LOCAL VOICES: Students Give Suggestions for Living Sustainably

Each week a group of elementary students come to the Boys & Girls Club of Woburn to participate in Do Something – which focuses on educational, service-minded, and socially responsible activities.  The program is designed and implemented by Club staff members and members of Social Capital Inc.’s AmeriCorps service program.  While the Boys & Girls Club has a long-standing tradition of offering service activities for teens, 2011 is the first year the organization is providing regularly scheduled service opportunities for younger members.

Recently, the group of youth read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss and built a giant tree made completely from recycled materials. On each leaf, the youth provided suggestions for being environmentally conscious in our daily lives.  Here is what they had to say:

• Play outside.
• Ride my bike instead of driving my car.
• Pick up litter.
• Use every space of paper.
• Be kind to the trees.
• Instead of throwing away fruit & veggie scraps, put them in a compost pile.  Then, use the soil to start a fresh garden.
• Switch out your old light bulbs to energy efficient light bulbs.
• Visit the library or a used book store, instead of buying new ones.
• Buy a reusable water bottle instead of plastic bottles.
• Donate clothes I no longer wear so others can get use out of them.
• Use your recyclable shopping bags.
• Become an expert in going green.
• Don’t chop tree bark.
• Use only ONE towel while staying at a hotel, and take shorter showers.
• Carpool or take the bus.
• Rechargeable batteries.  Buy them.
• Pack a waste free lunch.
• Wear a sweater instead of turning up the heat.
• Do not poach endangered animals.
• Switch to hybrid.
• Only run your dishwasher when it’s full.
• Spend a day picking up trash.
• Turn off the lights when you leave a room.
• Have meatless Fridays.
• Get educated.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing’s going to get better.  It’s not.”  -Dr. Seuss