Wednesday, June 13, 2007

The Connectors

Cincinnati, Ohio

Malcom Gladwell in his best selling book the Tipping Point outlines that every movement needs connectors that know all sorts of different people. Betsy Townsend is that person here in Cincin nati. Betsy was on a treadmill a couple years back when she heard Richard Louv author of Last Child in the Woods speaking on NPR, as she describes it "I nearly fell off the treadmill went and bought the book and read it in a day". In just over a year Betsy has put together a group in Cincinnati, the Leave No Child Inside of Greater Cincinnati http://www.lncigc.org/ that has over thirty organizations ranging from the Zoos to Conservation Districts that are united in their desires to see young people have the opportunity to engage in outdoor activities. I just spoke at the Zoo and the energy was palpable and even more important in my estimation was that the conversation had moved beyond "what is the problem" to "what can we do now". LNIGC has already sold over 800 tickets for Richard Louv's speech here next week all due to Betsy's hard work and vision. Betsy prepared for her leadership in connecting children to the outdoors through a former career in life insurance, this hsows that people of all walks of line are engaged in the issue. What is happening here in Cincinnati is a shining example of the depth that the issue of connecting children with the outdoors can bring a diverse group of folks to the table working together to solve this issue.

Building Bridges to the Outdoors and the Sierra Student Coalition are excited to host the first 2007 Youth Environmental Leadership Training http://www.sierraclub.org/youth/training2.asp in Los Angeles. Amit Rana our California Rep is leading the training and already has 20 young diverse leaders ready to go. We hope thse trainings give skills to a new generation of environmental leaders.

I was on a radio show The Forum in San Francisco on June 1st with Richard Louv and our Youth Volunteer Coordinator Juan Martinez on KQED addressing nature-deficit disorder
http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R706011000

A funny story- on my cab ride from the airport today, my cabbie who looked like Les Nesman from WKRP in Cincinnati asked what I did and when I told him I worked for the Sierra Club he said "I don't hug trees but I know that Global Warming stuff is true it was never this hot when I was a kid, maybe that boring Gore boy has a point"!