We met some famous people in Truckee, California. When little kids happen to see Katrin, Robyn and Becca on the street or the grocery store, they will point them out to their parents as the “trash ladies”.
These trashy divas are part of a group of high school students who strut across the auditorium stages of about 20 elementary and middle schools in the Tahoe Truckee school district each year, wearing outfits that they have created out of trash and recycled materials. Missy Mohler, the executive director of SWEP (Sierra Watershed Education Project), leads the Envirolution high school club that produces the Trashion Show to educate the community about how the way we live impacts the environment.
Robyn, who just graduated from the University of Vermont and is going into eco-tourism and international development, got involved with Envirolution after she returned to Truckee from a year of study abroad in France. The first thing she saw when she arrived at the airport in California was a Hummer, and that made her realize how much more environmentally-minded people in Europe were. Her friends told her about Envirolution and she joined right away.
Katrin, currently a nursing student at the University of New Hampshire, came from an environmentally-minded family, so the club was a natural fit for her. Becca, who just graduated from high school, is planning to go into media studies at UC Berkley. She was attracted to Envirolution because of the public speaking opportunities.
The teens make up songs and commentary with environmental messages that are broadcast during the Trashion Show. The local public utilities fund the program and provide give-aways like reusable bags, low-flow showerheads and shower timers, LED night lights and pipe insulators, for the kids in the audience to take home.
Missy knows the program has had a impact on at least one family because a child’s father called to report that he had spent the weekend insulating the pipes under the house at the insistence of one of his children who had seen a Trashion show at school and came home demanding that the family become more energy efficient!
Envirolution and SWEP do a lot of other cool activities so be sure to check out their Website!!!
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