Make Everyday Earth Day

April 22nd, 1970 was the first time Earth Day was celebrated. Rallies were organized coast-to-coast and waves of students from thousands of colleges and universities participated in mass protest of unfriendly environmental practices. Even primary and secondary schools participated -- approximately ten thousand, according to the EPA.

Alongside non-profits and activists, everyday people shared the vision of saving the earth and its wildlife. As knowledge heightened around the issues of oil spills, polluting factories, raw sewage, toxic dumps and environmental destruction; hope blossomed.

Our first Earth Day mobilized 20 million Americans. “It worked because of the spontaneous, enthusiastic response at the grassroots. Nothing like it had ever happened before. While our organizing on college campuses was very well done, the thousands of events in our schools and our communities were self-generated at the local level… They simply organized themselves. That was the remarkable thing that became Earth Day.” (Senator Gaylor Nelson, Founder of the first Earth Day)

Today, approximately 500 million people will take part. Largely, we have the internet to thank. Hundreds of millions of people can be called to action with little to no cost. Many of the newborn social entrepreneurs will be our children.

According to a recent survey, 68% of the teen respondents indicated their families were not as green as they could be. Of the respondents, 46% indicated that global warming is the most important environmental issue to them.

Consider Alec Loorz, who at age 12 founded Kids vs Global Warming with the purpose of educating kids about global warming and empowering them to take action. Now 14 years old, he is the youngest person trained to present Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth slide show in the United States.

Likewise, brands, in recognition of this “New Era of Responsibility” have developed new socially-conscious initiatives such as cause-marketing campaigns, higher engagements of corporate social responsibility and for-profit philanthropy models. A few examples come to mind:

• Last month, Whole Foods Market partnered with Teens Turning Green to launch a nationwide contest entitled “Project Green Prom.” Designed to encourage teens around the country to make earth-friendly decisions and purchases around prom season, this campaign kicked off with an online video contest for high school juniors and seniors to propose how they might green their prom.
• CardsDirect.com launched an Earth Day Campaign that encourages primary school children (K-5) to utilize specially-designed greetings printed on 100% recycled cardstock.
• MasterCard mirrors the millennial generation’s heightened levels of awareness in their new “Lessons” ad campaign (shown below).

Earth Day is an opportunity for children to learn to cultivate their love and appreciate their world. How might parents challenge their kids?

• Plant a garden! You can request a packet of Campbell’s tomato seeds (with proof of purchase of condensed soup) and 100 seeds will be donated to communities and schools across the United States.
• Hidden Valley® also has a website encouraging kids to “Love Your Veggies” with games and gardening tips. If you cannot plant a garden you can still plant a virtual flower through Electrolux’s virtual flower garden campaign and $1 will be donated to Global Green USA’s initiatives for healthy green schools.
• Take the Nature Conservancy’s challenge to put down the mouse and get out of the house! You and your family can “spring outside” by taking a hike, flying a kite, taking a walk in the park, planting a tree, etc.
• You can also pre-purchase tickets to the opening week of Disneynature’s “earth” (opening on Earth Day) and Disney will plant a tree in your honor.
• “Turn over a new leaf” and support national parks by shopping! Macy’s and the National Park Foundation are partnering to raise awareness and funds to support our national parks. By making a $5 donation, you receive a shopping pass for Saturday, April 25th. On Earth Day, the first 150 kids at each Macy’s store will receive a copy of “Kid Power”, an activity book that teaches kids about how they can help the environment. The book can also be downloaded online.

Consider the planet when making purchases throughout the year. A number of forward-thinking companies offer innovative products that address environmental issues:

• ChicoBag is a reusable bag made from 7 plastic bottles
• EcoUsable recently introduced the world’s first stainless steel filtered water bottle
• AQUAMANTRA will be launching the world’s first 100% biodegradable and recyclable bottle in June
• The Living Christmas Company rents live Christmas trees and picks them up after the holidays

Let’s try to make every day Earth Day!

April showers inspiration to do good

“We have not inherited the Earth from our fathers, we are borrowing it from our children.” This quote by Lester Brown serves as a gentle reminder of how important it is that we involve our children in the relationship between quality of life and quality of the environment.

A recent survey found that Americans could do more to help Mother Earth. “While America currently recycles 34% of its garbage,” the survey found, “75 percent of what we throw away could be recycled.”

The month of April has the potential to highlight inspiration for kids:

• April 2^nd is World Autism Awareness Day, highlighting that 1 out of 150 people is diagnosed with autism;
• April 7^th is World Health Day 2009, focusing on making hospitals safe in emergencies;
• April 18^th YMCAs across the country will be celebrating Healthy Kids® Day;
• April 22^nd is Earth Day.

Here are some ideas of what you can do with your family:

Teens/Tweens:

• Volunteer at your local medical facility or health-related nonprofit: Whether visiting patients or participating in a formal volunteer program, children and their families can be helped during difficult times. Ronald McDonald House Charities details 30 ways to volunteer during the month of April.
• Involve your classmates & teachers: Ask if lesson plans related to health can be incorporated into your school day. Site content from the United Nations, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Scholastic are good places to start.
• Plan a contest: From recycling treasure hunts to building a life-sized sculpture out of recycled materials, there are a variety of fun & rewarding awareness campaigns that can be leveraged. Envirolink offers a variety of kid-friendly ideas.
• Attend an event: There are planned events across the country to raise awareness for Earth Day.
• Design a nature challenge: Nature Challenge for Kids has a series of challenges that help create an understanding of our relationship to the environment.
• Learn about the relationship between your school and environmental / health issues: The Green Squad offers an online challenge, which can be leveraged for most ages.
• Healthy Begins Here Video Contest: Did you know there are at least 63 toxic chemicals within a house? These “hot spots” of toxicity and pollution don’t have to exist. What would you do to get rid of them?

Younger Siblings:

• Teaching games: Kids Planet allows the kids to be defenders of wildlife while they travel through the web of life learning about animals and habitat.
• Crafts: Kaboose offers a variety of kid-friendly activities in honor of earth day.
  

Parents & Teachers:

• Activities: EcoKids offers a fleet of lesson plans and printable handouts / activity sheets. Though specifically tailored to the Ontario Elementary Science & Technology curriculum, it is a great resource for all.
• 50 things a family can do to stop global warming: Require a little effort/investment, but can help you save money.

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they will never sit in” is not a new saying, rather it is a Greek Proverb. Something as simple as planting a tree can have a major collective impact on our planet. What will you and your kids do this month?

World Water Day

(co-written by Lee Fox & Christine Guardia)

Water is an essential element of life, yet more than 20% of our world’s population is robbed of this basic necessity. The situation is tragic: 1-billion people worldwide do not have access to clean drinking water; another 2.4-billion consume water that has been improperly sanitized; and there are more than 5-million deaths each year from water-related diseases.

One child dies every eight seconds as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. At any moment, almost half the population in a developing country is suffering from a disease linked to lack of access to clean water and sanitation. Women and children are most affected, because they walk some 200 million hours every day for water which often prevents them from earning a living or going to school.

While no single person or organization can resolve a global issue of this magnitude, we believe bringing our collective good-will together in social action can make a positive difference. Members of civic society, brands, not-for-profit organizations, and local governments have to unite.



Today’s kids can do some social good in this context as well.

From simple walks/hikes/runs (serving as a reminder to how far some villagers have to go to get clean water) to artistic contests, concerts and film festivals, there are a wide-variety of events being held around the globe in observance of World Water Day.

Encouraging the next generation to take an active role in ensuring the sustainability of the earth’s water supply is paramount. Some of the youth-oriented opportunities of which KooDooZ is aware includes:

• Nature’s Voice Our Choice is the theme of this internet-based poetry competition.
• The TAP project has partnered with restaurants in featured cities to help UNICEF provide safe drinking water to the world’s children.
• Live online music concert to raise money and awareness for world water issues.
• Dream Village, a children’s book publisher which allows kids to determine the outcome of their charitable donations, is sponsoring the World Changer Contest for children ages 6 to 10. Entries are due by May 1st for the opportunity to win a full scholarship to Beam Camp, a four-week summer program for boys and girls ages 7 to 17 in Strafford, New Hampshire.
• Little Drops, Big Ripples, is new contest launched by Purex Natural Elements for Canadian residents to submit their tips on how to keep water resources clean. For every entry received, Purex will make a donation to the Clean Water Project. In the U.S. consumers can bid on a tote designed by a celebrity and proceeds will be donated to the Earth Day Network.
• All The Way To The Ocean is a visual book developed to give kids the chance to understand the cause and effect relationship between our cities’ trash filled storm drains and the worlds water gateways.
• Make your voice heard by signing an online petition to add Article 31 (right to water) to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) for adoption by the United Nations General Assembly.

Conceived 17-years ago by a United Nations committee as an international day of observance, March 22nd is not the only day we need to conserve our water. If current trends continue, the United Nations estimates that by the year 2025, two-thrids of the people in this world will not have sufficient access to clean water.

So what can you and your kids do? Start by looking at your water use at home:

180-gallons used to water your garden
60-gallons used to fill a bath-tub
60-gallons used to run the laundry machine
50-gallons used to run a shower (25-gallons if run "soft")
12-gallons used to run a dishwasher
5-gallons used to flush a toilet
2-4 gallons used to brush your teeth

On average, people in the U.S. use more than 100-gallons of water a day, while people in most developing countries use less than 2-gallons daily. If you shortened your shower by 1-or-2 minutes, you could save up to 700-gallons of water per month. Find more ideas on how to conserve from this phenomenal pdf published by UNICEF.

It takes just $37-dollars for UNICEF to provide a water filter, purifier, and disinfectant that can be used by an entire village.

How might your family raise money or awareness? We came across one family that has decided to turn off their house water for one week, thus saving a child's life for a year.

Change the Web to Change the World

The KooDooZ Team is excited to be part of Social Actions’ Change the Web Challenge because we believe in the power of the web to change the world! During the next couple of weeks, we are participating in two Change the Web events and hope you can join us:

1. On Monday, March 16th, the Change the Web Challenge Los Angeles Event will be held at 8:30 pm PDT, following Bloblive LA, at SOUTH in Santa Monica. If you are in the Los Angeles area, please stop by to hear how to apply your entrepreneurial ideas to change the world by listening to case studies, learning about the challenge and sharing ideas about how we can change the web. You can RSVP via http://www.meetup.com/BlobliveLA/ or http://changethewebla.eventbrite.com/. For those of you not in the LA area, the event will be streamed live via www.ustream.tv/channel/KooDooZ. Thank you to our co-sponsors, Bloblive and Mixergy!

2. On Tuesday, March 24th, we will be moderating an online Change the Web chat entitled “Twitter for Good”. The featured guests are John Haydon, a blogger and social media consultant for nonprofits, Amanda Rose, global organizer of Twestival, which has already raised over $250,000 for charity: water, and Stacey Monk, of Epic Change and Tweetsgiving organizer. The guests will share their insights and suggestions with nonprofits, as well as volunteers, who want to mobilize people to take action in their communities. The chat will begin at 2 pm EDT/11 am PDT.

The purpose of the Change the Web challenge is to help people find and share opportunities to take action via websites, blogs and social networks. Joe Solomon, Director of the Change the Web Challenge, uses the example of someone reading a story about homelessness online and a pop-up window appearing with information about volunteer opportunities at a local shelter. Social Actions currently aggregates such opportunities from a variety of sources, including VolunteerMatch and Idealist.org, and is challenging people to develop applications to transform the web for change. For more information, please see www.socialactions.com/changetheweb.

Although the Social Actions’ Change the Web Challenge does not directly involve youth, the applications resulting from the challenge will help turn the good will and passions of kids into skills and strategies for creating change for years to come. Although it often feels like there is not much good news these days, we are encouraged by the stories we are reading about how youth are choosing to spend their spring breaks volunteering and applying in record numbers to organizations such as Teach for America. These are the most difficult times that the Millennial generation has experienced so far and they have demonstrated their desire to be part of the change to make the world a better place for themselves, as well as future generations.

Yes They Can!

Christine Guardia, who is the Cause Cultivator for KooDooZ Corporation, co-authored this blog entry with me:

Having the ability to positively impact our world and the people in it is powerful – and volunteerism is key. A grassroots engagement of friends & family in support of a charity or a cause can have impact like no other effort.

Those of us focused in this sector know that the economic riptides have cut program managers from non-profit budgets at a time when demand for more volunteers is growing.

I can think of 80-million people who are willing and able to help right now – our Millennial kids (born 1982-2003) -- is a generation of young people who are civic-minded, success-driven, and environmentally conscious. Let's take the charge!

Kids take their cues from people who are a part of their world – namely their parents, teachers, coaches, religious leaders and their friends. Youth blessed with role-models who volunteer are nearly twice as likely to volunteer than kids without philanthropic counterparts (Corporation for National and Community Service, November 2005).

KooDooZ strongly advocates for a higher engagement of volunteerism in a child’s life. Not only does it go hand-in-hand with what the Edu2.0 thought-leaders are saying, it statistically increases scholastic progress.

Sadly, less than a quarter of public K-12 schools have service-learning activities (Corporation for National and Community Service, November 2008). On the other hand, most of our high schools do require volunteerism hours to graduate, but this effort seems to be one step forward and two steps backwars since 16-to-24 year olds had the lowest volunteer participation rate (21.9%) in our country.

But there is hope.

Dub it the “Obama Effect” if you’d like, the fact that we had the largest volunteerism engagement in 14 years, earmarked by the 162% increase of volunteer projects on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day speaks well to this point (see the Corporation for National and Community Service report).

It is very telling that corporations across the country have become bigger influencers via their cause marketing campaigns and their willingness to provide project funding and allowing employees to take time off to volunteer.

We would like to take this moment to profile some examples of 2009 campaigns aimed to help America:

HUNGER RELIEF:

1. Feeding America partners with both Campbell’s V8 on the “Make Every Serving Count” campaign and General Mills and The Biggest Loser on the “Pound For Pound Challenge”
2. To address childhood hunger, Share Our Strength partners with AT&T on “Operation No Kid Hungry” and Ferrero on “Share Something Sweet”

EDUCATION:

1. Kohl’s Corporation benefits kids across the nation with their “Cares for Kids” program
2. Colgate-Palmolive celebrates the joy of reading with its “Healthy Bedtime Habits” program

ACTIVISM & ENGAGEMENT:

1. Starbucks earned the pledge of 1.2 million volunteer hours so far via their

I’m In web page

In honor of the inauguration, Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops sold “Yes Pecan!” ice cream during the month of January and donated the proceeds to the Common Cause Education Fund

Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes “Get Your Stripes” campaign

Pedigree Dog Food is sponsoring pet meal donations in addition to their "New Leashes on Life" campaign, which advocates for adopting dogs from a shelter.

We now have an opportunity to show kids how they can help turn our nation’s challenges into achievements, such as by volunteering at a food bank, mentoring younger students or donating food, clothes, toys and books. If you and your kids (11-15 yrs) would like to be part of the KooDooZ private beta program, send an email to info@KooDooZ.com.

Says Christine: I consider my work here so important because KooDooZ aims to engage kids and families in activism 2.0

The Gift of Giving with KooDooZ

On December 22^nd KooDooZ organized a “KDZ Giving” event for members of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Monica. Our purpose was to introduce kids to the KooDooZ philosophy (and software) by providing them with a series of online and offline challenges and rewarding them for their efforts.

For me – after two years of intensive research, analysis, development and testing – this event stood out ... Not because it was monumental in comparison to any other product launch I've been a part of, but because the KooDooZ prospects ("KDZ" aka "Millennials") were so enthusiastic about a tool developed to increase their ability for "making a difference" in their personal, local or global lives.

As an aside, I have to share my passion for Millennial change-makers. The concept of “doing good” is a rationale Millennials don't only impose on themselves, they extend it to their peers, parents, neighbors, communities and just as significantly, to companies (as pointed out by a recent Cone Study.) As the first global generation ever, Millennials care strongly about justice and the problems faced by their society. Not only are they engaged in some kind of civic activity at school, they also have a deeper sense of “community.” Additionally, no generation understands new technology as intuitively as the Millennials do. So it was such a compliment to earn their verifiable vote of confidence by way of enthusiastic participation with KooDooZ.

On this day, we engaged 50 young minds (the youngest still in elementary school and the oldest just beginning to embark on their career) and while it was no surprise that most of these kids were more interested in “the doing” of a challenge than in “the prize” of a reward, it did spread my smile wide to see it in person.

The “KDZ Giving” event very specifically reaffirmed the fact that Millennials:

1. Prefer to learn by doing, within a framework of organization
2. Crave challenges and have a high motivation for turning them into achievements
3. Thrive in structured team activities where they can build new relationships and foster new dialogue
4. Partner well with mentors
5. Care less about personal rewards and more about benefiting a social cause

Equally as important, the KooDooZ biz dev team targeted some forward thinking companies to sponsor specific challenges which allowed us to further prove that there is an emotional link that connects Millennials to causes and ultimately to the companies that support and/or benefit those causes.

According to research, there are an estimated 15.6M Millennials in the United States who are actively engaged in helping humanity and sustainability. This represents a huge potential opportunity for companies embracing Cause Marketing / Branding.

Sponsors from around the country who contributed to this event included: Albertsons, AMF, Ask Kids, Avery Dennison, Best Buy of Santa Monica, Color Me Mine, FedEx Office of Santa Monica, Pacific Park, Pavilions, Perricone MD Cosmeceuticals, Ralphs, Santa Monica Playhouse, Ultimate Arcade and Vons.

Because the event was themed around “giving" these corporations supplied products and prizes for the offline challenges so that kids could create some personalized gifts for the holidays. I’ll highlight two of my favorites: (i) “To Get Fueled Up” in which the kids measured then layered ingredients into jars for a meal to share with friends, family or to donate to a homeless shelter and (ii) “To Get Sweetly Soft” with all natural ingredients for a sugar body scrub which they mixed by hand.

What sold the “KDZ Giving” event to corporate sponsors was KooDooZ ability to add that third dimension into the brand marketing experience of fostering a relationship between the cause and the consumer. For example, KooDooZ challenged the kids “To Do Something Noteworthy” by either (i) writing a letter to Santa in support of Macy’s Believe campaign to raise up to $1M for the Make-A-Wish Foundation; (ii) designing an image centered around “change” for President Obama through the SecretBuilders contest; or (iii) composing a letter to a solider whose sacrifice for his/her country deserves constant recognition.

As I write this blog, it strikes me that I have not shared the KooDooZ mission, which is to "turn the good will & passions of "KDZ" (kids) into skills & strategies for creating change." KooDooZ was built as a “virtual meets virtuous” social networking site where KDZ are rewarded for subscribing to, designing and collaborating on goals that address a social mission. KDZ challenge themselves both online and offline, giving them the opportunity to impact people within their family, school and community as well as the worldwide web.

To prove that these young people constitute a potentially powerful force for good, KooDooZ engaged three other organizations: Iridescent, Centro Latino for Literacy and A Star Inside to continue to challenge KDZ throughout our private beta.

KooDooZ is committed to strategic partnerships with ethical brands and institutions, foundations, non-profits, schools and families. Parties interested in participating in our private beta program should send all requests to info@koodooz.com

Teeter-Totter & Twitter

We are officially in private beta in just a few short weeks! As a result, I have had precious little time to contribute to this blog. As a counter-balance, I thought I'd share some of my recent tweets:

1. To stay relevant, schools need to keep pace with the rapid changes introduced by Digital Media http://tinyurl.com/65c4c4 MacArthur 3yr Study
   
   
2. Banning fast food ads from youth TV programs could result in 18% less of overweight children in the U.S. http://tinyurl.com/5dpj76
   
   
3. 25 young social entrepreneurs around the globe receive grants $300,000+ http://tinyurl.com/5uuukk from Starbucks Foundation
   
   
4. Spell it correctly and raise money for your school! http://tinyurl.com/6jwvxf Gr8 challenge for kids grades 3-thru-8. Deadline 12/19!
   
   
5. No surprise to see the humanization of brands because people love brands that show more of a human side.
   
   
6. 87% of online community are participating in social causes that are new to them http://tinyurl.com/39wfrt 2008 Digital Future Project (USC)
   
   
7. "Dedication + Knowledge = Success" http://tinyurl.com/5gn89a New ad campaign to counteract the anti-education messages in media.
   
   
8. "Causism will replace consumerism” http://tinyurl.com/6fu3po Micro-trends for 2009 show that cause marketing will be more prominent.
   
   
9. 68% of K-12 schools offer community service opp'tys http://tinyurl.com/5gy8ct Youth who volunteer now are more civic-minded as adults
   
   
10. Free play fosters abstract thinking! http://tinyurl.com/5dclkw w/out it America's youth will be at a disadvantage in the global economy

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/KooDooZ