Schools Make A Change

With all my focus centered on brands and corporations, it is nice to be reassured that other organizations and institutions are making efforts to improve the environment. I am currently an event planning intern for a local charter school, the Village School. It's a small school that is recently new and trying to establish itself and make contributions to the community. They need funding, they need support and they need to be recognized as promoting creative learning and good education. This is why I am so excited and happy that they chose a fundraiser that is dedicated to Earth Day and the environment.

Every year they have a walk-a-thon quite similar to the ones that almost every other grade school has as a fundraiser for their school. I even remember mine, the hassle of going door-to-door in the neighborhood asking for donations to just have the door slammed in your face and then waiting around all day on the lawn until it was your grade's turn to walk around the track for an hour. And why did we do all this? Because if you got the most pledges and walked the most laps then you could win a cool T-shirt, or a movie collection, or a neat radio or pizza party for your class, or a one time trip in a limo to McDonalds during lunch!

However, this year the Village School is teaming up with Eugene City Parks and having an Earth Action Day on April 22nd (Earth Day). And instead of walking around a track all day, they are volunteering at the Campbell Center, weeding, planting native plants and cleaning up the parks! While some of the pledge money will go towards the school, some of the proceeds will go towards Walama Restoration Project, a non-profit environmental organization.

I am so proud! Schools are changing their traditional way of fundraising to keep up with today's issues and help make the planet a better place. Instead of encouraging children to raise money so they can get that toy or that pizza party, we are starting to encourage them to care for our planet and give back! You are never too young to learn about how to make the world a better place.