Houston, TX - July 9, 2010 -- Houston
Mayor Annise Parker and the City Council will honor a dozen high school
students and faculty advisers from the Greater Houston Area by naming
them Green Ambassadors of Houston. The event will take place at 1:30
p.m. Tuesday, July 13.
"It is important to provide students with opportunities to
be engaged in the future of our city," said Mayor Parker. "Our Green
Student Ambassador program with Green Team America is a partnership that
will provide students with positive leadership opportunities that
cultivate their interests in sustainable development, civic engagement
and volunteerism." An eco-trip to visit Beijing and Shanghai, from July 26 to
Aug. 4, is sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Frank Liu as part of the Green Team
America international outreach program. The goal is to jump-start a
youth movement to radically alter lifestyles and energy consumption
around the planet.
Clements High School senior Steffi Hu, a member of the
delegation, is already in Shanghai and will attend the “International
Youth Summit on Energy and Climate Change” at the World Expo, which
focuses on urban strategies and sustainable development. The rest of the
group will depart on July 26 and later join Mayor Parker at the opening
ceremony of Houston Day at the World Expo.
The 10-day excursion will include trips to the old Great
Wall and the new Shanghai Port, allowing students to absorb the culture
of the country as well as advanced environmental programs and projects
that illustrate Chinese awareness of the global problem. The group will
actively blog their experiences throughout the excursion at http://greenteamamerica.wordpress.com
“Some people consider us too young to be so serious about
the global condition, but I want to remind everyone that we, the
students of the world, are the ones who will inherit the environmental
problems raging out of control,” Hu, the Clements High School senior,
said upon her arrival in China. “It is up to us to do something about
them, before it really is too late”.
On July 17, from 3 to 5 p.m., Green Team America will host a
Bon Voyage Open House to bid farewell to Houston’s Green Ambassadors.
The members of the delegation will greet guests and share information
about the upcoming trip.
Fitsum Abuye of Lee High School is looking forward to
meeting Chinese students, sharing ideas, and discussing environmental
issues. “I am so excited about visiting China for the first time,” Abuye
said.
The sponsoring entity for the eco-trip program, entitled
Project GLOBE, is Green Team America. GTA is dedicated to uniting
environmental clubs at approximately 30,000 high schools across the U.S.
When fully united, GTA will be reminiscent of the old Civilian
Conservation Corps from the Roosevelt Administration era, when literally
millions of young Americans all worked together to solve a national
crisis.
For more information, contact Green Team America via e-mail at info@americasgreenteam.org.
