Special thanks to Ana Aguilar, Junior at Santa Barbara High School, for this guest post and her outstanding work for the environment.
The Dons Net Café is a self-sustained, student-run, social entrepreneurial business located at Santa Barbara High School and run through the Regional Occupational Program. Dons Net Café has been involved with Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots program for five years. In order to be a member of Roots and Shoots it is necessary to promote at least one of the following: community (people), animals, or the environment; the Dons Net Café promotes all three while maintaining a profitable business! Dons Net Café participates in enjoyable various events and workshops to promote these wonderful sectors.
Peace Day is just one of the many events that we have participated in; we have gone consecutively for three years. On Peace Day, members of different Roots and Shoots groups come together to symbolize peace by having a parade of white doves made by the members. The groups set up booths with tri-boards describing their recent activities and plans for the coming year.
Dons Net Café does not limit itself to just our community, but extends itself to help those in Africa and Jakarta. We aid orphans in Africa by selling Do Ubuntu t-shirts and bracelets to help with basic needs such as shelter, food, clothing, and most importantly education! All the profits from the bracelets and t-shirts go directly to the orphanage. We help support trash pickers in Jakarta by promoting the XS Bags. XS is a non-profit foundation that makes bags out of billboards and non-recyclable plastics. The Dons Net Café makes sure that a portion of the proceeds go directly back to the trash pickers to help rebuild their society.
The Dons Net Café also has an Eco-cell campaign; we contribute by recycling electronics such as cell phones, their chargers, batteries, etc. Recycling e-waste is crucial in order to stop environmental destruction of the gorilla and elephant habitats. Cell phones contain a mineral called Colton which is mined in the African Conga. Along with helping the gorilla and elephant habitats, Dons Net Café also helps the marine life by cleaning up the plastics and trash that are on the beaches that do not belong in the ocean. This habitat destruction leads to killing innocent animal lives and the Dons Net Café does its part in helping by recycling, attending beach clean ups, and helping out as much and as often as we can.
The Dons Net Café participates in many beach and street clean ups. where students pick up trash and help the environment maintain its cleanliness and beauty. These dedicated students also ensure that other volunteers understand what they need to do and make sure that they are doing it. Dons Net Cafe has become partnered with Looking Good Santa Barbara, which entails helping Lorraine Cruz with anything needed for street cleanups.
Dons Net Cafe representatives work with other eco-friendly organizations such as Surf Riders, Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society, and Yellow Stone through the Orfalea Foundation.
The Dons Net Café is going for the gold by going green by doing their best to recycle anything they can! Although some materials cannot be recycled, Dons Net Cafe members try their best to make use of them to create more awareness.
At right is an example of a poster made with bottle caps to generate awareness about non-reusable products. Another project used to encourage recycling and reuse was the “Cousteau bin” project, in which the Dons encouraged high school students to recycle bottles and cans. Students painted wood covers and laid them over the recycling bins. This project helped the school recycle more bottles and gave artistic students a way to show off their art work and love for the environment. These simple projects have made a huge difference and have made recycling much more appealing to modern youth!
The Dons Net Café also happens to be a proud member of Roots and Shoots. This year, students partnered with Karen Oxrider at the Women’s Festival of 2010 to showcase Dons Net Cafe and Roots and Shoots.
These busy students have coordinated various projects to promote people, animals, and the environment. With the philanthropic success that Dons Net Cafe has had throughout its years of evolution, one can only assume that this amazing group of students will continue to “Do Some Good in the World!” as their business’ slogan states.
