The Problem
This project will create a BV Blue Sky webpage that will allow citizens and entice students to become more-engaged in local air particulate pollution.
Our Plan
The project will recruit an intern to create our BV Blue Sky webpage, and to then promote clean air throughout our community. Our citizens will then have direct access to our real-time air particulate monitoring, and will be able to evaluate 'how much is too much' in terms of haze, road dust, solid fuel burning, industrial emissions and visibility impairment.
Themes Addressed
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Air Pollution
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Community
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The Benefit
Here is how the project went:
Our 2nd effort to create an ongoing webpage for local air quality did not succeed as planned, as there was a lack of youth involvement in moving this project forward. Despite trying to engage with school teachers and school administrators as environmental health mentors, the severity of the COVID situation has impaired our ability to recruit and utilize school-age volunteers. We have not surrendered by any means, by continue to persist in educating our community on ambient air quality issues. We have linked with Purpleair.com to provide the ongoing air monitoring data that was originally planned to occur in-house.
Through this project I/we learned:
Persistence and perseverance, despite limited engagement.
What I/we might change:
Ensuring parents serve as mentors and supervisors, as local teachers are over-committed or disinterested in additional time-consuming activities.
My/our favorite part of this project was:
Setting up additional air monitoring sites, and viewing extreme particulate concentrations from wildfire events.
Some tips, tricks or fun facts about the project:
Environmental Leadership is difficult to share with youth that lack a solid foundation in community assistance and volunteerism--perhaps best to solidify partnerships with existing entities that possess adequate capacity, rather than trying to find a new piece of the community pie.