Disney's Friends For Change: Project Green

So today is Blog Action Day and thanks to the help of my favorite PR Professor Ging, my PR class gets to participate! Blog Action Day is powered by change.org and seeks to spark discussion around a topic of global importance. The whole idea is not just to get big name blogs to participate, but little PR student blog's as well! This years issue is climate change and the first thing that I thought of was The Disney Channel.

Yep that is correct, The Disney Channel. This summer, Disney launched Disney's Friends For Change: Project Green in hopes of raising awareness to an audience that may be overlooked when it comes to going green. Disney viewers get to have a say in how $1 million will be spent in different charitable programs ranging from water, waste, and the blog action day topic of climate control.

Disney has enlisted all of it's tween a-listers from Miley Cyrus to the Jonas Brothers to help be the face for this campaign and to help raise awareness. They have done several PSA's and even recorded a very catchy song encouraging kids to "send it on".

One key factor in Disney's campaign is to get kids to take action on their own and not enlist the help of their parents. Simple things like turning off the lights when you leave a room and unplugging your cell phone charger when you are not using it are things that kids can do on their own. Getting kids thinking about ways they can make a difference in their world may be able to instill in them a more greener attitude that will stick with them for the rest of their lives. The many different causes, such as helping end deforestation in Central Mexico’s Oyamel forest and helping protect arctic wildlife such as polar bears from the effects of climate change makes kids more aware of what is going on in the world around them. Disney also encourages kids to enlist their friends in these causes also by letting kids know that there is power in numbers. One friend is powerful, but a million friends are unstoppable as one PSA put it.

So on this Blog Action Day 2009, I applause you Disney Channel for helping raise awareness in our youth and hopefully instilling in them values and determination to make the world that they live in a better place. This generation has the power to make a large impact and to conserve this precious planet we are a part of.