Sprouts: Making Music To Inspire Others

By Eliza

Before we reached the school where the Youth Summit was being held, we came upon the site of what was then Occupy Wall Street, so we wandered through it. The next week the police arrived and forced the protesters to leave.

During our Northeast Youth Summit, the Sprouts of Hope took part in the Making Music to Inspire Others Workshop.

Two of the Sprouts helped to run this workshop. We talked about different kinds of music and how artists make a difference by helping to change the world. We listened to Bob Marley and other inspiring music and made a mural of things that the music reminded us of.

Then, at the end of the workshop, we all had a jam session with instruments we’d brought. Two of the Sprouts even had their ukuleles with them!

Music at the summit also existed outside the doors of the Making Music workshop. The Sprouts all played and sang songs about peace at the apple cider social following the day’s summit events, and we tried to get others to sing with us. This was a fun way to keep up the positive Roots & Shoots vibes going. Another good thing that came out of having our instruments with us in New York was that while we were waiting for the bus, we started a sing along – and some random strangers joined in!!

And at the subway in Grand Central Station we were greeted by music that these people were playing.

These are great examples of how music can bring people together. Overall, music added so much to the summit. We learned about many cool musicians at the workshop and were also able to share our love of music with the world.

New York "Sprouts" Adventures

By Risa

On our first morning in New York, we went to the United Nations to see an exhibit, “Design With the Other 90 Percent: Cities.” Using photographs and objects, the exhibit shows how people who live in poor city neighborhoods are improving their lives in sustainable ways. A few things really stood out to me.

In Medellín, Colombia, the local government built a cable-car system in one of its poorest slum areas that runs from the top of the hill to the bottom. Residents now get to work faster and more safely. The trip could take 2 hours on a crowded bus; it now only takes them 7 minutes. Libraries and schools were built to improve how kids spend their time; this gives them the chance to create a better future for themselves. It is also a much safer neighborhood now with 26 homicides instead of 381 per 100,000 residents each year.

In Ecuador and Nicaragua, bicycle pumps and toy helicopters are made into medical tools. It is amazing to see how people save lives by making these tools out of common items and for little money.

In Rio do Janeiro, Brazil, a few guys decided to experiment with a mural painting project in what was then a dangerous community. Their goal was to engage young people who lived there to help them paint. The project expanded far beyond their original plan when they employed local people to create some huge paintings that covered many houses and an entire staircase. The painters received a diploma and now see their work every day in their neighborhood; many aspire to be professional painters, and some of them want to take their painting to other parts of their city or to nearby villages.

The group is planning a bigger project that would cover a whole neighborhood and affect hundreds more people. Being a part of this project keeps young people busy and gives them a reason to feel good about themselves.

It is sad to see the conditions these people live in, but it is also extremely inspiring to see solutions that improve their lives. Sometimes it is the simplest solutions that solve the most complicated problems.

The Highline

On Sunday morning we visited the Highline. You can see us at the start of our walk on the Highline in our Memphis caps — a gift from our friend, Linda Potter, who generously arranged for us to have wonderful seats at the Broadway show, Memphis, the night before. She’s been involved with the show since before it came to Broadway and knows some of the actors, so she made it possible for us to go backstage after the show.

Memphis was spectacular, and it was incredible to be able to meet some of its stars. Thank you, Linda!

The Highline was once an elevated railroad that paralleled the West Side Highway with tracks going directly into buildings that housed factories and meatpacking plants. During the last decade, designers with a different vision transformed these abandoned tracks into a pedestrian walkway where the tracks are visible in the soil of a flowering landscape. We were on this elevated walkway for many blocks, as we walked under buildings, over streets, and next to windows where people live and work.

The Highline walkway is well made and well designed. W ith benches along the way, it is a nice place to sit and watch others walk by. In a covered area, a man played a banjo, and a bit further on we came to wooden steps leading down to a glass wall. We sat against the glass and watched cars speed by below us.

Built in 1934, the idea of the Highline was to raise the tracks in order to lower the number of train-related injuries and deaths. The Highline trains stopped running in 1980, and 19 years later “friends of the Highline” dedicated themselves to the challenge of turning it into a public walkway. The contrast between the tracks, the plants and the architecture on either side of the walkway works well; there is always something interesting to look at, but the feeling is very calming, too. In bustling Manhattan, this place seems very natural and forces you to take your time.

The Sprouts of Hope — Peace Doves and Songs

Sprouts Celebrate Day of Peace

By Eliza

In late September, the Sprouts of Hope travelled by bus to Providence, Rhode Island to spend a day at the nearby Roger Williams Park Zoo. There we celebrated the international day of peace, as we'd done last year with Roots & Shoots in Boston.

Throughout the day, we worked with Roots & Shoots members from other communities to do various peace-related activities with kids who came to the zoo.

At one table, we helped kids make mini peace doves. It felt great to promote peace and tell so many people about Roots & Shoots.

In the afternoon's peace parade, we held up a giant peace dove as Roots & Shoots members and friends marched together around the zoo, singing about peace. A lot of the kids waved the mini peace doves they’d made. It was so much fun!

We also were able to get a tour of the zoo from Denali, a Roots & Shoots member who knows this zoo quite well. It was awesome to see all the animals and walk around the zoo. Overall, the day of peace celebration was a great experience and we can’t wait for next year.

Sprouts of Hope: Yard Sale + Food Sale Fundraiser

Raising Money — To Give It Away

By Maya

On June 5, the Sprouts of Hope held our third yard sale. As usual, we filled our driveway with stuff we've outgrown or don't need but others might like to have. We sold books, games, toys, clothes, kitchen appliances and accessories, books, ice skates, rollerblades, bikes, shoes, plants, jewelry, bags, printers, and just about anything else you could think of. And we baked yummy cookies and our friend, Pu Zhang, cooked homemade Chinese dumplings. They are always a big hit, and we sold all of them within an hour of their arrival.

All of the Sprouts pitched in with donating things to the sale and being there while it was going on.

The yard sale was a total success! We raised a total of 825 dollars, and now we've donated that money to three organizations, City Sprouts (a gardening program at public schools in Cambridge), The Sprouts of Hope Fund (named after us, as its founders, the fund helps kids who don't have the resources to participate in Roots & Shoots be able to do so), and Doctors Without Borders.

To each, we donated 275 dollars!We also received items from other friends. As one part of the sale we did a silent auction for some of the special items, including my bike (I am now going to ride the one my mom used to ride), a hand carved Native America bowl, and a huge art set.

Prior to the sale we created colorful signs and hung them up around our neighborhood. We also put the information on to Craigslist and spread the word through Facebook and at school.

When the day came, it was miraculously clear and sunny. A lot people stopped by, and we sold a ton of things! When it was over, we loaded up our parents' cars and made trips to

Goodwill to donate the remaining stuff. Just our leftovers alone filled more than two huge cars!

It feels great knowing that we were able to raise all of this money, and send it off to help out three great causes.

We hope to hold another yard sale so that we can recycle what we don't need to others and then use the money we raise to make a difference in other people's lives.

Using Our Book to Teach about Energy

By Eliza

On Saturday, May 21^st, the Sprouts of Hope had the opportunity to display our book, “Energy Lite,” at the Cambridge Climate Change Week ActionFest.It was very exciting to spread the word about our project to people who, like us, are interested in global warming and the environment. The event took place at Cambridge College, and people from many organizations gathered to educate the community about the issues facing our planet. Among these organizations were the Cambridge Energy Alliance and the Cambridge Climate Emergency action group.

The Sprouts set up a table with copies of our book and Kill A Watt meters. We gave out information about “Energy Lite,” Roots & Shoots, and energy conservation in general. We had a raffle (people filled out an energy conservation pledge to enter), and at the end of the day, we raffled off two Kill A Watt meters.

We also baked cookies in an oven while we measured with a Kill A Meter how much energy we were using! Just the smell of cookies cooking lures people to our display.

During the past few weeks, we have been very active in spreading the word about our book. On Thursday, May 19^th, two of the Sprouts were able to attend the HEET Vampire Hunt and Efficiency Ware Party, where we got to talk to some interesting people about projects that we have worked on for several years as Sprouts – as well as our hopes for the future.

Speaking of the future, it seems as if all of our hard work at getting the word out about “Energy Lite” is paying off. Recently, Green Decade/Cambridge gave us a $300.00 grant to print more copies of "Energy Lite," and now we've found out that our book will be going into the Boston Public Library system. From the books we printed with our grant, we are giving the Boston libraries 40 copies to spread throughout their library branches — and they will be paired with Kill A Watt meters that are already there. And a nonprofit organization called Boston Climate Action Network (BCAN) will use “Energy Lite” as a way to teach kids about energy use and conservation this summer. And four copies of “Energy Lite” are going to be put into the Medford (MA) libraries, too.

We are very excited about these small steps forward, and hope to continue promoting energy efficiency in the future.

Sprouts of Hope: Recycling in Cambridge

Spreading the Word About Recycling

By Lilly

The Sprouts of Hope had the opportunity to participate in some fun events in Cambridge —the Mayfair and Fresh Pond Day. The MayFair is a festival that happens every year in Harvard Square on the 1^st of May, and it is always a very exciting and fun event. At the MayFair, we worked with Meryl Brott, who oversees recycling for the city, as volunteers for The Department of Public Works.

Our job was to walk around the MayFair and survey people about what they know about recycling in Cambridge. Meryl also had set up a booth where people could come and ask questions about recycling and composting, and take free posters, information packets and stickers.

Surveying people was hard work, but it was also a lot of fun! It was interesting to see how many people were unaware of certain things they can recycle. For example, many people did not know that they can recycle hard plastics like broken laundry baskets in their curbside recycling, and they were very interested when we told them that they could.

We did a similar thing a week later on Fresh Pond Day — and we are going to help Meryl again in early June at the Riverfest. Risa, Eliza and I set up a table very similar to the one we had at the MayFair. We also set up a compost bin to catch people’s interest by showing them what it looks like. Many people came to us with questions about composting, recycling and rain barrels.

It was a very fun experience and we were able to help a lot of people get answers to their questions.

Sprouts of Hope: Earth Day

Becoming Friends With the Earth

By Maya

On Earth Day, April 22^nd, I volunteered at the Boston Children’s Museum. Early that morning I took the T into South Station with Kelly Sullivan, another member of the Roots & Shoots New England Youth Leadership Council. We were going there to do activities with kids about helping take care of the Earth.

When we got to the museum, we headed up to the second floor family room. Kellan Hays, who is the media and program coordinator for Roots & Shoots Northeast, and two Roots & Shoots interns, Fiona and Katie, who were also volunteering, were already there.

We had three tables, and on them we set out an animal matching game, a recycle scavenger hunt, and a wishing tree for the Earth. For the animal matching game kids paired up pictures of baby animals with the mama animal. After they did that they could flip the cards over and learn a cool fact about the animal. One little girl had me read and explain every single card for her!

For the scavenger hunt kids took lists and ran around the room looking for different materials, checking off the ones that could be recycled and those that could not. Then, they could do a recycling word scramble.

The tree for Earth was my favorite activity. Kids took different cut outs—a bird, a star or a leaf, and they wrote messages about the Earth on them. They said what they love about the Earth, what they do to help the Earth, or what they could do to help the Earth. By the end of the day the tree was barely visible. The notes and drawings were all very cute and inspiring!

Everyone seemed to greatly enjoy the activities, including me. I can definitely say the day was a success and I am looking forward to doing this again next year.