One Minute for Earth invites diverse speakers to share their stories of environmental care

One Minute for Earth-Giving the Planet a Voice on November 3rd is a collaboration hosted by Earth Day Every Day of Harrisonburg and Climate Action Alliance of the Valley to share local citizen perspectives on issues related to the environment.

The video series, held through EDED’s Facebook page, allows community members to view videos from speakers and contribute their own personal “One Minute for Earth” video. EDED encourages anyone interested in speaking in their own video to reach out to EDED using the contact information at the end of the release.

Karen Ryder Lee, a member of both EDED and CAAV, proposed the project to the two groups. A volunteer team spearheaded the project with a goal of collaborating with a diverse group of more than 40 speakers from the community.

“We want to mobilize eco-minded people to register and vote,” says Lee. “By presenting down-to-earth people everyone can identify with, telling their stories of environment care and its impact on their candidate evaluation, we know we can encourage the valley to vote for the issues they care about.”

“The campaign is on its way to exceeding hopes,” adds Lee. “We expected the community speakers to touch as many as 2,000 people in presenting the case for electing pro-environment leaders into office across all levels. As of October 13, there have been nearly 8,000 views for the 27 videos posted to date.”

Each speaker’s video offers quick access to a page with links to the official election information one needs, all in one place, for Augusta, Rockingham, Page and Shenandoah County areas. Links to the candidates’ sites are given so that voters can easily research their environmental platforms.

“The mission of the campaign,” EDED founder Elly Swecker says, “is to remind viewers why environmental issues are so important, encourage them to educate themselves about the candidates, and vote for those who make environment and climate change a priority.”

Some of the speakers sharing videos through the series include: Georgi Tomisato (farmer and president of Shenandoah Green based in Augusta County), Clymer and Kurtz (a Harrisonburg-based songwriting and performing duo) and Scottie Pendleton (physicist and faculty member at JMU).

Earth Day Every Day of Harrisonburg is a nonprofit environmental organization with the goal of reducing plastic waste in the Harrisonburg, VA community. Founder Elly Swecker began the initiative in 2019 in an effort to educate individuals about environmental sustainability practices and empower them by providing practical events and resources.

EDED Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/EarthDayEveryDayHarrisonburg.

CAAV is a grassroots organization dedicated to promoting climate change mitigation in the Shenandoah Valley. For more information on CAAV, visit: climateactionallianceofthevalley.org/caav-mission-vision-and-goals-statements.