On April 22nd, individuals around the world come together to celebrate Earth Day, a time used to appreciate the earth and its natural resources and raisemawareness about climate change and the environment. 

Local Leaders, an organization for high school students in Pleasanton, dedicates their time to educating students about current environmental issues.  

“We focus on all sorts of environmental issues, mostly local ones. We’re trying to emphasize local issues because a lot of people think globally when they think of climate change, but we want to show them how to help, right here in our community. Within the club, we have four small groups who work on different parts of the club, like a local leaders journalism team, video media team, social media infographics team, and others, who are using this platform to educate the masses,” said Sanika Newadkar (‘22). 

Due to social distancing and the spread of COVID-19, Local Leaders weren’t able to host collaborative Earth Day events as in previous years. Instead, they hosted virtual events throughout the week.  

“This year what we did on Earth week was, we had showcases for the small groups, and each group had a specific category for four days of that week and posted it on social media. On Monday was Meatless Monday, where they created vegan meals for lunch, breakfast, and dinner, and shared the recipes. We had Takeover Tuesday, where members took over our Instagram page in order to spread awareness and share environmental facts and tips on zero-waste and the environment. Waste Watch Wednesday focused more on how much waste we can produce on a daily basis, as individuals and as a school, as well as how to cut back on the waste. On Earth Day itself, which was DIY Thursday, the group members re-used CD’s to make wall decorations to promote upcycling and recycling and to emphasize that there is a lot you can do at home, especially at a time like this, to show how the individual impact is very important,” said Newadkar (‘22). 

In addition to daily activities, club members were able to use Earth Week to connect with Pleasanton government officials on local policies. 

“There’s this issue in Pleasanton of the council deciding whether we should start researching palatable water as an alternative drinking source because of this year’s upcoming drought. We were able to talk to a city council member a day after Earth Day, because our meetings are every friday, about how local environmental policies work in Pleasanton,” said Newadkar (‘22). 

Local Leaders uses their platform and activism to highlight the value and necessity of Earth Day for the environment. 

“Earth Day is a day for awareness on how important the environment is, not just on a global scale, but locally as well. Now more than ever, earth day is more important because of all the climate problems that we’re facing, so we try to spread awareness about it,” said Ela Kulkarni (‘21). 

Visit https://localleaders.weebly.com/ to learn more about Local Leaders.