A number of organizations came together today and had a gathering with music by Young Edward which was powered by solar. Erda Gardens had a booth that explained community gardening. Power New Mexico along with the Sierra club gave away free energy efficient light bulbs. University of New Mexico had a booth explaining a Sustainability Studies program. 1 Sky New Mexico had a booth explaining how the local and national candidates stood on alternative energy plans. Green Jobs Now provided free food. About 100 people attended. The Obama campaign also had a booth.

The culmination of a month’s worth of event organizing came this weekend on Saturday, September 27th, 2008. This day was a national day of action in which environmental and social justice organizers throughout the nation (there was at least one event in each of the 50 states) came together and organized a variety of events to nationally proclaim that we are ready for green jobs now.
The event that I had worked on all month long was an Environmental Solutions Fair. My vision for this event was to organize a fun and educational community event where people could come learn about green jobs, the New Mexico Youth Organized green jobs initiative, and sign the green jobs petition. But as the month progressed, the event blossomed into something more. I began to contact people and organizations that were already doing things in our community. They were just as excited as I was to have them highlight all the good work that they’ve been doing in our community for some time now.
So the list grew into having our local university’s solar trailer on hand to help power the music being played by the band, Young Edward. We had local bio-diesel producers on hand to show how they are safely and easily making safe fuel from grease from local restaurants. We had people educating the public on energy conservation and also handed out free condensed fluorescent bulbs as well. There was a variety of sustainability and wildlife groups on hand, as well as multiple local growers who were there selling their wares. Finally, New Mexico Youth Organized was on hand promoting green jobs for both their city, state, and nationwide.
It was great to have been part of this national day of action. Knowing that thousands of other Americans were doing something on this day brought me a great sense of solidarity and empowerment. I know that together as a nation we can help turn around our economy and help clean up our environment by bringing in more green jobs to some of our people who need it the most. It was a lot of hard work, but interacting with the public that day made me again realize the importance of this work and how much it will help everyone and everything as a whole.