VANCOUVER, British Columbia -
Change Everything, Vancity CU's social networking website, encourages members and non-members alike to change something in their lives, or even just to talk about changing something (see related story, page 17).
The site has produced a "thriving community" of more than 1,000 registered users who offer up some "inspiring" social and environmental changes, explained William Azaroff, interactive marketing and channel manager at Vancity CU.
The tipping point in the popularity of Change Everything was the "Got Hats?" change: Kate Dugas, a Vancity employee who is the online community moderator at Change Everything, blogged with site users to donate goods to homeless people during particularly severe weather last winter.
About 48 hours, a donated truck and some news reports later, Dugas and friends had distributed more than 4,000 items to area shelters, said Azaroff.
Soon, an environmentalist caught word of Change Everything and joined in the fun herself. Dubbing herself "Envirowoman," she entered and won the site's "Vive La Resolution" contest for 2007, pledging to eliminate plastics in her life for one year.
"Her story was picked up all over the world," Azaroff said.
In a Change Everything blog last month, Envirowoman wrote: "Thankfully, here on the West Coast, spring is heralded by...the appearance of Girl (Scouts) hawking their cookies.
"But this year, I've sworn off letting any new plastic into my life, and alas, I declare it with a heavy heart-that means Girl (Scout) Cookies are off limits for 2007. Because those little femme-fatale-concoctions are lovingly nestled in cradles of plastic."
FOR MORE RESOURCES
For info on this story:
* Vancity CU, www.vancity.com
* Got Hats, www.changeeverything.ca/joe-could-really-use-a-hat
* EnviroWoman, www.changeeverything.ca/blog/142
