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Since the beginning of May, we have been working hard with the Reduce the Juice Waterloo project. This page contains journal entries documenting the experiences and observations of team leaders and student auditors participating in the Reduce the Juice project in Waterloo. ---
Hey, everyone! The summer is drawing to a close, but the wheels are still spinning (with renewable energy only, of course) for Reduce the Juice! Six weeks, over 8000 houses and over 1500 pledges and surveys later, our community is on the way to environmentally conscience transportation! As a high school student from WCI, it was an enormous learning experience to reach out to the community; not just by door-knocking though. In the final week of our campaign, the RTJ crew sought out community events to raise awareness of our worthy cause. The Home Depot was fantastically co-operative and let us host a free tire-check event to help people increase their fuel efficiency. Sobey's, Kitchener Market, the Cambridge Summer Bloc Party, Conestoga Mall - a big thank you for allowing us to spread the word about better driving habits. And of course, much appreciation goes towards the parents and kids who visited us while we face-painted at Waterloo Park and Victoria Park. Thanks to you, the world has a lot more beautiful butterflies to brighten up the day, and a lot more Spider-Men to save it! Together, as a community, we pulled it together and helped Reduce the Juice meet the goals - and I'm sure our campaign will be matched by equal enthusiasm come September! Our anti-idling campaign will be run out of Waterloo Collegiate Institute Sustainable Living class (which yours truly will be a part of, of course). Everyone, on behalf of the RTJ crew, thanks for a great summer and we'll see you again in the fall! It's never too late to allow ourselves to be educated on issues as important and ever-changing as the environment. So bring on the school year, I say! And in the mean time, remember to keep reducing your juice! Lucky Manku ---- August 8, 2008
Hello everybody, What a great summer, it's sad to see it coming to an end. The past 5 weeks have been very successful. Although we have had many rain days, we still worked diligently. It's very cool to see how each one of us has taken the information and techniques we learned in training to the field. Many residents greeted us with an "I saw you on T.V.," or an "I read about you in the newspaper." Many of the residents have been proud of us for our initiative. We have been recognized throughout the region for our door-to-door knocking, and our public events like trekking up and down King Street, or engaging shoppers at the mall. The mission that RTJ has taken on is a positive step towards making our region a better place to live. I am really looking forward to seeing what we, as high school students, along with our fantastic team leaders have achieved in Waterloo! I hope to see great success in our endeavor and the following anti-idling campaign in the fall! Erik ----- July 25, 2008
Alright - what a great start to the summer! We began the summer with training days with the team leaders and various guest speakers who gave us valuable information about both RTJ and ways to reduce emissions. They were super informative and we had a lot of fun. The RTJ launch party attracted the media and brought together pervious members of RTJ as well as our 2008 team. Meeting the Mayor of Waterloo and eating snow cones powered by the solar powered trailer was a blast! Since beginning the door to door campaign I have spoken with many interested local residents about ways they can reduce their vehicle emissions. We have received a great response and a lot of residents are willing to make small changes in order to help the environment. The RTJ team leaders and auditors have been great to work with. This really is "the best summer job" (as advertised) with each group visiting at least 100 houses a day we are zipping through the city. I am especially
looking forward to seeing what impact we, as RTJ student auditors, have
made by the end of the summer and hope for the best of luck on getting
those pledges! Go Waterloo! ----- June 25, 2008
Now that Ali is back from Bolivia (with wonderful memories), we are a full team hard at work having completed the recruitment, hiring and training program for the Reduce the Juice Student Auditors! The summer is going fast and we are excited to get our experts out door-to-door to engage Waterloo Region in reducing their emissions from personal vehicle use. The recruitment process took us to Waterloo Collegiate Institute in the first weeks of June. We spread the message of the "Best Summer Job Ever" by putting up posters and handing out flyers. As always, we had the wonderful support of WCI staff - some of which personally brought some of their interested students to meet us. During full-on interview mode, we set up shop in the school's cafeteria and interviewed 20 wonderful students - some right on the spot! Unfortunately, we could only take 12 of those great students and so the Reduce the Juice Waterloo 2008 team was created!
Right now we are wrapping up the final details of the three day training that will take place after the Canada Day long weekend. We have some knowledgeable and engaging guest speakers, fun games and information sessions that will surely well equip all of our auditors to answer any question that might come their way. We are looking forward to a fun training session and summer with our new team of students. Keep checking back with Reduce the Juice for updates on our door-to-door summer campaign! Ali and Sabrina
----- May 21, 2008 Hey again folks! Reduce the Juice is starting up for another year of … reducing the juice! I have come back as a full-time "reducer of juice" that will continue into the fall and winter when we do the school projects. But first things first…the door-to-door summer project: since this summer's project is going to be a little different because we're focusing on transportation conservation in the Region of Waterloo, we were in need of some new, bright, ambitious minds to bring on board. So Theresa (our invaluable Executive Director) and I went in search of some new local Team Leaders to lead our student troops. We had lots of wonderful applications and interviews, but unfortunately we could only pick two. We decided on our leaders Ali and Sabrina because of their experience within the community, their ambition and their commitment to emissions reduction. I have very high hopes for these two and have no doubt that they will make the Waterloo project the most successful one yet. Although the summer portion looks like a piece of cake to the untrained eye, there is a lot of preliminary work involved before we can even think of hiring students. And that's where we are now - in the middle stages of planning out the summer project. Even though Ali is away in Bolivia (but is joining us soon!), the whole RTJ crew is working very hard at developing materials and relationships in the community, which has really paid off! We're getting fantastic support from everyone we talk to, including the community, schools, the cities and region. Because of support and donations to the project, we have finally secured a temporary office space in Waterloo City Hall. This is giving us a practical space to work in as our brains race with more and more creative ideas and things to do. Speaking of which, I must get back to work… so much to do, so little time! The summer is fast approaching and we're busier than ever so stay tuned for more updates from Reduce the Juice! Sara |
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