John,
My name is Hadassah, I’m 13 years old, and I’m in this movement because right now, I’m not sure if I’ll have a livable future -- and I believe kids and teens like me shouldn’t have to worry about that.
For me, the 2020 election can be scary to think about, because I know that this is our last chance to elect a President and Congress who will still have time to stop the climate crisis. That’s so important for my future, but I can’t even vote.
Because of that, I really want another way to take control and make sure we can elect candidates who will fight for a Green New Deal. And this weekend, I found that -- at Sunrise’s Northeast Regional Summit.
Sunrise has a concrete plan to make sure that any candidate who gets elected in 2020 will make the Green New Deal a top priority. And at the summit, Sunrise leaders laid out the details of that plan, and gave me and 500 other young people the training and resources to get to work putting that plan into action in our communities.
You can take the lead on making sure we elect leaders in 2020 who will fight for our generation’s future. Learn how at the South Regional Summit, Sept 28-30 in Nashville, Tennessee.
The first step of our plan is this: over the next six months, we’re holding a series of nationwide climate strikes. At each one, millions of people across the country will all walk out of school and work and rally outside the offices of our local political leaders, where we’ll demand that they commit to do everything in their power to enact a Green New Deal.
When millions of us strike in every town and city in the country, the power of our movement will be impossible to ignore. Politicians will see that if they want to win in 2020, they have to listen to the youth.
After the summit, I’m ready to help take the lead on bringing the climate strikes to my neighborhood in Northwest Philadelphia. During the weekend, all 500 of us at the summit took part in a workshop on how to strike. As a group, we heard the details of the strike plans, and learned strategies for recruitment. Then, we broke out into regional teams and got to work planning strike events in our area. We even had a chance to practice recruiting right then: using a rough script we’d learned, we all called friends to ask them to strike with us and help recruit others to strike. I got six friends to commit to join me as strike captains, just during the workshop!
And the strike workshop was just one part of an incredibly packed summit weekend. I also got the chance to get advice from experienced Sunrisers on problems I’ve had with building my local hub; to pick from a big list of specialized breakout trainings on things like action planning, fundraising, and public speaking; and to just hang out, eating dinner with new friends and making action art.
Get all the skills and tools you need to bring the climate strikes to your community. Come to the South Regional Summit, Sept 28-30 in Nashville, Tennessee.
I am so, so glad I made the trip to my regional summit. Because after this weekend, I feel like I actually have the power to help determine who will win the 2020 election, and to make sure that it will be someone who will fight for our generation’s future.
You can have that power, too. I hope you’ll join me.
Hadassah
Hub Leader
Sunrise Northwest Philadelphia
P.S. Over 35 and all-in on Sunrise? Help our movement explode by chipping in to support the Summits. Sunrise’s decision to make these summits and our movement youth-led and youth-centered is both a strategic and cultural one. Read more about that here.
