Friday, May 10, 2013

Teens Teaching Teens


Source: http://bjhsskincancer.wordpress.com/
No one can relate to young people better than young people.  And most people can’t communicate with teenagers any better than other teenagers.  That’s why it does my heart good when I see where teenagers are taking on the task of making other teens aware of skin cancer and melanoma.

Last February, I introduced you to Kelsey.  She was a 19 year old girl (I suppose 20 now) who had been fighting melanoma since she was 14.  She was brave enough to post video blogs to discuss her battle in order to raise awareness in teens.  This past March, I discovered another girl in Michigan named Lily who started a non-profit organization called “Skin for theFuture” which distributes sunscreen to families in need.  Both of these girls are beautiful and typical kids doing incredible things.

A couple of days ago, I found an article about yet another group of kids in Alabama who began a campaign called “Shield Your Skin.”  In honor of a teacher at their high school who died from melanoma this past year, the Writer’s Studio students created this campaign in one week’s time!  Their efforts include a public service announcement, a website, a YouTube video, and presence on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.  They’ll cap off the campaign on May 10 by collecting loose change from students and donating the total to the Relay for Life teams from their high school.  They were hoping to have up to 100 Twitter followers to their Twitter account @ShieldYourSkin_ (don’t forget the underscore)…as of right now they have 305.  According to their website, “If you just learn something from this site and apply it to your daily life, we’ve accomplished our goal.”

Fantastic!

If you read or hear of other teens taking on the task of teaching other teens, please share it!  Tell others…tell me and I’ll share it.
 
Teens teaching teens to be sun safe and tan wary.  I love it!

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