SGT 06!
2006 AYEA Summer Get Together:
Renewable Resources and Cutting Emissions!
This past week AYEA held its sixth annual Summer Get Together at APU's Spring Creek Kellogg farm in Palmer, AK! Around 35 participants gathered for a week long training put together by staff volunteers and peer leaders, on reducing emissions and renewable resources. Teenagers came from 13 communities (urban and rural) with previously collected information on existing emission problems and possible solutions. The week was filled with all sorts of peer led sessions and activities including: a presentation on the greenhouse effect and global warming, calculating your carbon footprint, green lifestyles and green energy kits, a renewable resources tour which involved a visit to Jim Sykes' off the grid, straw bale house (equipped with solar panels, a wind turbine, a heating greenhouse, and a self manufactured ice box), and biodiesel 101 where students learned the do's and dont's of home made veggie oil by making a batch of their own (with some help from an expert), and rafting on the Matanuska river. Teens looked at other issues through unique activities, including a panel on environmental/social justice and what it means to be an activist straight from the source of activists themselves. The group also decided to take a larger look at renewables and greenhouse emissions with a session on global perspectives and where the rest of the world is and moving.
Throughout the week students partnered with other participants from their community and put together community action projects to take back and implement. There were a wide variety of projects ranging from a local hydro-electric plant and a compact fluorescent light bulb drive, to starting recycling programs in villages. Students presented their project plans at a barbeque hosted by the National Outdoor Leadership School in Palmer. Envirobeat, a young local percussion performance group who make all their own instruments from recycled scraps, helped kick off the celebration with a rockin' performance that excited some of the audience enough to dance! The week culminated with a trip to Anchorage for REAP's 2nd annual Renewable Energy Fair. At the fair students got to strut their stuff by volunteering at a number of different booths, along with an AYEA booth. Megan Waggoner of AYEA's Mt. Edgecumbe chapter was a keynote speaker along with Mayor Mark Begich and James Woolsey, former CIA director. The entire week was pretty wet and rainy, but the group endured the weather and managed to make it an awesome time. Everyone walked away with a fire burning inside of them to make change in their communities and the knowledge to do it! If you would like a visual of the week you can visit this site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35531120@N00/
Renewable Resources and Cutting Emissions!
This past week AYEA held its sixth annual Summer Get Together at APU's Spring Creek Kellogg farm in Palmer, AK! Around 35 participants gathered for a week long training put together by staff volunteers and peer leaders, on reducing emissions and renewable resources. Teenagers came from 13 communities (urban and rural) with previously collected information on existing emission problems and possible solutions. The week was filled with all sorts of peer led sessions and activities including: a presentation on the greenhouse effect and global warming, calculating your carbon footprint, green lifestyles and green energy kits, a renewable resources tour which involved a visit to Jim Sykes' off the grid, straw bale house (equipped with solar panels, a wind turbine, a heating greenhouse, and a self manufactured ice box), and biodiesel 101 where students learned the do's and dont's of home made veggie oil by making a batch of their own (with some help from an expert), and rafting on the Matanuska river. Teens looked at other issues through unique activities, including a panel on environmental/social justice and what it means to be an activist straight from the source of activists themselves. The group also decided to take a larger look at renewables and greenhouse emissions with a session on global perspectives and where the rest of the world is and moving.
Throughout the week students partnered with other participants from their community and put together community action projects to take back and implement. There were a wide variety of projects ranging from a local hydro-electric plant and a compact fluorescent light bulb drive, to starting recycling programs in villages. Students presented their project plans at a barbeque hosted by the National Outdoor Leadership School in Palmer. Envirobeat, a young local percussion performance group who make all their own instruments from recycled scraps, helped kick off the celebration with a rockin' performance that excited some of the audience enough to dance! The week culminated with a trip to Anchorage for REAP's 2nd annual Renewable Energy Fair. At the fair students got to strut their stuff by volunteering at a number of different booths, along with an AYEA booth. Megan Waggoner of AYEA's Mt. Edgecumbe chapter was a keynote speaker along with Mayor Mark Begich and James Woolsey, former CIA director. The entire week was pretty wet and rainy, but the group endured the weather and managed to make it an awesome time. Everyone walked away with a fire burning inside of them to make change in their communities and the knowledge to do it! If you would like a visual of the week you can visit this site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35531120@N00/
posted by Alaska Youth for Environmental Action at 6:57 PM
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