WCAFI world, the youth are being empowered, and inspired to make a difference.  The United Nations has declared August 2010-2011 the International Year of the Youth, inspiring youth influence on local, national, and global levels.  That isn’t the only opportunity that has been presented to us.  This year has also been deemed the United Nations’ International Year of the Forests!  It is a relatively new program launched on Feb. 2.  What an opportunity!  Anyone can organize an event that promotes or encourages others based on one of these two initiatives.  Check out the great public events.

If you haven’t taken the Clean Air pledge, now is the time to do so.  As United Nations say, it is “Our Year, Our Voice,” so we can make a difference on a worldwide scale!  If you want to share with the WCAFI community how you are making a difference, you could send in a really cool outline on your initiative.

UPDATE: The United Nations’ Billion Tree campaign is still going strong!  With 12,718,917,782 trees pledged, and 11,333,617,951 trees planted, that is one initiative that will go on for a long, long, long time.  If you haven’t registered your tree on the  Plant for the Planet website yet, now is a great time to do so! 

So what is the WCAFI doing for these two great United Nations’ initiatives?  In December 2010, I was honoured to receive the Ward Smith Environmental Youth Award from the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority in recognition of my work with the WCAFI.  This honour included a cash donation to continue our work educating youth on the environment and creating more clean air.  The WCAFI decided that it would be really cool to do a double bonus: give back to the community and empower the youth!  The WCAFI and North Bay Mattawa Conservation Authority have been discussing different ideas to improve the local environment, and developing a Clean Air Workshop to educate  youth and get them growing!  This was an amazing success, which took place on the March Break during the North Bay Mattawa Conservation Authority’s Enviro Camp.  The age range was 6-12 years old, and some of these cool youth wanted to get involved with the WCAFI and learning about the environment!  This shows that there are people out there that want to get involved, they just need to be inspired!  So get out into the world, and become empowered.

Also, I would like to thank Alexandria, an amazing youth who helped out with the Clean Air Youth workshop, and had previously helped her class grow Clean Air Tree Kits!

Keep on inspiring!

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