Get ready for an awesome semester!

We are going to run three main campaigns with semester-long efforts to help provide relief for Haiti:

Updating and Expanding the Bottle Bill: Every year we burn or bury more than 6 million tons of trash here in Massachusetts and it's time to put more into recycling efforts. 75-80% of containers covered by the Bottle Bill are recycled, while only about 25% of those not covered, like water, juice, or sports bottles, are recycled. We are going to show our representatives the overwhelming support in the area and across the state for updating the Bottle Bill for the first time since 1983. We are also going to work to get North Adams to join the more than 100 cities and towns that have already signed on in support of expanding the Bottle Bill!

Fighting Hunger and Homelessness: The time is now for the richest country in the world to do something about poverty and homelessness. In North Adams, almost 21% of residents and 31% of children live at or below the poverty line. We are going to organize a community-wide Hunger Clean Up where teams will raise more than $2500 to donate to the Berkshire Food Project. The Cleanup will culminate in a day of service where we'll send out more than 50 volunteers to provide some much-needed relief efforts.

Global Warming Solutions: Quite possibly the most pressing challenge of our generation, global warming is something we need to work to solve right now. The solutions are out there, clean, renewable energy like solar power and wind turbines, buildings that produce zero net energy, cars that get 100 miles to the gallon, and more and better public transportation. So this semester we are going to push Governor Patrick to commit the state of Massachusetts to reducing carbon emissions by 25% by 2020.  We'll do this by obtaining petition signatures, make a wall of photos with students holding global warming solutions, and going to state-wide meetings to ensure that our voices are heard.