The Kids are Alright

Okay, "alright" isn't a word, even though the Who used it back in the days of our vanished youth. (Theirs was probably more misspent than mine.) But I feel the need to report utterly positive news about a group of (mostly) young people.

As part of my contribution to the college that pays my salary, I volunteered to reactivate the student Environmental Awareness Group, a body that had existed only on paper since the faculty member who was its heart retired a few years ago. Another student club had taken over responsibility for our campus Earth Day observance, but earthy things are not that group's real focus, so Something Needed to Be Done. Having more hours in the day than I can fill (snort!), into that breach strode I.

And I am glad to have done so. A few students (buttonholed in the hall) had expressed interest and one had agreed to be the founding president, but I had a vision (nightmare?) of myself and the two stalwart young men who had committed to the group sitting around staring at each other. Well--the organizational meeting on Wednesday drew fifteen (!) students and the faculty adviser for the student honorary. Within the hour, the club had selected four officers, chosen a meeting schedule for the rest of the term, signed onto a volunteer project, and set up an ambitious research and community education agenda. (We have a Facebook page! We're going to have a Twitter feed! Today a student was in my office asking when we get our bulletin board!) Subgroups for particular tasks were being formed.  By Thursday afternoon, there were 25 people on the mailing list, and we had lined up our first outside speaker.

The kids are indeed alright, at least in our little corner of the world.