This is the 2nd part of my "I'm Back" Blog- Check out "I'm Back! Part 1 *Featuring Cake, Celebs and Hitting my Head Against a Rather Stubborn Brick Wall" for the first.
Celebration and Jubilation This year was my school's 50th Anniversary, and to celebrate, we held a fayre on our school field, with motorcycle display teams, vintage cars and live music. I thought this would be a brilliant event to get Footprint Friends along to. So after a couple of conversations with school and a few emails to Footprint Friends, I managed to secure stall. Our feet painting stall was a definite success on the fabulous sunny afternoon, and received a steady stream of children and adults alike, including some of my teachers- (should make for interesting conversations in the staff room when I bring the photos in! It also received the attention of many of the local newspapers, because it was such an engaging and innovative idea- and best of all free. Hopefully many people have been inspired to sign up because of the coverage, and become VIPs to save our Very Important Planet. Thanks so much to the team for coming down- I had a brilliant afternoon and hope you did too...I know many teachers and attendees of the fayre/fete mentioned it as a highlight to their day!
They talk about buses all turning up at once, but for me this seemed to be applicable to speeches. Rather than be spread out in June, I was invited to 3 speeches, with 2 the day after each other! My first was a talk at the Lowestoft Energy Challenge Conference, held in, funnily enough Lowestoft! The Challenge is a brilliant scheme to get schools and colleges to come up with ways of using renewable energy, and to win funding from a judging panel, and it really was brilliant to see the range of ideas, from a range of ages. My personal favourite idea was a primary school's superhero cartoon, where the hero-(unfortunately his name has escaped my mind) fought against the evil carbon man! I can really imagine the film "Global Warming, The Rematch Part II" being a success! The event was really good, and I think I learnt a lot from it, both about my speaking style and the role of enterprise in the climate challenge.
My second event was at the Imperial College, London where I spoke at a Groundworks event, on building upon the education of climate change. The actual event was really good, and went really well, but I think for me the best bit actually came after, in meeting Casper and Emma, the WWF Ambassador's of Change. They were a real inspiration, hoping to start a youth climate event next Spring, and to highlight the Climate issue at Copenhagen, a possible "last chance to make a real stand". Both had a sense of optimism, and made you feel that real change was something that only needed enthusiasm and an outpouring of support. They had brought along their video camera, to get Adam Nethersole (the DEFRA marketing manager in charge of the Champs) and I to do a "Green Finger" where you colour one finger green, and write what you want to protect from climate change on your hand. Its really simple but really effective, but it was extremely weird when I chose what I wanted to protect- A White Christmas- I like to think outside the box, and Adam revealed this was what he was just going to choose a s well!. All in all, a brilliant day!
The day after the Imperial College event, I attended a conference a it closer to home-the Creative Partnerships Conference at Writtle College, Chelmsford. This was an event designed to look at alternatives to fighting climate change- at using the creative arts- such as drama, art and dance to educate about and tackle climate change. This fueled my ideas for my event, and was a great way for me to look at different creative ways of looking at things- something I'm really interested in. My speech was slightly different this time, in the format of a seminar, with a small group who'd booked in- it was quite nice to think that there were people actually choosing to see me (well, I hope choosing, rather than being forced!). Because of the different format, it meant I could show different pieces of media- such as the infamous Dutch boat trip, to the non-visible windfarm. Though unsure of the seminar format at first- I grew to really enjoy it, as it felt much more personal and informal, and I think it was this mood that meant more people were asking questions- something I really enjoyed answering- I love a challenge!
Just last week, I did a spot of Work Experience with Friends of the Earth, which was a brilliant insight into how they work, and a real chance to make a difference. Though some of my friends did joke it could be called "unpaid labour"(!), I really enjoyed it, having the chance to work with many different projects, from looking at improving the Youth website, working on a fundraising pack for the youth and schools, working on a couple of competitions to working with the climate team on gathering support for windfarms. Actually, I enjoyed the work so much, that I'm going back next week, for some follow up work on the windfarms and an interview for the website. It seems what one of the friends of the earth team said is true..."Volunteer once and you're there for life!"
Posted
Aug 08 2008, 10:00 PM
by
Mad as a Hatter