Green Teens U.S.A.

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Green Teens U.S.A.

MANSFIELD, United States
Team Contact: GreenTeensJessie
Team Type: Youth Venture
Team Phase: Sustaining Venture

Contact team through YV or Join Now

About Us

Mission Statement: Green Teens is a youth group who spreads environmental awareness through education & simple, positive lifestyle changes!

Welcome to the Green Teens U.S.A. Team Page!
View Our Webpage: http://www.greenteensusa.org
E-Mail Us: greenteensus@gmail.com
IN ORDER TO KEEP OUR PAGE CLEAR we have moved all of the detailed sections to the blog entry! Remember to check them out theere!!
A GREEN TEEN HISTORY:
Green Teens started as a conversation around the lunch table between co-founders Jessie Mehrhoff (GreenTeensJessie), Kelsey Sullivan (GreenTeensKelsey), and Lindsay Haythorn. The girls decided that though our community prided itself on being environmental, it was not reaching out to the youth or showing adults what simple ways they could tweak their daily life in order to “live green”.
THE COMPOST CAF. PROJECT:
--@15 Challenge Entry--
The Compost Caf. Project
The Compost Caf. Project was initiated by the Green Teens in the Spring of 2008, but is now just getting started. The goal of the project is to transform the E.O. Smith Cafeteria (and then spread the project to other schools) into a compost production center rather than a wasteful lunch room.
How will we go about ensure that our cafeteria takes steps towards becoming zero waste? Check Out Our Blog "The Compost Caf. Project" to see the steps we will take to meet our goals!
Benefits of the Project:
-Increased environmental awareness throughout the student and faculty bodies
-Close to zero-waste cafeteria setting
-Compost will go back to the school (Agriculture Dept., Science Dept., etc.)
-School will no longer have to pay for shipments of plastic forks, spoons, knives, and bowls.
-Less waste for garbage company to truck away
-Initial expense to build compost & purchase lunch-ware, after that relatively low cost project.
Why Give Us Your Vote?: Located in the Blog Section! See exactly what the money will go towards!
Motivation: One isparation for Green Teens and The Compost Caf. Project was when we found out that our school burns most of its garbage. The group initially aimed to replace just Styrofoam with biodegradable materials, but learned that this will have little benefit due to the process of incineration. The group also learned that an area elementary school has been composting for a number of years, and with great success. The school even sells some of the soil to parents as a fund raiser. Green Teens realized that we could eliminate a lot of our school's waste in a productive way, creating new, nutrient-rich soil for the use of our school's Agriculture and Science Departments. Though, unlike the elementary schools in the area, our school was not built to wash or re-use much of anything, Green Teens realized that with a little creativity this could be changed fairly easily. The school agreed to wash flatware and bowls as long as Green Teens helped provide them. Once the group found an approved location for a compost bin at our school's "Land Lab", we realized The Compost Caf. Project could easily succeed at E. O. Smith High School—and hopefully at other schools as well!
Pictures and descriptions of these, and other, Green Teen events can be found under the blog, images, & video sections of this page, as well as on our website.
Plant A Tree,
The GTs

Interests

Arts and Culture, Community Beautification, Community Development, Environment, International Issues, Peace and Non-Violence, Poverty

Our Team is looking for help with…

Good Advertising Advice, Ways to Excite the Community, Media, and Fundraising

More about us...

How does your group impact your community?

Our community is becoming more and more environmental, however we have noticed that it could use quite a bit of help. Green Teens U.S.A. believes that if we can show everyone, especially youth, how easy it is to help save our planet they will begin to take action themselves. We feel that young children are at a point in their lives where learning about the environment is critical and we need to spread knowledge to adults who can spread it as well. We believe holding community and environmentally oriented events are the best way to make our towns more "green".

How many people have been impacted by your group?

All of our friends have had a direct impact, so have our school mates. We have set up booths at school environmental fairs to help spread our message. At our last booth we were promoting the use of eco-bags as well as World Tree Day (http://www.worldtreeday.org) and we got over 100 signatures for our WTD petition. We have gone to elementary schools and directly worked with students, showing them how important it is to take care of mother nature. We are working with Park departments in our towns to start planning events and get the word out. Our families and friends have spread the word about us to all of thier friends and families too-- we are a young club but our community is becoming more and more aware of us each day.

Looking back we should have...

Started off the club will more members, we started really small and though this made it easy to discuss our ideas- we did not have a critical mass. At events there were sometimes only 2 or so members, maybe even 1. Now that our club has about 15 members, we can get a lot more done, and very quickly!

Looking back we did a great job at...

Advertising for our first big meeting! Though we kept them small, when we decided it was really time to get more people involved we made videos for our school TV station, set a rule that each member must recruit someone new, posted fliers, started a facebook club/activity/event account, and more!

What we really enjoy about being young changemakers is...

when people see that young people really can make a difference they begin to listen to us more. The world today is really our world tomorrow and we are helping more and more people understand that. Youth today are inspiring people of all ages, even though we are just youun.

What other youth networks are you involved in? What other websites do you belong to, other youth organizations, etc.?

Jessie runs an environmental website called Young Environmentalists' Gazette. She also is working with a friend in New Zealand, together we run a free environmental E-magazine called The Lorax Leaflet that goes out to over 100 subscribers world wide. Jessie is also on several dance teams Kelsey is on the school softball team and is an active member of FFA and the VoAgg Program at her school Lindsay is on her schools golf as well as the schools volleyball team. Green Teens Works with Green Teens New Zealand.

3 Month Survey

Describe your recent Venture activities. What have you accomplished since selection?

Green Teens has been very successful since your selection of our Venture. We received a donation of 139 cloth bags from the Mehrhoff family, 89 of these cotton bags were plain. We brought the plain bags to Center Elementary School in celebration of Earth Day. About 60 bags were donated to students to decorate. We also gave a small environmental presentation to the students. We held a similar workshop at an Ashford recreational facility. We are currently working with the Mansfield, CT Parks and Rec. Dept. to plan a tree-planting day scheduled for fall of 2007. Our club manned a booth at our school’s Solutions Fair and raised $122.00. We held a benefit tag sale and set up a booth in front of the Willimantic Food Co-Op, where we held a Green Teen giveaway including a $20 gift certificate to the Co-Op, a cloth Bag, and an environmental book. We have made our cloth bags available for sale at the Mansfield General Store. We have recently had to order more bags.

Have you faced any difficulties? Were you able to solve them? If so, how? If not, what would have been helpful to you?

Our biggest challenge has been our ability to coordinate available dates with club members. We are also finding it difficult to recruit new members, so we have created a new rule that requires each member to recruit a new member within the calendar year. This will ensure that we double the size of our club every year. So far, we have one new full-time member and our parents have been eager to help.

What upcoming plans do you have for your Venture? How will your Venture continue to benefit the community?

? In the fall we plan to have our tree-planting day (SMART Goal #1) held at the Southeast Fields in Mansfield, CT. We also intend to hold another Eco-Bag Day in the towns of Mansfield and Coventry, similar to the one held at Center Elementary School. We plan to give presentations to our Rotary Club, and other local groups, from September through November to make more community connections. August 11th and 18th will be spent at the Willimantic Food Co-Op again, and we will have another giveaway. We are also planning to have our Venture march in the Willimantic Boom box, 4th of July, 2008 parade. Mrs. Irene Oliynyk has offered to arrange an interview for Green Teens at our local radio station.

Describe your relationship with your Ally and your Partner Organization.

Our ally, Leslie Mehrhoff, has been very helpful. He has attended every event and tries to promote Green Teens within the University community in which he works as a botanist. He is trying to help us obtain a meeting place for the summer, since our school is not available. He mentions us to other environmental organizations, hoping they will be interested in working with us. One way which we hope he can help us is by introducing us to an acquaintance of his who is a photographer for our local paper. If he could arrange for her and a reporter to attend one of our events, that would help make the community more aware of our causes.

Have you taken advantage of Youth Venture materials? Tell us your thoughts and ideas to make Youth Venture stronger!

Teens has passed out every business card from Youth Venture and used the Action Kit as our guide. We have spent days looking through it for information on how to advertise through the media and other tips. We bring it with us to all events to have as a reference. The Youth Venture staff has been very helpful; they publish Green Teens news in their newsletters. They also answer any of our questions promptly. http://www.genv.net has also been a great tool. We use the website to talk about, and show, pictures from events we have held. Each member has an account and it has helped us get our name out to other change makers.

What could Youth Venture do to help you even more?

When Youth Venture comes across activities or opportunities that would be beneficial for our club to get involved in, we would appreciate it if you notify us. The resources newsletter is a really great way to obtain that information. Please keep informing venturers about SGS Workshops, as they have been very helpful, especially the June 25th Turning Interest into Exploration with Mr. Neils.

How would you like to continue your involvement with Youth Venture?

Serve as a panelist on a Youth Venture selection panel

Help recruit potential Venturers

Tell others about your venture

Become a YV ambassador (represent YV at events, in the media, etc.)

Other ways you might continue your involvement with Youth Venture?

Send update to Youth Venture & help with newsletters if it is ever needed.

12 Month Survey

Describe your recent venture activities and accomplishments since selection? Have you received any recognition for your venture?

In the past year, Green Teens has been very successful. We have completed many small projects, and even a fewer large scale ones. We are very proud of these accomplishments seeing as we were a first year club. Green Teens completed four bag painting sessions with younger students (worked with an estimated 150 total) in our first year. Each time the club fully funded the event by purchasing both cloth bags and supplies. We have gotten quite a bit of feedback from teachers and other people who we held these events for, and are scheduled to hold another Eco- bag painting workshop this fall at a local church. We have also held two, very successful eco-bag booths outside of the local Willimantic Food Co-op. Here we spread awareness about the of the cloth bags vs. paper or plastic bags, as well as sold bags as a fundraiser (we also held the same booth at our school’s environment fair). We donated trees to an Ashford, CT park. There were only two, but they were the only town who needed trees at the time, so we were happy to help. Our club planted the two red maples, and then Jessie Mehrhoff and Kayla Briggs took care of the tree’s all fall, winter, and have finally un-staked them this spring! Our biggest event so far, for which we got put in the paper (press releases), was an Earth Day light bulb exchange. The club purchased 292 compact fluorescent light bulbs, set up a booth at our local community center during their Earth Day celebration, and exchanged light bulbs. We allowed the public to bring in any regular light bulbs and we would give them three CFLs free of charge. We then sent off all of the light bulbs we collected to Northeast Lamp Recycling where they were disposed up and recycled in an environmentally friendly matter. Currently, our group is working with the school to reduce the use of plastic cutlery (and eventually Styrofoam dinnerware) in our high school. The school is very interested and we hope that by early next school year we will no longer have disposable forks, spoons, and knives in our cafeteria.

Have you faced any difficulties? Were you able to solve them? If so, how? If not, what would have been helpful to you?

Our biggest difficultly so far has been attendance and getting group members to participate in club activities. We realize that all members have other activities which they are a part of; however, we have had trouble getting our meeting attendance as high as we would have liked. In order to fix this, we have come up with a system and benefits to entice members to join the club. Below our new “core members” leadership style is described; this has motivated members to become more involved. Also, we got club t-shirts and bags for members who show consistent dedication to the club. We have found that if we can get members to attend a few meetings, they are more likely to stay, actively participate, and contribute ideas. Entering the summer months, keeping up meeting attendance will be fun, but since most meetings will probably be held at members’ houses or in local recreational areas we will be able to have food and other things to offer to members. The current core members (listed in the members section) are confident that we are well on our way to solving this problem, especially because we plan on focusing a lot more on recruiting, especially younger students, within the next year.

Have you begun thinking about longer-term planning?

underclassmen with our venture, so that it may continue after its founding members have graduated in 2010. Our upcoming plans include reducing our high school’s plastic consumption by partially replacing the cafeteria’s plastic cutlery with reusable flatware. If this is successful, we will expand this project to include all cutlery, as well as plates and pasta bowls. We have already had a transition in the leadership organization of our club. Instead of having titles such as “President” and “Treasurer”, we have found it more effective for all members to share common duties and responsibilities. Our venture will continue to benefit the community because we hope to introduce many new members next year, and therefore will have greater ideas and resources to work with. We will continue to advocate the use of cloth bags and the benefits of reducing plastic use. We are also planning to auction off yard work services to the community in order to raise awareness and funds for our venture and its cause.

Describe your relationship with your Ally and your Partner Organization.

Green Teens gets a lot of help from the adults, parents, and groups which we work with. Leslie Mehrhoff, Jessie’s dad, has been our ally from the beginning. He helps a lot with events, transportation, purchases the club makes, and always contributes ideas after hearing about our meetings. Since our meetings are during the school day or right after school, we have also found Cheryl Granger, one of the E. O. Smith high school science teachers to be our “in-school” advisor. This allows us to be officially considered an E. O. Smith High School club. She attends all of meetings and helps us by looking up facts, figures, and information while we brainstorm at meetings. She is also in touch with the entire administration, as well as many other local organizations. In fact, Dr. Granger was the one who first found out about the Mansfield Earth Day Celebration for the group, so that we could hold our CFL exchange. Finally, we have just begun working with The Student Peace Alliance. They asked us if we would represent the E. O. Smith and one of the CT High School branches of the club. At each meeting we mention a bit about what is going on with the SPA and in turn they help us by offering to advertise and support us in all of our endeavors. Having multiple allies and a partner organization is working very well for the club because they all cover different aspects of where having adult help is necessary.

Have you attended in person or reviewed any of the events or trainings on our web site?

Yes, Green Teens sent two representatives to the First Annual Summit in Washinton, DC this July! It was a great tool and not only did we learn about how to organize/sustain/stay creative with our venture, but we also met some other great venturers with great ideas and will be sure to keep in touch! Now Green Teens wants to see what we can do to take our group to the next level! Also: We have participated in a few conference call workshops. We found the information and advice from the other callers to be very helpful. We believe that these training sessions could be made stronger if there was more follow-up information available. For example, guest speakers could make themselves more available to be contacted after the conference call so that they can answer any additional questions.

What could Youth Venture do to help you even more?

Youth Venture has been a tremendous source of help and guidance for Green Teens U.S.A. Youth Venture’s website has been particularly helpful, and we hope to see it grow and expand even more. Online resources and workshops would be a great way to involve more organizations and volunteers.

How would you like to continue your involvement with Youth Venture?

Serve as a panelist on a Youth Venture selection panel

Help recruit potential Venturers

Tell others about your venture

Become a Youth Venture ambassador (represent Youth Venture at events, in the media, etc.)

Members

Youth Venture

Green Teens U.S.A.

Green Teens U.S.A.

About Us

Interests

Our Team is looking for help with…

How does your group impact your community?

How many people have been impacted by your group?

Looking back we should have...

Looking back we did a great job at...

What we really enjoy about being young changemakers is...

What other youth networks are you involved in? What other websites do you belong to, other youth organizations, etc.?

3 Month Survey

Describe your recent Venture activities. What have you accomplished since selection?

Have you faced any difficulties? Were you able to solve them? If so, how? If not, what would have been helpful to you?

What upcoming plans do you have for your Venture? How will your Venture continue to benefit the community?

Describe your relationship with your Ally and your Partner Organization.

Have you taken advantage of Youth Venture materials? Tell us your thoughts and ideas to make Youth Venture stronger!

What could Youth Venture do to help you even more?

How would you like to continue your involvement with Youth Venture?

Other ways you might continue your involvement with Youth Venture?

12 Month Survey

Describe your recent venture activities and accomplishments since selection? Have you received any recognition for your venture?

Have you faced any difficulties? Were you able to solve them? If so, how? If not, what would have been helpful to you?

Have you begun thinking about longer-term planning?

Describe your relationship with your Ally and your Partner Organization.

Have you attended in person or reviewed any of the events or trainings on our web site?

What could Youth Venture do to help you even more?

How would you like to continue your involvement with Youth Venture?

Members

Team Content

Blogs

Events

Other Content

Partners

Youth Venture

Green Teens U.S.A.

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Green Teens U.S.A.

About Us

Interests

Our Team is looking for help with…

How does your group impact your community?

How many people have been impacted by your group?

Looking back we should have...

Looking back we did a great job at...

What we really enjoy about being young changemakers is...

What other youth networks are you involved in? What other websites do you belong to, other youth organizations, etc.?

3 Month Survey

Describe your recent Venture activities. What have you accomplished since selection?

Have you faced any difficulties? Were you able to solve them? If so, how? If not, what would have been helpful to you?

What upcoming plans do you have for your Venture? How will your Venture continue to benefit the community?

Describe your relationship with your Ally and your Partner Organization.

Have you taken advantage of Youth Venture materials? Tell us your thoughts and ideas to make Youth Venture stronger!

What could Youth Venture do to help you even more?

How would you like to continue your involvement with Youth Venture?

Other ways you might continue your involvement with Youth Venture?

12 Month Survey

Describe your recent venture activities and accomplishments since selection? Have you received any recognition for your venture?

Have you faced any difficulties? Were you able to solve them? If so, how? If not, what would have been helpful to you?

Have you begun thinking about longer-term planning?

Describe your relationship with your Ally and your Partner Organization.

Have you attended in person or reviewed any of the events or trainings on our web site?

What could Youth Venture do to help you even more?

How would you like to continue your involvement with Youth Venture?

Members

Team Content

Blogs

Events

Other Content

Partners