UN Day 2019: Celebrating Our Planet and Our Future

This October, we celebrated UN Day. Across the country, UNA-USA chapters held more than 150 UN Day events to highlight the urgency and importance of climate action. All of us at UNA-USA are incredibly grateful for each of our chapters’ steadfast commitment to creating a better world. In honor of the remarkable events UNA-USA chapters recently held, we want to take the opportunity to spotlight the UN Day events of UNA-St. Louis, and our newest chapter, UNA-Los Angeles!

UNA-Los Angeles

On October 26^th at Emerson College, the UNA-Los Angeles Chapter held its first official event with over 50 people in attendance. At the event, attendees had the opportunity to hear a keynote address from Rachel Bowen Pittman, Executive Director of UNA-USA, as well as a panel discussion by sustainability-oriented companies such as Climate Resolve, LA Cleantech Incubator, and Homeboy Electronics Recycling, whose CEO was honored at the program for her commitment to creating the highest possible standards for electronics reuse, e-waste recycling. UNA-Los Angeles truly embodied this year’s theme of “Our Planet. Our Future.” From discussing ways social enterprises can work to create a green economy to their event sponsors, we want to congratulate UNA-Los Angeles for hosting such a successful event! We look forward to seeing the amazing work they continue to do in the future.

UNA-St. Louis

UNA-St. Louis hosted an exceptional UN Day this year, and documented it all on video!

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BUT WAIT! There’s more! We couldn’t help but share some additional highlights from UN Day events around the country:

• At UNA-Broward County Chapter’s event, UN Day Proclamations were presented from Fort Lauderdale, Lauderdale Lakes, Sunrise, West Part, and Pembroke Pines cities in Florida. Their county Vice Mayor, Dale Holness presented a County Commission Proclamation, and State Representative Kristin Jacobs provided a special video to show during the event.
• At the UNA-University of Utah Chapter and UNA-Utah Chapter event, they acknowledged local businesses and organizations doing work around UN goals and sustainability, such as Redfish Builders which built Utah’s first net-zero community in Salt Lake City.
• The UNA-Greater Boston, UNA-Northeastern, and UNA-Boston University chapters held a UN Flag raising ceremony at Boston’s City Hall on October 24th complete with SDG cards, donuts and coffee, and background information on UNA-USA.  Additionally, UNA-Boston University’s event included a speech from Massachusetts State Senator Mark Pacheco who discussed his efforts to make Massachusetts net carbon neutral by 2050.
• At UNA-Portland’s event, 10-year-old Portland-based climate activist Abner (who was recently featured in UNF’s Protectors of Progress series) led the audience through the UN Day advocacy action, and Mark Gamba, the Mayor of Milwaukie and candidate for a Congressional seat, shared his support for climate-first policies, as well as his commitment to only bike and take public transportation to meetings.

We know that the work doesn’t stop here. Every day, we have to actively choose to live more sustainably. Let’s carry forward this positive energy by not only taking small actions like recycling electronic devices and supporting the green economy, but also bold actions such as calling your Members of Congress to urge them to implore the Administration to stay in the Paris Climate Agreement and to continue educating our communities about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Together, we will create a better planet and a better future!