Get Toxic Chemicals Out of Our Lives

Clinton Hill, the original Defender of the Planet and the boy who started Kids for Saving Earth, was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor at age 10. Even at that young age, he believed the cause may have been environmental, incited by toxic chemicals used in everyday products.

Clinton Hill

Cancer took Clinton's life in 1989; he was 11 years old. Now, over twenty years later, we are learning more and more about how cancer-causing agents are in a staggering amount of the products we use on a daily basis. From common cleaning supplies to the clothes we buy -- even shower curtains contain toxic chemicals.

And, right now, it's completely legal for companies to use known cancer-causing agents in the products purchased every day in America.

Take Action. Let's get these chemicals out of our lives and out of our environment.

Tell others about these harmful chemicals. Kids for Saving Earth has an online resource page that includes a complete presentation to learn more and educate others about toxins in the environment. Click here to access these resources from Kids for Saving Earth.

Another great resource page from Kids for Saving Earth is this collection of fact sheets and articles, submitted by our own members.

Next, tell our nation's leaders to protect us from harmful products. Healthy Legacy, a coalition dedicated to getting toxins out of everyday products, has put together a petition to send to President Obama, urging him to make it a priority to protect us from cancer-causing chemicals in the products we use. Make your voice heard and sign the petition.


Finally, consider these facts from Healthy Legacy:

• 1.5 million American men, women, and children were diagnosed with cancer in 2009; 562,000 died from the disease
• Cancer is the leading cause of death from disease in children younger than 15
• Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women, exceeded only by lung cancer
• In 2009, cancer cost the nation $243.4 billion; half of that, $124.8 billion, is the cost of lost productivity due to premature death.

While Clinton is no longer with us, his dream of a healthy planet lives on. Help us continue to make his dream become a reality.

Resources:

Healthy Kids - a curriculum and resources from KSE on toxins in our environment

Health Wave - a collection of articles, fact sheets, and more resources from KSE on the effects of toxins on children's health

President Obama, Protect Us From Cancer-Causing Chemicals - blog post from Healthy Legacy with petition urging President Obama to make cancer prevention a priority by acting to protect us from cancer-causing chemicals.

Winter by Candlelight

Every winter, without fail, an epidemic sweeps across our great state of Minnesota. It’s not spread person-to-person - quite the contrary, in fact; it is partly spread by the lack of contact with one another. Symptoms include irritability, forgetfulness, drowsiness, and intense boredom. It is most prevalent in the dark days after Christmas, during the statistically coldest month of the year, January.

It’s Cabin Fever.

There is a cure, however, and more and more people are discovering that it works. It’s simple, just a two-word prescription: Get outside.

The Friends of Wild River State Park wish to help to administer this treatment. Every year since 1992, on the Minnesota side of the St. Croix River, the Friends host the Wild River State Park Candlelight Ski, Snowshoe, and Hike, an event that takes place after that early January sunset - around 5pm - and, as the name would suggest, includes six miles of candlelit snowy trails for cross-country skiers, snow-shoers, and hikers - families, couples, and friends.

This year, about 1,300 people braved the single-digit Fahrenheit temps to breathe the fresh air, gaze at the nearly-full moon in the clear night, hear the crunch of the snow underneath their feet, and treat their cabin fever. Winter looks and feels a lot better when you’re out in it, playing in the snow, and it’s a warm feeling to be among so many others in the cold, making the most of the dark season’s beauty.

As beautiful as it is, the single-digit temps still infringe on fingers and toes. So up on Amador Prairie, one of the better star-gazing points in the park, an over-sized bonfire roared in the snow, quickly warming the surrounding park-goers.

Inside the Trail Center, another asylum from the cold, live acoustic guitar music was played while friends and family gathered for an indoor picnic. Every year, there is a cross-country ski raffle, all the proceeds of which go to support recreational and educational programs in the park.

A one-mile ski, snowshoe, or hike from the Trail Center, through the snow-covered prairie, into the deciduous forest, the moon still lighting the way through the bare trees, lies the Visitor Center. Inside, refreshments, acoustic music, a warm fire, and a showing of a live screech owl delighted folks in the warm and busy center.

Candlelight events are a bright way to get people, families, and whole communities out of their homes, where the walls seem to start closing in, to be outside with their neighbors. If you happen to be in Minnesota, many other state parks hold candlelight events. Find a list of upcoming events on the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources website. If you don’t live in Minnesota, check out your own state’s park resources.

Tessa Hill, president of Kids for Saving Earth, helped coordinate and volunteered at the event. As a board member of the Friends of Wild River State Park, she believes that it is very important to help preserve and increase the quality of our parks. With the help of several volunteers from the North Branch High School Honor Society, hundreds of people were introduced to the beauty of this park, and are thus more likely to support it and work to protect it. Tessa encourages all of you to volunteer, support, and enjoy your parks.

How do you support your parks? How do you treat Cabin Fever during the cold winter months? Comment below!

The Kids for Saving Earth Rainforest

Tropical rainforests are truly one of the Earth's greatest treasures.  These precious places are home for over half the species of plants and animals on the planet.  Rainforests provide oxygen, help control our climate, and give us delicious foods and life-saving medicines.  They are crucial to life on Earth as we know it.  And they are rapidly disappearing!

Scientists estimate that humans destroy at least one acre of rainforest every minute, a rate which could easily result in their complete destruction within our lifetime. The forests are being cleared to make room for cities and roads, farms, plantations and ranches, and with the trees go thousands of plants and animals that can live nowhere else.

Take Action!

There are many ways to help save the Earth's precious rainforests...

- Spread the word and teach your students or KSE club members about the rainforests. Here is a great Rainforest fact sheet from our website: Rainforest Facts: Some Important Things to Remember About Our Earth's Beautiful Rainforests (pdf)

- Help us spread the word by submitting your children's or students' rainforest artwork to the KSE Rainforest Bulletin Board. Scan the artwork and email it to kse@kidsforsavingearth.org, take a picture of your classroom's own display and email it to us, or mail the artwork to our office at:
Kids for Saving Earth
37955 Bridge Road
North Branch, MN 55056

We'll put it up on our website and name your school or club.

- Donate to the Kids for Saving Earth Rainforest in Costa Rica. Costa Rica's "Braulio Carrillo National Park" is a protected area of great biological diversity. Conservationists from many nations are working to extend its protecting boundaries into neighboring forest land that could soon be lost to development. The Organization for 'Tropical Studies (OTS) -- a shared effort by leading universities, conservationists and researchers from around the world -- facilitates the Kids for Saving Earth Worldwide Rainforest Program to protect this land through fences, trails, rainforest guards, a crucial education program by OTS for the surrounding Costa Rican communities and a worldwide education program by KSE, and the purchase of Rainforest land. A $25 donation would help the KSE Rainforest in Costa Rica in a big way. Your donation is forwarded to the OTS.  Scientists and students live in the rainforest and work with local people to understand its mysteries. This new knowledge helps people everywhere preserve rainforests in their part of the world by showing them new ways to use these treasures without destroying the forests that produce them. You can donate online at the KSE Green Shop, and you will receive a beautiful 22" x 28" full-color Kids for Saving Earth Rainforest Treasure Map showing many Rainforests of the Earth including their exotic plants and animals. You will also receive a special colorful certificate of appreciation for helping to protect the Rainforest. More information can be found here: Protect the Kids for Saving Earth Rainforest (pdf).

- Become a part of Amigos de la Selva (pdf). Most schools in areas surrounding the Kids fo Saving Earth Rainforest are in very poor communities where the schools have limited funding.  It is extremely important that the children and parents in these areas understand why they must protect the rainforest.  One effective way to stop rainforests from disappearing is for us to help these local  residents work to protect them. Kids for Saving Earth hopes you will continue to support our land acquisition, protection and education program.  Perhaps you could donate 5 extra bucks to support our Amigos de La Salva program.  We use this funding to help support the Organization for Tropical Studies education programs that deal directly with schools in the communities surrounding the Kids for Saving Earth Rainforest protection areas.  To donate, click here.

Together, as Defenders of the Planet, we can help!

Welcome to the Kids for Saving Earth Blog!

Hi there! Welcome to the Kids for Saving Earth Blog!

If you're new to Kids for Saving Earth, or "KSE" for short, let me tell you a little about who we are.

ABOUT KSE

Kids for Saving Earth was started in 1989 by, well, a kid, of course! His name was Clinton Hill. Clinton was 11 when cancer tragically took his life that same year.

Clinton couldn’t understand what we were doing to our planet — we dump poisons into our skies and rivers and show neglect for our precious plants and animals. How, he wondered, could we do such things? Of course, we all continue to wonder. But here is where Clint was different. He didn’t just wonder. He acted. He started a club for kids, dedicated to peaceful Earth-saving actions. The first club was in his school, Sunny Hollow Elementary in New Hope, Minnesota.

After Clint died, his mother, Tessa, and father, William, carried on Clint’s dream of a healthy planet by establishing Kids for Saving Earth as a nonprofit organization. Tessa was a teacher so she new that the best way to educate and inspire children is through active teachers and parents. Since 1989, Kids for Saving Earth has provided “Education into Action” curriculum to thousands of instructors and parents. As a result there are now hundreds of thousands of kids and grown-ups all over the planet working to protect the Earth. KSE kids gave speeches at the UN, rode on a KSE float in President Bill Clinton’s inaugural parade, influenced environmental legislation, greened their schools and participated in thousands of other grass roots activities to help protect our environment.

The mission of Kids for Saving Earth is to educate, inspire, and empower children to protect the Earth’s environment. Kids for Saving Earth provides educational materials, posters, and a highly acclaimed web site featuring environmental education curriculum and activities. Many of our programs have been adapted to the Internet to make it faster and less costly to provide Earth-savers with updated information. Through the Kids for Saving Earth’s Green Shop you can order educational posters, certificates, guidebooks, CD’s, “green” gifts and supplies, and much more.

A few examples of environmental programs KSE offers include: Let the Forest Be With You, The Arctic is Cool,The KSE Rainforest, The Rock the World Concert Kit and CD, The KSE Action Guide, The Little Kids Guide for Teachers, The Call to Action, The Wonderful World of Water and much more. Also KSE sends a monthly KSE Conserving Classroom Calendar and a quarterly E-Pa News to all members.  If you are interested in receiving these educational programs, sign up for one of our membership options. You can join Kids for Saving Earth as a free member and receive an eductional packet or you can join as a paid member and receive The KSE Action Guide or Little Kids Guide for Teachers and receive KSE Promise certificates.

Click here to learn more and join KSE.

Kids for Saving Earth is a 501C3 non-profit organization with an all volunteer board of directors.

Donations to Kids for Saving Earth are tax deductible.

ABOUT THE BLOG

KSE has started this blog to keep members, teachers, kids, and everyone else who cares about the Earth updated on what's new with KSE, what new materials are available, and other Earth-saving news. KSE also wants to know what you're doing to help Save the Earth, whether you're a parent, teacher, or kid! Leave comments here or email kse@kidsforsavingearth.org with any ideas, suggestions, or comments! And check back for regular updates!

The Earth is our home. Let's keep it Healthy and Beautiful!