Millions of people around the world gather to celebrate Earth Day with the goal of educating and mobilizing people about environmental issues. The first Earth Day celebration was held on April 22, 1970 and was pretty much responsible for giving birth to the modern environmental movement. At Global Youth Village, every day is Earth Day and since the beginning of our program in 1979, there has always been an emphasis on educating youth about our environment and green living.
In recent years, GYV has offered a Green Your World workshop which gets teens of the classroom and into the natural world. Participants will enjoy nature hikes, work on stream monitoring projects, learn to identify birds and plants and enjoy harvesting vegetables form our organic garden. For the past two summers, youth have also had the opportunity to build models of eco-friendly homes and make pizza using a solar oven! Hands-on projects make the program dynamic. Energy and energy conservation have been important discussion topics.
Participants begin to realize that small actions like turning the tap off when you are brushing your teeth and turning off lights you are not using can make a big difference. Eco-showers are the norm at GYV, stressing the importance of water conservation. Participants begin to realize the interconnectedness of everything. For example, the toxic fertilizers that are used on lawns or on farms ends up polluting our ground drinking water and killing fish in rivers and streams when it washes off the soil during a heavy rain. So, when wasteful and irresponsible behaviors, attitudes and habits shift to become positive ones, every day becomes Earth Day.
HAPPY EARTH DAY EVERYONE!