It’s a big world to change, but somebody has to do it - why not kids? Epic Change is seeking to make a difference, through a “pay it forward” model that doesn’t just ask people to reach into their pockets. One of Epic Change’s founders, Stacey Monk, was in Arusha, Tanzania for a few months to volunteer, and came back with her heart bursting. There, she found a small school, called Shepherds Junior Academy, a pre- and primary school of about 170 kids, which had been displaced because the landowner was selling it to a developer for a hotel. These children - in one of the most destitute countries in the entire world - were about to lose their chance at an education they may not ever regain.

Luckily, Stacey’s heart had room for all these kids, and an idea to start Epic Change. Monetarily, here’s Epic Change’s approach: they take donations, large and small, from anyone willing to chip in. They then give an interest-free loan to the targeted project. Giving doesn’t stop there, however. Epic Change then helps the organization to generate income to help pay the loan back; they then recycle the money given back to help fund another project; and so the cycle goes on. It’s a truly monumental approach to giving, much in the vein of Kiva, except you get to see firsthand the changes being made through Epic Change’s website. According to the website, Epic Change has loaned about $30,000 to Shepherds Junior - with that, an acre of land has been purchased, classrooms have been built, and classes started this past March! They have also been paid back about $500 through funds raised by a school performance - a TON of money in Tanzanian terms, and important all the same.

The best part about Epic Change (ok besides helping these beautiful children) is the effort being put into empowering kids (yes, your kids!) to take the initiative towards their own epic changes; a “Kid-Powered Revolution” as they put it. There are many suggestions for FUNdraising events, such as a LemonAID stand; a YouTube group, where kids can post short videos introducing themselves and questions to the children in Tanzania; and a Flickr group for artwork showing what makes your kids happy and sad.

When I told my five year old, normally camera shy daughter about Epic Change and making a video for kids in Africa who need a school, I could see her mind turning. It excited her to know that something as small as talking on camera can help someone across the globe feel like they have support. Please take the time to check out Epic Change’s website - there’s so much amazing information to read, and many opportunities to volunteer and get involved!

Follow Stacey Monk on Twitter

Follow Epic Change on Twitter

My girls are big artists, and the concept of an “art contest” was intriguing and had them scribbling for a long time. One of the most beautifully globalized clothing companies, Tea, is hosting a contest for their Spring 2009 “Little Citizens” line for babies and toddlers. Tea is asking kids to draw their interpretation of what they believe a “citizen of the world” would represent. When I spoke with my girls about the contest, it led to some interesting questions about what a “citizen” is, especially one of the world. We talked about all the different kids around the world, how people look, dress, and play differently, and if there can really be a picture of one person to represent all of them. Kind of deep for a Monday morning, but it was nice to have their brains working to start the week!

The winner of Tea’s contest will have onesies and tees printed with their design, as well as a $200 gift certificate to Tea. As with the current collection, up to 50% of the sales from the onesies and t-shirts will go to The Global Fund for Children, an organization that provides grants to community groups helping venerable children worldwide.

Entries must be sent in by May 8th, so have your kids whip up their best drawings ASAP! The contest is available to children eight years old and younger only, and all contest details can be found when you scroll down here. Good luck!

A friend of mine, after reading Z Recs BPA report, sent me an email wondering about the dangers of parabens, talc, and other cancer-causing agents in products and make-up. Growing up, she was my make-up guru, spending many, many hours at her house steaming our faces over bowls of just-boiled water with big towels over our heads. It got me wondering about what teenage girls are buying these days (although one trip to Sephora speaks volumes), and if the word is getting out to them about chemicals in product they buy all the time.

Lucky for me, the wonderfully green site ecofabulous has led me to Teens for Safe Cosmetics, an amazing offshoot of the cancer education and charity program “Search for the Cause”. Teens for Safe Cosmetics is getting the word out about their “Dirty Dozen” chemicals found within popular products with teen-inspired programs and events nationwide. On April 4th, TFSC is hosting Turning Green, an eco-fashion show and spa event at the Broad Street Ballroom in New York City. TFSC will present a show and have many samples on hand for green beauty. With sponsors such as EO organic hair and skin care, Jane Iredale mineral cosmetics, and Elephant Pharm herbal pharmacy, you may even find some new products make their way into your home! And you don’t want to miss their top picks on ecofabulous - a great starter to helping your teens build a healthy beauty regimen.

My daughter’s preschool always has a yearly drive to help those in need - this year, boxes are around the school asking for first aid and dental kits. Obviously, these are quite a necessity for people, but since our kids are learning about the environment and recycling in the classroom more and more, I asked the school if they would participate in a teensygreen campaign for the month of March. The next step is to extend this call to my readers - so, for the first time in this blog’s history, I’m going to try a campaign for an entire month.

This month, I’m urging all of you to participate in the SolesUnited / Crocs footwear drive to put shoes on the feet of men, women, and children who can’t affort this luxury necessity. There is no money involved except for shipping. Here’s the process. Send in your used, grown out, holey, sunburnt, water-crusted Crocs - SolesUnited cleans them and completely shreds them, so don’t worry about grime and extreme wear and tear. They then make completely new Crocs made out of 20% of the recycled Crocs, called “croslite”, that are distributed to a specific organization. The next 10,000 pairs are headed to Haiti through Yele Haiti, a humanitarian charity established by musician Wyclef Jean.

So, get in your closets and start Spring cleaning early this year! I know my Floridian friends have a few outgrown pairs from their kids hiding somewhere. Get a group of friends together to send in a larger shipment, saving packaging and money! Ask your school to have a SolesUnited drive and really get your community involved. Click here for the addresses of where you can send in your Crocs. Email me at stefani@teensygreen.com when you send shoes in and how many, and I’ll try to keep a running tally on how many pairs of crocs are on their way (this Wordpress outline is a bit limiting, but I’ll do my best!) I’d love to hear how you’re getting people involved in this simple yet revolutionary upcycling process!

It’s no surprise how smart the chocolate industry is - we love chocolate, we always love chocolate, and Valentine’s Day is not an excuse to be eating chocolate. Except for tradition, that is. That being said, there is always a big push for our favorite indulgence this time of year. Here’s something chocolaty you can without all the calories (ok, some of the calories). Sustainable Harvest International, a non-profit agency that helps plant trees in Central and South America, as well as provides long-term assistance to communities for sustainable practices, wants to help keep the organic chocolate industry to thrive. They estimate that over 150,000 cacao trees have been planted over the past two years, providing much needed additional income to the families that harvest the trees, as well as providing shelter for wildlife and reforest hard hit areas.

Their latest newsletter, fittingly named ‘For the Love of Chocolate,’ talks about the wonders of the cacao tree and the benefits of planting new cacao forests. For a $40 donation, an acre of cacao trees will be planted in a select community, along with providing the tools and training to help plant and harvest the trees. In return, you get a special Valentine-themed gift card and a sinfully organic jar of Robin’s Chocolate Sauce. Just the name alone and I’m almost up for an ice-cream sundae…

If you (yes YOU) can’t get enough of chocolate, please try to make your chocolate of choice natural, organic, and free trade. Here is a list of chocolate companies that strive to make quality, sustainable chocolaty goodness. You can find most of these brands in local markets, so feel free to test them all out!

Dagoba Organic Chocolate - ‘chocolate alchemy’ at it’s best!
Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates - check out their Valentine gifts, including chocolate hearts!
Green and Black’s - rich, Fair Trade Certified chocolate products.
Rapunzel - the ‘world’s first’ 100% organic chocolate bar.
Newman’s Own Organics - fair labor-practiced from Central and South America.
Endangered Species Chocolate - 10% of profits help support endangered animals. Shop with a ‘green heart’ this V-day!
Divvies - if you have kids with allergies, give them some good, old-fashioned Valentine cupcakes that are dairy, egg, and peanut and treenut free!

Recently, I wrote about Give One, Get One (GOGO), a groundbreaking program that provides child-centered, energy efficient ‘XO’ computers to underprivileged children around the world. For $200, you can send a computer to a child, and for $400, a child in your life gets in the on the fun. I’m pleased to announced that the organization behind GOGO, One Laptop Per Child, is extending the GOGO program now through December 31st! This is a truly unique philanthropic opportunity with a technology twist that benefits many!

If that’s not enough excitement about GOGO, PRIZEY, everyone’s favorite go-to site for wonderful giveaways and contests around the web, is giving away an XO laptop for one lucky winner! The brains behind PRIZEY, Z Recommends, has purchased an XO, and will be testing it out for review before the giveaway ends. The contest rules are as follows, from PRIZEY:

“PRIZEY will accept daily entries for the XO Laptop giveaway from November 20 through January 4. To enter, check the righthand sidebar of PRIZEY each day you’d like to send an entry, where we’ll post a “magic word” to be used in that day’s entry, as well as occasional chances for extra entries. Send us an email to prizey.laptop (at) gmail (dot) com with the word, and you’ll be entered for that day.

The last entries will be accepted on January 4, 2008, and PRIZEY will then select a winner at random from all valid entries. Assuming that by that date ZRecs has received the XO laptop and had two weeks preparing a review, the laptop will be shipped to the winner the second week of January.”

Daily entries!? Revolutionary computer?! Get in on the holiday giveaway craziness while the giving is hot!

Thanks to Jeremiah for reminding me about GOGO, and for hosting this awesome contest!

This month of giving thanks, I’m trying to put a lot of focus on non-profit organizations and goodwill programs that you can help directly. You may have already heard of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program, which provides specially designed, durable, packed with activities, kid-friendly laptops to children in developing countries where computers are a scarce commodity. MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte, upon seeing firsthand how computers significantly impact children’s learning abilities, set out to develop a computer specifically to duplicate the effect. The result is the amazing XO computer, designed in collaboration with teachers and computer experts for maximum education (and enjoyment).

Here’s where you come in. For the next two weeks ONLY, you can purchase not one, but two of these unique XO computers for $400. One laptop goes to a child in a designated country, and one goes to a child in your life. Don’t need another computer? One computer is $200, and will bring a child an open door to information, art programs, games, and communication abilities that we take for granted every day. Considering these places can only afford $20 per year on a child at school, I say it’s worth sacrificing Starbucks for a little while and shift that money to where it’s needed much, much more.

It’s so easy to feel helpless in the wake of a natural disaster when you’re not at the heart of it. This week’s horrendous Southern California wildfires have been an unbelievable sight - it’s been tough to keep CNN on, not only because the devastation is so terrible to see, but because my girls keep asking me about the fires. Today, the group Save the Children, “a humanitarian agency that responds to disasters and works to improve the lives of children around the world,” announced they are sending a group of crises experts to San Diego to help families in need of support. Basically, Save the Children members will set up their signature “Safe Spaces” in evacuation centers around the area, to make sure children stay with their families in a calm and supportive environment. The children will also have Save the Children’s “safe play kits” (see semi-blurry photo above) - a large, preassembled container with arts and crafts supplies, toys, snacks, name tags, blankets, things to keep them busy and feel protected. Toys ‘R’ Us is also donating $250,000 towards Save the Children’s relief efforts.

Save the Children also has a tip sheet for helping children cope with questions and emotions regarding natural disasters. While it’s easy for me to turn the TV off and distract my little ones, others with older kids may be asking a lot of questions and have a tough time understanding the severity of the situation. Take a moment to check out Save the Children - they are a well-established, global organization - and if you make your way to their donation page, they thank you as much as I do.

I’m all about fundraising for my daughter’s school, but it was getting out of control with the cookie dough this month and the candy that month…people got sick of me asking them not only to give money, but for food they probably didn’t want in their house either! Book fairs are a fav, but thinking in an eco-friendly way led me to FundingFactory, a printer cartridge and cell phone recycling program that benefits schools, sports teams, nonprofits, the environment, and everyone’s wallets simultaneously! Sound too good to be true? Seriously, this program is almost too easy to follow - sign up your school or other organization (for FREE) to get a “Jump Start” kit sent to you. There are a ton of resources to help your school get the word out about the program, including posters, drop-off boxes, etc. (again, FREE). You also have on-line tools to help manage the accounts (hello, FREE!), and you can get rewards in cash or through an extensive rewards catalog with school supplies, office supplies, etc. And, landfills will thank you by keeping these items out and keeping the recycling process going!

Also, if you or someone in your family has a business, you can sign up to support a local school or organization you want to benefit from recycling the ink and laser printers in your office. Here’s a list of items FundingFactory recycles, and how much your group can receive per item. Way better than making your kids roam stores with boxes of M&Ms no one will buy and you’ll end up eating anyway…