Filed under: Community Empowerment, Education, Environment, Youth Empowerment | Tags: Green Children Foundation, Muhammad Yunus, WNC for Change
[Ian Bryan]
I remember high school vividly. I don’t remember anything that compared to these kids:
If you are not familiar Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Muhammad Yunus, he’s the father of microcredit. Sensible City’s planned giving partner for 2008 is Kiva.org, an organization which we emphatically support.
There is a youth movement taking place in America’s high schools. Okay, so perhaps only 25% of America’s teens are attaching themselves to a cause. But given their unbridled optimism, quantum creativity, lack of financial worries and an abundance of free time to dedicate to their projects, that 25% is making headlines everywhere.
Some choose the environment. Others choose poverty. Or war. Or Peace. Or politics. In Western North Carolina, where we work with the local Obama for America group, the largest (volunteer) phone bank we have ever seen wasn’t a bunch of us – it was a troop of motivated high school-age idealists (hat tip to Chris Scanzoni).
What I love about this is that the cause-ranger teens out there are the cool kids. Social and environmental justice activities are now an opportunity to develop new friends and feel “part of”. When I was in school, we called this kind of situation a gang. Today, its about change.
Big thanks to Tom Bevan and Milla Sunde for all that you do.
