Dave Finnigan, from Green Actioneers, is promoting a book conceived to become a nationwide educational movement
By Carlos Roa
“I know elementary school kids”, says Dave Finnigan, who learned about education during his many years as a Juggler, that allowed him to visit over 2,000 schools.
Owning this experience, he decided to start addressing families with kids in elementary and middle school on how to build a greener and sustainable future.
His Green Actioneers Family Action Guide features 100 steps a family can take to go green, and aims to spark a nationwide and worldwide movement. He claims to be targeting the 1/3 of the population not yet aware or involved in climate action, through K-8 kids and their parents. Thus, the author could create what he calls “bubbles of change”.
This bilingual book (English and Spanish) comprises a story following three diverse families and includes actions that they can take to save energy, water, money, and the planet.
The knowledge of Dave about educational resources allowed him to include a coloring book feature for elementary kids, a word game or puzzle for middle school kids and relevant quotes that invite high schoolers to research.
But there are even more appealing hooks inside: “Our two little space visitors, Kando and Kantdou, from MOUGA (Make Our Universe Green Again) are somewhere in every drawing.”
Distribution of the book is at Green Actioneers Family Nights. Every family goes home with the book and then the school puts up a chart in a long hallway, where kids can put up Post-It notes telling everyone what their family is doing to go green. This chart will be the motor for the ongoing program as families compete, and work together, to go green.
Green Actioneers expects to sweep the country with their proposal, while Finnigan starts talking about it in public venues. He has already been the opening or closing keynote speaker at over 200 regional and national conferences.
They are also working on a series of one hundred two-to-four-minute animated videos to replicate for kids, in cartoon fashion, the 100 vignettes from the book with a “Hero’s Journey” in every episode as the kids prevail and win over reluctant adults.
Dave has even more knowledge to share: “In everything we do, the focus is positive and solutions-based. We believe that for this age group we need to present the solutions first. When they get older they can learn about the problem. We don’t want to scare them.”
The team hopes to make it to the Frankfort Book Fair, a world class event that would introduce the Green Actioneers Family Action Guide to international audiences.
The book is also available online, by visiting www.greenactioneers.com.
