Climate March Update #5: SUCCESS!

Hey everyone, great news! The money I raised from t-shirt orders has completed my fundraising, and now I have actually over-raised money!

If you are still interested in supporting the cause, there are many other marchers who still have not reached their goal, some of which are marching right now! If you could help them out instead of me, all of us from the Climate March would be very grateful. We don't want anyone to have to drop out because they didn't have the funds. 

Here are some marchers who are still in need. All of those listed below are currently marching AND they are going the whole distance, from LA to DC! So, they have to raise at least $5,000.

Climate March Update #4

Fantastic news: I am 83% of the way to my goal! I am only $63 away from the $3,800 mark — the cost of my marching expenses. After that, the remaining $700 will go toward my plane ticket, equipment, and emergency expenditures while I'm on the march.

Please, once I have reached the $3,800 mark, do not give any more donations on my fundraising site. Donations given online go directly to the Climate March, so you would be overpaying them. 

You can find my fundraising site, which lists all my donors and a progress bar, here.

More great news: The Climate March had a very successful start in Wilmington, CA on March 1st. Over 1,000 people turned out to the rally! The marchers have recently left California and entered Arizona, and the next big rally will be in Phoenix, AZ on April 7th. The mayor of Tucson, AZ has declared April 8th as Climate Action Day in honor the Climate March. I cannot wait to join the march in Taos, New Mexico on May 25th! 

Sponsors

I would like to recognize and thank all of my awesome sponsors. A special thanks to Heron Hill Winery on Seneca Lake for a very generous $10/day sponsorship! Click on the names in the list to check out their websites.

Climate March Update #3

Hi everyone! I have lots of exciting news with this update!

With only 41 days left to go before the march starts, it's crunch time! I'm so excited for the people who are starting in California, and I wish I could be there with them as they take their first steps. May 23rd cannot come soon enough!

The Climate March recently received a donation of $20,000 to go toward a food truck. That is half of the cost, and the march is currently looking for an organization or business to sponsor the other half. If you know an organization or business that might be interested, please email Zach Heffernen, the Marcher Director, at zach@climatemarch.org.

As for me, I have reached 25% of my fundraising goal! I owe a very special thank you to an anonymous donor who gave $500 to my cause. Your generosity is above and beyond and if you're reading this, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. You can view a running list of my donors on my CrowdRise fundraising page. 

I have also received two more gold sponsorships! One comes from the Ithaca Hemp Company in Ithaca, NY, near my college. Ithaca Hemp Company carries lots of awesome hemp products, including clothing. Hemp is one of the most versatile and sustainable materials out there, and can be used to make over 25,000 products! Unfortunately, hemp gets a bad rep because of its close relation to cannabis — or marijuana — and currently it is illegal to grow hemp in the United States. To learn more about hemp and all of its awesome benefits, check out this past Viridorari post. To learn more about Ithaca Hemp Company and all of their epic products, check out their website. Thank you, Ithaca Hemp Company, for becoming the first business to sponsor my march!

The second gold sponsorship comes from the Palmyra-Macedon Rotary Club. This sponsorship is very special to me because I have been involved with Interact and Rotary throughout my high school career. Interact, the high school version of Rotary, inspired a love of community service in me and taught me invaluable lessons about leadership. I have learned so much about myself through Interact, and I look forward to becoming a Rotary member someday. I am staying involved and participating in my college's Rotaract Club. It means the world to me that an organization that has influenced me so profoundly has made a generous contribution to my march — which I'm sure will be a life-changing experience that will develop me even further. Thank you, Palmyra-Macedon Rotary Club, for becoming the first organization to sponsor my march!

Climate March Update #2

Hello readers! I have another fundraising update for you.

I have received my first gold and silver sponsorships! Ron and RoseMarie, who participated in the Keystone XL sit-in with me over the summer, are my first silver sponsors. My grandmother, Cindy, is my first gold sponsor. Thank you so much for your generous contributions to my cause!

A silver sponsor donates 50 cents for each day I march, or $81, and a gold sponsor donates $1 for each day I march, or $162. If you're interested in becoming a sponsor, email me at viridorari@yahoo.com. You can donate to my cause directly any time at http://www.crowdrise.com/FaithMeckleyTaosNM-DC

Thank you to friends and family who donated to my cause instead of getting me a physical present this Christmas! My dad is donating by taking me out to buy equipment I will need for my march. Thanks, Dad!

So far, I have sold 22 bracelets! Help me get rid of the other 178. They cost $2. If you're interested in buying one, or you know a business that might be willing to sell them at their check-out counters, email me and let me know!

My dad wearing his Climate March bracelet

Picture courtesy of: Me

I have received a couple of orders for items out of the Nature's Vision fundraising catalog. Give the catalog a looksie here and email me if you'd like to order anything.

I am currently working on writing out sponsorship request letters to companies. I hope to send them out within the next week! If you know a company or own a company that might be interested in sponsoring me, email me and let me know. 

Remember, if you want to receive postcards as I walk across the country, email me and let me know. There is a suggested $15 donation to cover the costs of your cards and postage. Please keep this donation separate from any other donations you make, and DO NOT donate your postcard money onto my Crowdrise site.

Thank you everyone who has supported me and who will support me! Have a very happy New Year! If you're looking for ways to be greener in the New Year, check out this post.

Climate March Update!

Hello lovely readers! I have an update about my fundraising efforts for the Great March for Climate Action.

My silicone bracelets arrived: they are green (of course) and they say "The Great Climate March" on them. I'm selling them for $2. Here are a couple of pictures:

Also, I am selling catalog items through Nature's Vision, an environmentally friendly fundraising company. The catalog includes shirts, jewelry and accessories, water bottles, mugs, garden supplies (including flowers and bulbs), kitchen supplies, beach towels, fleece blankets, candles, and more. I will earn a 40% commission from what I sell, and on top of that, many of the items donate a certain percent to organizations like the World Wildlife Fund, Animal Planet, and the Humane Society of the United States.

Picture courtesy of: http://www.naturesvisionfundraising.com/

To view the catalog, go to http://www.naturesvisionfundraising.com/artwork/NV_spring.pdf. If you are interested in ordering an item, email me at viridorari@yahoo.com with your name, address and phone number, the item's number, the name of the item, and if it is a shirt, what size you want. I can accept checks or cash for payment. I will be taking orders until April, so if there is a certain time you would like to receive your items by, please include that in the email as well.

As always, you can donate directly at any time on my CrowdRise website here. My first donation came from my lovely grandparents! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for supporting me.

I also owe a big thank you to the Ithaca College Environmental Society! This student club promotes environmental awareness and responsibility on our campus through education, activism, and stewardship, reaching out within our campus and to the Ithaca community. After attending an ICES meeting and presenting to the members and answering their questions, I have received the club's full support so that I can table at my school to educate the campus and hopefully receive donations. After presenting, a couple members expressed interest in joining the march as well! I am so thankful for ICES's support and I look forward to continuing to work with the club.

Another thank you to my residence floor! My hall mates have expressed a large interest in my initiative and have been buying my bracelets. You are the best support system ever! To read about my floor, the Sustainably Conscious Community, check out my RA's guest writing post.

A couple of my hall-mates sporting their bracelets! Thanks for the support! 

Picture courtesy of: Me

I am still in the process of contacting businesses and organizations and applying for sponsorships and grants. Stay tuned on Viridorari to keep up to date on my fundraising progress!

To learn more about the Climate March, go to www.climatemarch.org, and please email me with any questions! To see my original announcement, go here. 

I am walking 2,000 miles for the planet

I have some very exciting news. While at the Powershift conference in Pittsburgh, PA this past October, I signed up to march a section of the Great March for Climate Action, or the Climate March. The march begins in California in March of 2014, and plans to arrive in Washington D.C. in the following November.

Originally, I planned to only walk from Pittsburgh, PA to D.C. Since I signed up, plans have changed. Now, I am starting in Taos, New Mexico immediately following the end of my spring semester of college. That means I will be walking about 2,000 miles over the course of six months across the country to raise awareness for the global climate crisis and the urgent need for action.

I can’t tell you how excited I am. I will be following in the footsteps of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., women’s rights activists, and nuclear disarmament activists. Yet, my fellow marchers and I will be carving out a path very separate from them. We are fighting a different fight from what our predecessors did, and our work to save the planet might prove to be the most important movement in all of history. We only have one Earth; we can’t afford to ruin it.

I am thrilled to be walking with so many inspiring and amazing people, with ages ranging from 6 to 82 and origins from all over America, as well as El Salvador, Canada, Belize, and Ecuador.

 

Picture courtesy of: http://yellowmaps.com/map/united-states-printable-map-468.htm 

Fundraising

However, I can’t simply join this cause for free. Each marcher is expected to cover his or her own expenses through fundraising, which equates to about $20 for each day we march. I have to raise about $3,800 for my section of the march, as well as the cost for my one-way plane ticket to New Mexico, and a little bit of extra to have on hand for spending/emergencies. Overall, my goal is to raise $4,500.

I need your help to make my dream to stand up for the world we love to come true. I would be eternally grateful if you could contribute to my fundraising in some way, no matter how big or small.

Harsh Facts & Ecofriendly Economics: Save Vanishing Species

Harsh Facts of the Week

Motor vehicles are responsible for about one third of the world’s oil use. However, they account for almost two thirds of America’s oil use.

In the United States, 10,000 gallons of gasoline are burned in a single second.

In the state of California alone, the amount of gasoline vapors wafting out of gas station pumps totals 15,811 gallons a day. 

On average, 1,143 gallons of gasoline are used per household per year. (If the vapors lost from Californian gas stations could somehow be saved, they could fulfill this annual usage for about fourteen households). 

Americans now use motor vehicles for more than ninety percent of their daily trips. Keep in mind that a quarter of all car journeys are less than two miles.

An average person travels more than 9,000 miles a year by car, compared with less than 4,000 miles from four decades ago.

Children who live near streets used by more than 20,000 cars a day were six times more likely to develop cancer than those who lived in neighborhoods where traffic was less than 500 vehicles each day.

We live in a fast paced world, and for most of us, using a car is inevitable. However, we have also become so accustomed to this fast method of transportation that for many of us, walking or biking to a destination that is only a mile or two away seems like quite a lengthy and strenuous trip.

I will be going to college in a very bike-friendly city. I plan on bringing my car with me to college, but I have vowed to myself that I will only drive it when it’s absolutely necessary. For the rest of the time, I will be joining the hordes of walkers and bike riders in order to transport myself around campus, the city, and local attractions, such as the lake.

Where can you substitute a walk or a bike ride in your daily schedule? Have you been lacking in exercise lately? This could be the perfect opportunity for you to work off some fat, enjoy the outdoors, reduce your carbon emissions, and generally feel good about yourself. 

To learn seventeen ways to make your car more fuel efficient, check out this past edition of “EcofriendlyEconomics.”