As an entrepreneur who works from home, I have been fortunate enough to have the time and space to homeschool my two daughters, aged 5 and 6 1/2, during the COVID pandemic.
In celebration of Earth Day last month, I built a lesson plan around saving water and recycling. I wanted my girls to understand that it is everyone’s responsibility to take care of our Earth. So we read books about all the little things that everyone can do every day to be a better global citizen.
The girls are very familiar with the volunteer work that my husband and I do for various organizations in the community. Due to the Earth Day lessons, they were very excited to discuss the work we do with ReUseFull. Their excitement grew even further when they learned they would be meeting Ms. Leslie and the team. My daughters were bursting to help with ReUseFull’s mission!
I gave them the space to use their creativity to come up with a fundraising method all on their own, and they had the adorable idea to create a “rock stand” to raise money for the cause (think lemonade stand but with rocks!) My girls collected rocks that they lovingly painted and got busy making signs for their stand.
Their goal was two-fold. First, they wanted to sell the decorated rocks as paperweights in order to raise money for ReUseFull. And second, they wanted to raise awareness of the organization’s mission. The girls also hoped that when people looked at their colorfully painted purchases, they would be reminded to take care of the Earth by reducing, reusing, and recycling!
We knew that the stand needed a catchy name to grab people’s attention. After an exciting brainstorming session, the “Rock’n for ReUseFull” rock stand was born.
These two budding environmental activists raised $100 to donate to ReUseFull!
In the end, my girls learned a wonderful lesson on being good stewards of the Earth while also having a great deal of fun. I am so proud of my little entrepreneurs’ drive to help and their ongoing efforts to teach others to be mindful of the need to take care of our planet.
Jess Phillips is co-founder and CEO of Hyprcubd and founder of AllianceNow. She’s also a proud mom of three, former psychotherapist, writer, IoT inventor and Sensei in mixed martial arts.
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