Akeesha Footman

Waynaboozhoo, miigwanehsiik nidizhnikaaz waabeshayshi ndodem Toronto ndindaa. Hello, My name is Little Feather, I am Marten Clan, and I live in Toronto. My family roots are in Manitou Rapids, Treaty 3 Territory in Northwestern Ontario and Europe. I am a visual artist, storyteller, traditional knowledge carrier and proud Anishinaabe Oshkiniikwe. I enjoy dancing, making things, learning about traditional medicines and supporting youth access mental health and addictions resources. In my personal and prod connecting with community members to promote Indigenous healing, arts, culture and education.

Social Media: Twitter @Akiwi88, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meegwan

Amanda Harvey-Sanchez

Amanda grew up hearing about climate change from her parents. She has been involved in environmental initiatives from a young age, but it wasn’t until joining her campus fossil fuel divestment campaign in 2014 that she learned to approach climate activism from a social justice perspective. Working on divestment, she has had the opportunity to engage with related social issues including Indigenous rights, anti-racism, and feminist activism.

Amanda spent last summer working for 350.org on the People’s Climate Plan, a national campaign to engage people in the federal climate town halls and demand ambitious climate action in the government’s forthcoming national climate strategy. Amanda is currently working with youth across the country on Climate101, a civil disobedience action to take place October 24th to call on Trudeau to reject the Kinder Morgan pipeline.

Arani Kulamurugan

Arani Kulamurugan, a grade 11 student at Marc Garneau CI, has been heavily involved in environmental rights since grade seven. In grade nine she joined Ontario Nature’s Youth Council, and got the opportunity to intern at Ontario Nature as the Youth Pollinator Conservation Intern. Most of her work pertains to advocacy and educating the public about Ontario’s wild, natural pollinators, and advocating for the strengthening of Ontario’s Bill of Environmental Rights. In addition to this, Arani recently gave a presentation to TDSB teachers about a possible Pollinator-focused curriculum that they could add to their classroom. Arani’s work doesn’t stop with making change, but also getting other citizens involved. Her current goal is to get four more cities involved in the Bee City Program, to continue to learn from others, and inspire some people of her own to take action to protect the environment in their community!

Ruth Midgley

Ruth is currently completing a bachelor degree in Environmental Studies and Conservation Biology at the University of Toronto. During her time at UofT Ruth has helped increase awareness of environmental issues among students through the “It’s Greener Here” campaign and the “Veggie Mondays” program, which later received the U of T Green Ribbon Award for contributions to sustainability. Ruth is also involved with the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, working to protect the ecologically vital Flathead River Valley in British Columbia. This past summer, Ruth worked for Parks Canada in Waterton Lakes National Park, as an Ecological Monitoring Technician collecting field data for conservation purposes. When Ruth manages to spend time indoors, she enjoys cooking, playing squash and writing fiction.

Asha Mior

A 14 year old high school student, Asha Mior balances school and homework with working to make the world a better place. When she was in Grade 5, Asha became interested in climate change while working on a school project.  She founded a Go Green club at her elementary school, but Asha soon decided to share her passion and concern for environmental issues with the world.  In 2013, she launched her blog, Asha for the World. Since then, her relatable, easy to understand articles have been featured in classrooms to help explain environmental issues to children.  Asha is also a contributing blogger for the Huffington Post.

In the summer of 2015, Asha launched an initiative called the BrownGrassRevolution, to raise awareness of the importance of water conservation.  The objective was to encourage people to stop watering their lawns during the summer months.

Asha also enjoys producing short films and videos. One of her recent films, entitled “Air Pollution: Toxins in Car Exhaust” was awarded Top Overall English Video in the EduTOX video challenge.

Rachel Parent

Rachel Parent Age 17,  she is  an Environmental youth  activist,  vocal advocate for  social justice, youth  health, animal rights  and responsible consumption. She is thefounder of Kids Right To Know  and for the past five years she has positioned herself as a strong Mandatory GMO Labeling  advocate. At age 14, Rachel debated celebrity Host  Kevin O’Leary and Amanda Lang on CBC Television.https://youtu.be/HIXER_yZUBg . Rachel  is a celebrated International Speaker, including TEDxToronto 2014, also she is a passionate blogger for  the Huffington Post, and Guest Moderator and Youth mentor for the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada.

Ryan Storm

Ryan calls himself “Chief Eater and Food Enthusiast” of his blog, www.rysratings.com. He lives in Toronto with his family and claims to have good taste (no pun intended), and in his quest to eat healthy, organic, and local foods, he reviews and share all that he deems good! Ryan started his blog reviewing restaurants in 2008, when he was 8 years old. Now, he still review restaurants, he also shares his favourite products, chefs, food events and even farmers’ markets, mostly in Toronto, but includes his travels as well. He has created and delivered a food literacy game for young children and kindergarten classes and has written two books as school projects, and plans on creating more. Ryan expresses how fortunate he feels he is to be receiving lots of support from chefs and other bloggers who remind him of my responsibility to be positive and to try and have his work make people want to be connected to the food on their plates. He enjoys public speaking and has had the great opportunity to present to various groups of kids and adults over the years. “Part of taste is feeling good about what you eat” is the message that Ryan shares most frequently with pride.

e