Green Up
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Green Up Keene Day

21/04/09 19:24 Filed in: volunteering | Mina
Mina
On Saturday, GKT participated in Green Up Keene Day, an event that called for the citizens of Keene to “Green Up” the city, or in other words, make our city cleaner. Although only six of us (including me and Alisha‘s father) showed up, I would say that we got a lot of work done, and we definitely made a difference.

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The participating GKT members ended up picking up garbage from around 8:00 to 11:00 near Beaver Brook. First, we went to Carpenter St. and the field there. That wasn’t too bad, just a lot of broken beer bottles (as well as some whole ones with mysterious fluid inside) and small articles of trash. But WOW! The sheer number of cigarette butts disturbed me. They were everywhere! So many people smoke, and though it’s a disgusting habit, it’s tolerable if they care for the butts properly. Put the cigarette out on the ground, and then stick it back in the package until you get home! I also think it would be great if we had more trash-can-ash-tray-things.

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After we thought we were done with Carpenter field, we went to a different area behind the Beaver Brook Apartments. When we got there the scene was appalling, there was all kinds of trash strewn about. We found tires, car batteries, Christmas lights, unidentifiable plastics, empty soda cans, beer bottles, candy wrappers, heavily rusted metal pipes and bars, nauseating scented washcloths, of course more cigarette butts, and a simply revolting amount of other debris. Why would people litter the area with waste that could easily be taken care of by walking an extra 50 feet to a garbage can? How could they not care about the safety of the organisms depending on the land, or even their own children? If that car battery had been old enough, the chemicals could have contaminated the waters. Rubber tires don’t decompose naturally and they could be made into playground equipment for your kids if they’re recycled. I truly believe that our community needs an immediate wake-up-call and everyone needs to be more aware of the effects of their actions.

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All in all, it was kind of fun. We got a couple of laughs and it felt really great to know that we did something good for our local environment. A tremendous thank you goes to Dan, Alisha’s father, for not only providing us with the transportation but also helping us pick up rubbish. Without him, it would have been extremely difficult to have done a lot of the work we were able to do (especially lifting the heavier stuff). Personally, I hope we can do something like it again with maybe three times as many contributors.



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Thanks!

21/04/09 10:49 Filed in: thanks | Mina
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It makes me so happy when someone tells me that what I’m doing is great or inspirational! Being in this club is so rewarding and self-fufilling. I am very grateful to know all the members and the people that support us. If it weren’t for them, there wouldn’t be a Green Keene Teens at all.

I wanted to take a little time to thank everyone that has help me and the GKT team to start this club. There are so many people that helped in some many ways. So this blog is a pat on the back to them. Thank you for all you have done!

My parents are I think the most important people that have helped me personally pursue this club. They have been so supportive of me taking all these risks. They believe in me and that I’m very thankful for. They have both lent GKT money to get the fundraisers and the projects like the t-shirts going. We are keeping a tally of all that we owe them so we can pay back every cent. Without their giving-ness it would have been a lot harder to get the club started as well. My mom, Steph, has thought of many possible fundraising ideas with her creative mind. She has opened her home to all these girls to come over to her house and raid her space. But she never gets overwhelmed, and she is always ready to offer us a place to work if needed. My dad, Dan, has helped us purchase products for fundraising, and start and manage the website. Without their encouragement I don’t think I would have really had the guts to start what I did.

Barbara and Michael from 24 Carrots are still spreading the word about our team to everyone that puts a toe over their front door. They also got us an ad in the Shopper News and a contact to do a press release. I’m unbelievably happy the have them as friends and mentors - I can’t even explain it. They keep on the flow of orders for our laundry soap. The soap is currently being sold at the Farmstand. Since they are spreading the word about my club I’m trying to spread the word about their store. So if you live in the Keene area, check out there store, it is amazing!

Megan and Jennifer from Hannah Grimes have helped in many ways from having a sale in front of their store on a Saturday in early April and selling our Easter themed products in the store to advertising in their newsletter about the event and a little blurb in the Keene Sentinel on the Environmental page. They have opened the Hannah Grimes Center to supply us a meeting place in the last few months of the school year. They are so open to trying to help people to do the best they can do (like GKT)! Next time you are in downtown Keene stop by Hannah Grimes. They have products from many different artists, companies, and places in the local area. You might even find some GKT products!

As a result to all these people more and more people and groups are getting in contact with me about Green Keene Teens because they are curious about what we are up to. Campus Ecology at Keene State College has offered a place for us at their last event of their Earth Week happening this coming week. Holly Gowdy, who works for UNH and oversees the 4-H clubs in this part of the state stopped by our last to offer any help to our club that we might need or get us more information about anything we are researching on our projects. Jason Etheridge also sat in on the meeting and told us we could have articles published in one of the Keene Public Library’s Teen Advisory Council’s issues if we wanted.

The little things one person can do as I’ve said before, have made a big difference in our world. It’s amazing how one act can snowball into a bigger act or idea. If you are interested in helping or supporting Green Keene Teens please contact me at lucy@greenkeeneteens.com or talk to one of our members. We need your help to become bigger and better than ever!

Anyone who is interested in learning more about us (especially members parents) please come to an event or a meeting, grown-ups that have showed support tell me that we are well put together, mature, and motivated group. So don’t doubt what we are capable of. Because we have just gotten started!

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GKT Meeting #4

03/04/09 14:29 Filed in: meetings | Olivia
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In meeting number 4 we were able to get a lot of things done and talked about. An update about the Recycling Center was announced: we will be making further plans to volunteer there over the weekends about twice a month and we will still be helping with taking book covers off old books and recycling them. We also talked about Green Up Keene Day, which is going to be happening on April 18th. The person in charge of the event will be giving us a route that we will be taking and we will be picking up trash along that route. Lucy also mentioned that we will be having our first bake/products sale in front of Hannah Grimes this Saturday starting at 11:30, so please come! One of the last things we talked about was the movie contests. We have already missed one but we have one that we would love to enter in. The deadline is April 22 and Olivia is planning on getting that organized, so please talk to her more about that if you are interested in participting!

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