BRATTLEBORO — With a theme of “live as if our future matters,” Preserve Our Planet (POP) members from Brattleboro Union High School and representatives from Post Oil Solutions (www.postoilsolutions.org) are organizing what they call the “iMatter Mother's Day Climate Change March and Rally” on Sunday, May 8.
The iMatterMarch (http://imattermarch.org) is a global youth event that will take place around the globe on Mother's Day to let the world know that climate change is a moral issue – not just a political or financial one.
Participants are asked to gather at the 80 Flat St. parking lot (next to the New England Youth Theatre parking lot) at 3:30 p.m.. The march will step off down Flat Street to Main, where it will continue to the Common. There will be brief speeches and music from 4:30 p.m to 5:30 p.m. In addition to youth speakers, State Reps. Molly Burke and Sarah Edwards have agreed to say a few words.
This is an event by and for the younger generation, but moms, dads, grandparents, teachers, coachers, civic leaders, business owners, and church folks - everyone who loves children, and recognizes that their future is at risk - are being asked join in on this day.
The BUHS POP students have declared the following to be their goals for the march and rally, and request that all participants express their support of these goals: to unify the people of the greater Brattleboro area as world citizens to demand action on carbon emissions and climate change; to call upon our national, state, and local leaders to take substantive action; to call upon our national government to support research and to create an economic environment to facilitate a shift towards sustainability in energy, transportation, and resource use; and to call on the town of Brattleboro, as the economic hub of southeastern Vermont, to create a Sustainable Community Task Force in order to mobilize us all as neighbors towards a sustainable future.
While dealing with climate change is a very serious matter, this march is also intended to be a positive, joyous affair. People are encouraged to participate in that spirit. Bring imaginative, colorful signs and banners. Identify yourself and your group. Dress up in your happy threads and glad rags. Express yourself in support of youth and their right to have a future.
People who are so inclined are also encouraged to participate by bike, roller blades, skateboards, stilts, and veggie mobiles, as well as by walking and other modes of non-petroleum transportation. For further information, contact Post Oil Solutions at info@postoilsolutions.org or 802-869-2141.