Sustainability club, One Swap at a Time, makes a difference one video at a time
By Rachel Levin, Staff Writer
One Swap at a Time, a sustainability club founded and run by Carys McKenzie (’22), is bringing their mission of zero-waste living to middle and elementary schools this year. They plan to produce a YouTube series about what club members can do to live a zero-waste life, or a life with minimal negative environmental impact.
One Swap at a Time’s members strive to change their way of living with small change after change, until they are living as eco-friendly as possible. This includes limiting single-use plastics, growing one’s own food and composting as much as possible. The club's name comes from McKenzie's goal of swapping unsustainable products for environmentally friendly ones.
“One Swap at a Time is my mantra. One swap at a time, we’ll become more sustainable people,” McKenzie said.
The club was founded in McKenzie’s freshman year and has done a presentation to elementary and middle school students annually. Although the presentation started as a submission to the BowSeat Advocacy Competition, a contest that encourages students to find ways to advocate a waste-free lifestyle, the presentations have become a tradition for the club. In its first year, the club gave their presentations in person. Then, in spring of last year, due to COVID-19, they gave their second presentation virtually. Now, with the third, club members are trying to make the best of the continued distance with new changes and ideas.
“We hope to make the videos shorter, more interesting, for kids to learn what's going on,” McKenzie said.
The videos, which will all be posted on One Swap at a Time’s YouTube channel, will include facts and links to resources along with the presentation produced by McKenzie and a few other club members. A topic McKenzie is already considering diving into is how to start a garden and grow your own food.
Due to COVID-19, not every member of the club is able to be a part of the production, but McKenzie and club leaders Sofia Ramalingam (’22) and Alana Basmajian (’22) have formed a bubble, or a group of people who can be within six feet of each other because they are certain they are all COVID-19 free, and are filming in McKenzie’s backyard. An alternative way the club is creating content is through club members individually filming videos and sending them to McKenzie, who edits videos together with FinalCut Pro and other editing techniques to produce professional content.
The club plans to release a video every one to two weeks, producing a series for elementary and middle school students, respectively, in the SMMUSD district. Franklin Elementary, Mckinley Elementary, Grant Elementary and Lincoln Middle School have already been contacted by club members about making a presentation but the group plans to expand their range. Although they have been forced to move to a virtual forum, One Swap at a Time is holding out for the time when they can present in person again.
“We definitely want to do a live presentation. That’s our goal,” McKenzie said.
Either way, One Swap at a Time is ready to use the resources they have to educate younger students on the importance of living a zero-waste lifestyle, and the most accessible way to achieve that.
