Earth Hour! Earth Hour!

 

 

Earth Hour is an international movement by WWF in which they make people switch of their lights for 1 hour at the same time over the globe to conserve electricity. From a simple gesture of switching off for an hour, Earth Hour has grown to become a movement to inspire people to adopt planet-friendly changes in their everyday lives.

On January 2016 I got to know about the event from the social media that they need volunteers, so I just applied as a volunteer and on 16^th February 2016 we had our induction for the same in which we were assigned to our respected zones.

As a whole unit, we had to talk to Residential Welfare Association (RWAs) and make them install rooftop solar panels, choreograph flash mobs, form human chains, light candles at monuments, to make people watch the thrilling, India-Pakistan Cricket Match (19^th March 2016) together with hundreds of people. And to make people take a pledge to switch off their non-essential electrical appliances at the same time for 1 hour.

My role as a volunteer was to talk to RWA’s, Café owners and Monument officials in the central zone of Delhi for switching off their lights for 1 hour and also, I was the part of the street play whose aim was to spread awareness about Earth Hour in different parts of Delhi. We had many events to spread awareness at different places including flash mobs, street plays, etc.

We went to the Indian Hockey League Match going at the Shivaji stadium and also at Rahagiri (Connaught Place) to promote the Earth Hour. As a member of Central Zone, I along with my few friends went to the Embassy’s and State’s Bhavan to make them pledge about the Earth Hour event on 19^th march 2016. Also we went to many colleges during their fest like Dayal Singh College, IITM College, College of Vocational Studies, Venky, SRCC and many other collages to make the people and youth aware about the Earth Hour through face painting, signature campaign, flash mobs, street plays and we also went to different places in the Delhi and at Pacific Mall for continuous 3 days to promote the event. On the Earth Hour day, we had a Cyclothon that is cycling event in the morning in which we had many participants from and around the Delhi. As on 19^th March 2016 due to India-Pakistan match, it was much difficult to convince RWA’s to watch the match together on a big screen but many of them were agreed to do so.

Now talking about the whole experience for 2 long months, it was one of the most wonderful experience. I made many new friends which are still close. It was a very beautiful journey with lots of happy moments and fun. By experiencing things like this we get to know about the students from different collages. Working with them and making each day count was a fun filled journey. It was always fun, performing plays on the streets and seeing that people actually appreciating your efforts. Although it’s been more than a year but I still cherish those memories. I would personally recommend students to join the Earth hour event which takes place every year, not just for the certificates but also for wonderful experiences.

Result of the hard work –

Shikhar Dhawan was the Brand Ambassador for the year 2016. Around 600 corporates, 400 RWAs, 120 schools, 50 colleges, 17 Market associations and 15 sports clubs was a part of this massive event. With the core team (formed in January 2016) putting in 20 to 40 hours of work a week and other volunteers joining them for about 30 hours a week, the WWF Volunteers for Earth Hour put in their best – with teams reaching out with posters, leaflets and other Earth Hour material to have one-on-one discussions with various audiences on the benefits of solar systems and the ease and economy of adopting renewable energy.  Residents from more than a hundred RWAs watched match on bigger screens in their colonies after switching off lights and fixtures at their homes between 8.30pm and 9.30pm. Delhi saved 229MW of power this year compared to 200MW in 2015. Of this, BSES’ share was 207 MW (BRPL: 130 MW; BYPL: 77 MW).

 

PANDA MADE ME DO IT!