated rain barrel and worm bin, Anna is creating a greenhouse on school property for use by the after school program and third grade plant science class.  She is likely to far exceed the 80-hour requirement for her Girl Scout Gold Award.  Inspired by a chair and stand created from GS cookie boxes at her local GS headquarters, she researched other conservation projects online and discovered the work of Blue Rock Station, an organization with booklet instructions for creating greenhouses from used materials.  Be sure to check out Anna's blog for photographs and more information about her unique environmental project.

Finding My Passion and Others Who Share My World View By Jocelyn Well, everyone wants to enjoy what they do in their daily life, because if you are not  happy, then it will be boring for you always. You always have to find something you are passionate about to do and believe in. The environmental issue is a passion for me because I want to make the world around me a better place. I enjoy when I try to do simple things that would affect the world in a positive way. When you have more than one person trying to make a difference on the same issue, it will have a huge impact, and it makes changing the world more fun than being solo. Having that extra support by your peers is really helpful when you want to have do something really big dealing with the environment. Here are some words I live by: " I ndividual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work . " Vince Lombardi