PITCH-IN CANADA
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Canada's Youth have made PITCH-IN CANADA programs a Success

VANCOUVER: PITCH-IN CANADA may be the largest and fastest growing environmental organization in Canada. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Canadians, many of them young people, donate millions of dollars in volunteer labour by participating in thousands of projects to help clean up and maintain a clean environment.

Youth organizations which support PITCH-IN CANADA include not only those which have a tradition of promoting a clean and healthy environment, such as Scouts Canada, The Girl Guides of Canada, and naturalist organizations but also thousands of schools, sports organizations, 4-H clubs, daycares and others.

Since PITCH-IN CANADA was founded in British Columbia in 1967, Canada's youth have participated enthusiastically in its program, showing their interest in, and concern for, the environment. The organization's programs receive wide support and are used by thousands of youth leaders and teachers to emphasize the importance of personal involvement in, and dedication to, resolving environmental problems.

"PITCH-IN CANADA has been very active in promoting a personal sense of environmental awareness," says Allard van Veen, a founder of the organization at the age of 17. "Every day we make choices which affect the environment. That's why it's important that both young people and adults become knowledgeable so that we can better understand the implications of our actions."

To assist young people in developing a personal commitment to, and knowledge of, the environment, PITCH-IN CANADA has undertaken activities ranging from developing educational materials and resources for the classroom to large action programs such as the PITCH-IN CANADA WEEK Program, The National Cell Phone Collection Program and the ecoActive School Program. All of PITCH-IN CANADA's activities provide young people with an opportunity to become actively involved in cleaning up the environment.

Youth groups, including high school and college students, have been very active in recent efforts in many urban areas in Canada to improve and preserve urban ravines as their PITCH-IN project. These steep walled stream beds, unsuitable for development, often become local eyesores as collection sites for illegal dumping and wind-blown litter. Urban planners are now recognizing these areas as mini-ecosystems in the urban environment which provide habitat and shelter to small wildlife and birds. The ravines form unique, natural parks in the community and authorities have been very appreciative of the clean-up and preservation efforts undertaken by local youth, as part of their PITCH-IN program.

Since PITCH-IN was founded, young people have been involved in its programs. That's one of the reasons why van Veen, then a first year university student, journalist and community activist who had founded Students Promoting a Clean Environment (SPACE) in Victoria, British Columbia, became involved in establishing the organization.

"We shared the vision that young people would have to change the way the world was going to manage its resources in the future and we focused on developing and implementing a comprehensive educational program," comments van Veen who, during the rest of the sixties and early seventies with funding received from both the Alberta and  British Columbia governments, spent much of his time making presentations to schools throughout western Canada promoting the organization's aims and programs.

PITCH-IN CANADA's early vision of working with youth continues today. The organization has developed a wide range of educational materials, posters, videos and other materials, both formal and informal, which it makes available free of charge to schools and others across Canada via the organization's website www.pitch-in.ca.

"Young people are concerned about the world in which they live and many are enthusiastic about doing their part to maintain a healthy environment," says Valerie Thom, an environmental education specialist and Executive Director of PITCH-IN CANADA.

PITCH-IN CANADA is a national non-profit, charitable organization founded to conduct environmental education and improvement programs. The organization is governed by a voluntary Board of Directors and it works closely with all levels of government and others interested in promoting the organization's objectives.

Most of PITCH-IN CANADA's materials are available free from the organization's Web Site located at www.pitch-in.ca. PITCH-IN CANADA can also be contacted at pitch-in@pitch-in.ca or Box 45011, Ocean Park RPO, White Rock, B.C., V4A 9L1.

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To contact Valerie Thom click here