Hi there! My name is Ellie Babcock and I'm from Sherwood, Oregon and working for Clean Water Action. Volunteering for the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, Keep-A-Breast (KAB) and Non-Toxic Revolution (NTR) through Clean Water Action was a unique opportunity. Our current efforts are centered on surveying young people (age 14-24) about what personal care products they use to help us better understand toxic exposure in our community.
Take and share the survey today!
As a 20 year old, I believe it's in the best interest of younger generations to take action in our own health and safety, since corporations and government aren't always there to do so. I applied for this internship to discover more about the toxic chemicals we put into our bodies without knowing it. I had never been to Vans Warped Tour before, but even though people were there to see live music, I saw young and old concert-goers approach our tents with genuine interest in what we were doing out there.
For the first couple of hours I manned the NTR tent to show people the "Wheel of WTF?" as they got a chance to spin the wheel after they Followed or Liked us on various social media platforms. After they did so and spun the wheel, I asked them a difficult trivia question to win a awesome prize. The trivia questions were eye opening, since they dealt with the various chemicals we use day to day without knowing their connection to damaging our bodies. For the most part, people seemed surprised about the answers to the trivia questions since they didn't know how hazardous many chemicals in our everyday products are. Education is a huge part of this mission and it was great to be a part of it!
For the rest of my time with KAB and NTR I surveyed 14- 24 year olds in what products they used to gain more insight into what youth personal care products that are used in their daily lives. People were happy to take a few minutes to fill out the survey to help as they waited for their next band to play. I noticed once one friend was interested in the survey, most were eagerly waiting behind to do it too. In my time there I probably collected 30 surveys in just a few hours. It was a pleasure to work in collaboration with these great organizations for the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and I can't wait for what comes next for these change makers!
Please take a minute to take the survey today and share it with any 14-24 year olds you know!
