April 2025
see. hear. act.

We are excited to announce that our program is nearly complete and we are less than a month away from Earth Day Boston 2021. Please check out our events page for more information or our Facebook Page for a preview of our speakers and performers.

Please join us this Saturday at 10 am for our planning meeting to help us finalize the program and do outreach. Please email earthday2020boston@gmail.com for the Zoom link.

If you can’t join us, please donate to help us pay our performers and support climate action.

I look forward to seeing you!

Michael

Thank you so much for your participation in Boston’s 50th anniversary of Earth Day. We’ve had over 4,100 views and reached over 18,000 people with our message. This was a huge success, especially considering that we had to retool the event in less than a month. If you haven’t had a chance to check out our Facebook Live event, you can still do so here. Both the first and second half are now available to view on our Facebook Page. There has also been some great coverage, including MTA today, Cape Cod Times and the Newton Tab. The international Earth Day events had over 8.5 million views. For a full recap, check out this link from the Earth Day network.

I hope you were inspired to act during last week’s Earth Day activities. The lessons of COVID-19 pandemic are clearly applicable to the climate change crisis:

• we must listen to the scientists
• people’s lives are in danger and we must act swiftly to protect them – there is no time to wait
• those with underlying vulnerabilities, particularly communities of color will be hit the hardest.

We can seize this moment to build a more just society. If you haven’t made a call to your state and federal representatives, there is still time. In fact, they should regularly hear from people who understand how important it is to act to stop climate change. Let’s make sure that climate change is on their minds when any COVID-19 related stimulus programs are developed.

As we wind Earth Day 2020 Boston down, make sure that you are connected to our many co-sponsors that are doing such great work in and around Boston. These organizations will help you keep up the fight for climate justice.

Thank you for helping us create this historic event for Boston and beyond. I treasure the faith you put in me and our team.

Sincerely,

Michael Kozuch
Earth Day 2020 Boston

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Hi everyone –

Below is the program for this coming Saturday, April 18th! We are so excited to bring you this special online event. Prepare to be inspired and moved to take action. See you soon!

Hello Earth Day 2020 Boston Supporters –

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and if you celebrated Easter, you found a way to connect with family. Attached is our flyer for Earth Day 2020 Boston. Please share widely!

Thank you to all of our partners, volunteers and donors. Without you, we would not be ready to go live next Saturday. I can’t wait to see you!

Michael

Hello Earth Day Supporter-

First, I hope you are staying healthy and social distancing. We must get through this “together at home.” Second, happy Passover for those who are celebrating this week.

Please continue to post pictures of nature to help build anticipation for the Earth Day 2020 Boston online event on April 18th with the hashtags #earthday2020boston, #earthrise and #strikewithus. Seeing these beautiful pictures lifts my spirits and I’m sure yours as well.

I hope to see many of you on Thursday at 7 pm for our Zoom call. We will be decided on some budget items and finishing our plans to Earth Day. Please RSVP at earthday2020boston@gmail.com so I can send you the Zoom link.

All my best,

Michael

Hello friends of Earth Day,

This is a good news/bad news message. First the good news: we continue to gain momentum for a huge turnout on April 18th and throughout Earth Week in Boston. This week Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu agreed to speak and the MA Sierra Club, Speak for the Trees Boston and the Islamic Society of Boston joined us as a co-sponsors.

The bad news: we urgently need your financial support. We are not reaching our financial targets. Bills are coming due and without your support, we will not be able push for a just transition away from fossil fuels. Help us send a strong message ahead of the 2020 election that climate change must be a top priority. Please donate here. If you’ve already donated, we thank you and ask you, can you add $5, $10, $20 to your contribution? Help send a message to the climate denier-in-chief that we can’t deny science any longer. Our future is at stake.

Speaking of science – Earth Day 2020 Boston and the March for Science Boston are joining forces! We stand with scientists in calling for climate action. As Greta Thunberg and the youth climate strikers have been saying – “we must listen to the scientists!” We look forward to organizing with them.

If you want to help us spread this message, there are two opportunities – this Thursday, March 12th at 5:30 pm and next Tuesday, March 17th at 5:30 pm at the Church of the Covenant to plan the 50th anniversary of Earth Day kick-off event. See you there.

Sincerely,

Michael

P.S. If you are wondering how the new Coronavirus will impact Earth Day events, we are too. We are monitoring the situation and will make plans accordingly.

Dear Supporters,

I’m writing with some thrilling news about our most recently confirmed Earth Day speakers and sponsors, and with an urgent request for your help in raising the funds we need to pull off this event.

We are excited to announce that Senator Ed Markey will be one of our keynote speakers for the April 18th kick-off rally! Senator Markey is the Chair of US Senate Climate Change Task Force and chief sponsor of the Green New Deal in the Senate. He has been a leader on the environment for almost 40 years and we are exciting to hear his inspirational message for the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day.

We are also excited to announce that the American Federation of Teachers (MA) has endorsed our effort. That means we have the support of all public school teachers unions in the state. If you are a teacher and haven’t signed up to participate in stopping climate change, make sure you visit our “Take Action” page here to find out how.

At our last meeting, we endorsed business sponsorships because of our increased costs and short fall in our individual donations. We still need to raise $13,000 to make this event viable. Will you help us? Here is how:

1. Make a direct donation or start your own donation page by clicking here.
2. Help us find business partnerships willing sponsor the event. There are three levels of sponsorship:

• Premier @ $10,000 for naming rights to the stage.
• Sponsor @ $5,000 for a full page ad in the program
• Co-sponsor @ $2,000 for 1/2 page ad in the program
• Supporter @ $1,000 for a 1/4 page ad in the program

All of the above comes with exhibitor space at the event. Below is an example of the advertising available for the Premier-level sponsorship.

For business partnerships we are looking for businesses that:

• Have a record of sustainability
• Are not fossil fuels companies
• Their mission and guidelines support sustainability
• Support our agenda of stopping climate change
• Support diversity and racial, economic and environmental justice.

If you know of a business that would be good for our event, please be in touch at earthday2020boston@gmail.com.

We hope you will join us as we continue to raise the alarm about climate change and seek to move forward with the agenda of frontline, faith and youth communities at the center of our efforts.

We have two meetings in March – on the 12th (Thursday) and 17th (Tuesday) to help us prepare for April. Both meetings are at 5:30 pm. Please let me know which you can attend.

Michael

P.S. The Massachusetts Presidential Primary is this Tuesday, March 3rd. Make sure you are educated about who will be a climate leader and vote!

Dear Earth Day Supporter,

We have our rescheduled February meeting for this Tuesday, February 25th at 5:30 pm at the Church of the Covenant.  We will be discussing and making decisions on a number of topics, including:

• Fund Raising Goals:  
  • Where we are and where we need to be.
  • What kind of business donations to accept
  • We still need people who will start a fundraiser with us or make direct donations.  You can do this here. 
• Finalizing the program. 
• The Local Environmental Conference:  On Saturday, March 7th, we have a table and one free entrance to the Local Environmental Action conference.  Please email earthday2020boston@gmail.com if you would like to go and help us on that day.
• Location – our permit for the Hatch Shell was denied, but we now have a space at the English High School in Jamaica Plain.  This has some advantages including being close to communities we hope to engage.

60 Minutes had a good story on the bushfires in Australia, where the Conservative former Prime Minister states “The right wing climate deniers treat an issue of science and physics and fact as though it was a question of ideology, and their conduct is not just idiotic,” Turnbull said. “It is downright dangerous. Dangerous for us here in Australia and around the world.” 

Check out this inspiring video and the invitation to educators below that helps support the work of young people.

I hope to see you Tuesday!

Sincerely,

Michael

Dear Colleague,

It is my pleasure to invite you to a new educational opportunity called YouthInFront: Understanding and Supporting Student-Led Activism, a free online learning offering to help educators support youth activism. You are among a special cohort of educators whom we believe would be interested in this opportunity, and have valuable feedback to offer.

If you’re interested in this free online learning offering, click here and answer a brief survey. 

We begin this endeavor on March 4, 2020, with an offering of the pilot Unit 1: Normalizing Student Activism. In this unit, we consider the history and importance of student activism, the rights of students as civic actors, and first steps in supporting youth civic leadership. The pilot is three weeks in length, self-paced, and offered on the CatCat platform. We estimate the amount of effort to be 2-3 hours per week, in addition to the completion of a final assignment. We are pleased to offer a stipend of $75 for those who participate in this pilot fully (completing all videos, readings, discussion, and activities) and complete a feedback survey and/or interview. 

The course is led by Meira Levinson from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Justin Reich from MIT’s Teaching Systems Lab, and Doug Pietrzak from FreshCognate LLC, with contributions from youth leaders, adult allies, and other experts who care deeply about youth activism. The project builds upon an online educational resource called YouthInFront.org, which was developed by volunteer youth and educators to support youth activism following the tragic shooting in Parkland, Florida. 

Through documentary cases about youth activism, activities and exercises you can do in your own context, readings and resources, and a supportive online community, you will broaden your understanding of youth activism and learn and practice strategies for supporting youth. 

Thanks in advance for considering this exciting way to learn and engage with fellow educators. Your participation and feedback in this pilot will be invaluable as we continue to build the full course this spring. I hope many of you join us! 

— 

Justin Reich (he/him)

Mitsui Career Development Professor, MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing

Director, MIT Teaching Systems Lab

Google Scholar | @bjfr | 978-831-3046