Rallying support for people impacted by climate disasters

Written By Peter Allan

B.C. high school student Enya Fang and her friend Annabelle Liao recording a social media message on environmental advocacy with Premier David Eby. Photo submitted by Enya Fang

 

By Patricia Lane &  Enya Fang

Enya Fang rallies support for people impacted by climate-related catastrophes. This 16-year-old, Grade 12 student at Southridge School in Surrey, B.C., won a 2024 Youth Climate Activism Award from I-SEA Canada for raising awareness and over $10,000 since setting up the not-for-profit Evergreen Collective in 2021.

Tell us about your project.

In August 2021, after Lytton, B.C., was burned to the ground, my friend Meredith Wang and I began thinking of ways to help. We started selling doughnuts outside our local Canadian Tire store - but what mattered to me was letting the people of Lytton know that high school students, who were 200 kilometres away, cared. One day, a woman stopped by and gave us $20 but didn't take any doughnuts. With tears in her eyes, she told us she had been driving through Lytton shortly before the road was closed and was absolutely horrified. She wanted us to know how grateful she was that people as young as us were taking care of the people who had lost so much.

I understood then that we had a role to play in bringing comfort, not just to the recipients of the money we raised, but also to the donors. People do care about the victims of climate change, but they don’t always know how to help. We were helping her, too.

View Enya’s YCAA Submission HERE➜

READ MORE Free to read — no sign-in required.

 
Peter Allan
Previous

At 18, this Yukon activist turned school climate strikes into council meetings
Next

Helping students express their feelings about the climate crisis