Earth Camp Commitment

As part of my Earth Camp commitment, I will start by turning off the lights in our house in the rooms we are not in. The reason why is because my family is always in and out of rooms in the house. We have been really bad at turning off the lights and we are always forgetting to turn off the lights.  Now I will be turning off the lights that are not in use, even when someone else forgot to turn them off.

The thing that motivated me to make this commitment is my mom.  She is a single parent and she is doing everything on her own, like paying the bills by herself.  By keeping the lights off, this will help her by saving money. As we sat around the campsite, Amy said that you can help your family by turning off the lights which saves electricity and money.

Now that I am aware why my mom is always telling us to turn off the lights, I will always check to see if there are any lights on at all times. i will start telling my brothers to turn off the lights in the rooms when they leave them and when they are not in there.  This way, there will be less pollution in the state of Arizona.

My commitment will be to change the pollution in the air.  By turning off the lights when they are not in use, there will be less pollution.  If one of us starts maybe we can all start and make our world a cleaner place.

The way I will remember to keep my Earth Camp commitment, is the sun tan I got from being on the Green River for five days.  My mom will also be a reminder to do my commitment because we are always talking about ways to save electricity around the house.

Questions & Answers

What did you think camp would be like and did it turn out that way or differently?

I thought camp would be really boring and I thought it was going to be too long.  But as time went on, it came out to be really cool.  When I learned how we have to divide and share the water of the Colorado River, it really made me think how important water is.  If the available water were to go low in a year of drought, then Tucson and Arizona would be the first to have their water allocation reduced.

What was your favorite activity and why?

My favorite activity was  the trust activity because it shows that you could trust some one that you know very well.  We did an activity called Racoon Circle, where you stand in a circle and hold a rope then everyone leans back at the same time. We didn't fall so that showed that I could trust everyone in the circle when we work as a team.

What did we do at camp that impressed you the most and why?

It wasn't that I was impressed, but we saw first hand how some native lands are being mined to produce minerals for energy use. Therefore, I am grateful for still having our sacred places.

Who inspired you the most during camp?

Our river guide, Taylor, inspired me the most because she showed leadership by taking control and trying to get to know us on our first day on the rafting.  She made me feel very comfortable which made my time on the river very enjoyable.

Tell me about a time at camp when you saw someone else demonstrate great leadership qualities. What did they do?

Taylor showed me that it is not hard to be a leader. She showed that things had to get things done even if she didn't want to.  In general, it showed me that it is not hard to do things that is not your job.  If everyone works together and helps out, then getting things done is really easy.

What did you do during camp that demonstrated your own leadership qualities?

I lead the way when no one didn't know where to go. I did things that I didn't have to do like looking out for other peoples things when they didn't know where it was.   This was really important because we were always traveling from place to place, always moving equipments, and always setting up camp.  To be on the road for twelve days takes a lot of organization and cooperation, which I am now really good at.

In what ways did Earth Camp help you think about your future, e.g. careers or higher education?

Earth Camp really made me think about what will happen to our water in the future.  Moving forward, we have to be very responsible for the water we drink, the water for agriculture, and the water we use for recreation.

Now that you have experienced Earth camp, how do you view water in Tucson and how will that affect your future actions and choices?

I have learned from Earth Camp that taking shorter showers is very important because taking a long one is a really bid waste of water. We don't know what will happen to our water in the future if we waste it all today.