International Day of Climate Action

Josh, Aurora & I are at the bottom of the 3.

If you don't know, 350ppm is the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere (to avoid catastrophic climate change). The amount that is in the earth's atmosphere right now is ~390ppm. Yikes! That's not even counting the amount of other greenhouse gases like methane.

Yesterday, Josh, Aurora & I attended one of over 4,000 events taking place worldwide to bring attention to the issue of climate change. We marched up Tempe Butte and then marched down to the AZ Capitol building to tell our reps that we want policy action on climate change NOW.

If you would like to send a similar message, please visit 1sky.org (to sign the petition) or just sit down today and write a letter to your representatives.

Here are their addresses:

Senator John McCain
4703 South Lakeshore Drive Suite 1
Tempe, AZ 85282

Senator Jon Kyl
2200 East Camelback, Suite 120
Phoenix, Arizona 85016-3455

Congressman Harry Mitchell
7201 East Camelback Road, Suite 335
Scottsdale, Arizona 85251

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500


Thank you all for your support!

warmth,
Alix

Playdate with a Purpose

This is a great video to give everyone an idea of what MAU is all about. This is what our events usually look like: lots of food, laughter, kids running around, and a bit of activism. I like when Juliana Forbes says, "If I have to get a babysitter to do my activism, it's just not going to happen." This is what mother-activism looks like.

The Playdate: Mothers Acting Up and 1 Sky from Kemi Ingram on Vimeo.

Upcoming Events

I am reposting the link to our Fall Calendar of Events as a reminder of our upcoming evetns.

Next...

October 28: Love your Body Day on ASU campus. Hayden Lawn 10-4pm



November 3: Election Night Pizza Party at Leslyn's house 6pm

Keep checking the blog for updates. See you there!

~Alix

Our Stand Up, Take Action Event

Our day of action to eradicate world poverty was a success. We had 11 people stand up as part of the international campaign to support the Millenium Davelopment Goals. The event will reach its goal of 116+ million participants. Thank you to everyone who participated.

We wrote 8 letters to the president, senators, and congressman about children's issues. I had the opportunity to read some of your letters, and the leaders of this country would have to be made of stone to not be touched by your remarkable words. Thank you again!

We finished the event by standing up, literally, against poverty. You can watch the video below to see how well your kids stood in solidarity. It was Awesome! Everyone at the park that day took notice of this group of kids who were writing letters and holding signs about social justice. This community is lucky to have so many smart and amazing kids!

Congratulations to Prakash who won the contest for the most amount of trash picked up in five minutes.

You will need a flash player to watch the video.



A few more thank yous: Thank you to Josh who helped me through every step of this event. Thanks to the Zellos! for being amazingly cool. Thank you to Laxmi and Mia for making the posters so beautiful. Thanks Getemesay and Laxmi for writing those special letters. Thank you to everyone who participated online.

Our Visit to Harry Mitchell's Office

Our meeting with Ardralyn (the District Aide) was a success! Leslyn, Josh, Prakash, Laxmi, Aurora and I delivered a letter to Harry Mitchell asking him to support the Emergency Presidential Initiave for the World's Children and fully fund programs for orphans and vulnerable children. We took in posters that the kids helped me make with the Millenium Development Goals on them. We told stories about being moms/dads/teachers/nurses and how we became advocates for children. Adralyn was very sympathetic to our requests, and she encouraged us to stay in touch with her in the future about any of our campaigns.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this fieldtrip. It was very cool to have the kids with us, soaking up the civic action. This was a great kick off for our weekend event: Stand Up, Take Action, which will focus our energies around the Millenium Development Goals and particularly foreign aid that prioritizes CHILDREN.

Please come on Saturday to be counted with millions of others who will stand up against extreme poverty. If you can't make it, participate online @ http://www.standagainstpoverty.org.

Thank you all again for signing the letter to Mitchell or attending the meeting today.

warmth,
Alix

THIS SATURDAY!

Don't stand by, STAND UP, TAKE ACTION!

Hello all,

Let's start thinking about the International Day for the Eradication of World Poverty. I would like to host a rally at Hudson Park so we can all stand up against poverty. This will be Saturday, October 17th 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Please mark your calendars!

The purpose of this post is to gather ideas:

What would you like to do with your families and community on this day?
How can we take action (community service, letter writing campaign, etc)?
Should we have a stilt-making workshop beforehand, so we can get really big on behalf of the world's children?

For more ideas, please visit: http://standagainstpoverty.org
and http://www.care.org/stand

I would like your thoughts. I know that we are all very busy, so let's keep the discussion going on our blog.

thanks,
Alix