Alisha Kanitkar, Sanjana Saksena, Mansi Panse, Rutvi Ravani, and Sreeja Kondeti, all freshmen at High School North, have run an environmental program for youth for several years. They are having an open house on Friday, April 20, to present information about the August program.
“The idea for a camp started when we started thinking about an issue to focus on for community service and our Girl Scout Silver Award project,” Kanitkar says. “We explored some ideas and really wanted to do something truly impactful and felt that our interest in the environment could help solve a big problem of how kids could learn ways to conserve throughout their entire lives, rather than just forgetting about these methods after a short period of time.”
The girls wanted to show younger children how the little things they could do at home could make a huge difference in the world. They wanted to teach them through hands on activities in hopes that they would be more motivated to save the environment throughout their lives.
“We started thinking of more effective ways to get kids to take action to save the environment,” Kanitkar says. “We all agreed that kids learn best from hands on, fun, experiences rather than talks where they are zoned out or that don’t have a long lasting effect on them.”
The Go Green Adventure camp was born as a way for kids to have fun while learning interesting things — and a great way to have a lasting impact on our world.
“I have always had an interest in the environment and science, and even as a young child have always been exposed to ways to save the environment by my family,” says Kanitkar. “I was very inspired by my father who introduced me to various methods on how to go green, and he continues to motivate me today.”
Her father, Abhi Kanitkar, is a management consultant, with ICR in New York City. Her mother, Sonia Kanitkar, now a stay at home mom, has an MBA. Her siblings are Natasha, 11; and Krishna, 5. The family moved from Philadelphia to Plainsboro 12 years ago to be closer to New York.
Alisha has played piano for 11 years and has been a member of Princeton GirlChoir for four years. She has also been involved in National History Day for four years. She is interested in green transportation and has been working with the West Windsor Bike and Pedestrian to start a club at North. She is planning presentations to the student council and the school board to get approval for the new organization.
“I used to pick up trash that blew around my neighborhood with my sister when I was younger, and as I grew older, my knowledge about the environment, as well as the techniques I implemented in daily life to help save the environment grew too,” says Kanitkar. “I started to notice that a lot of other kids didn’t have composts like we did, or they didn’t take cloth bags to the super market instead of using plastic bags, even though these things were mentioned multiple times by presentations we had in school on how to save the environment.”
“Although kids know what they can do to save the environment and they are told the same thing over and over — like turning the lights off when you leave a room, they often just follow these instructions for a week or two, and then forget about them,” says Kanitkar.
All five girls, now senior Girl Scouts with Troop 71607, earned their silver award long ago, but continue to run the camp every summer. Kanitkar is already beginning work on her gold award project in conjunction with Go Green.
The Go Green program includes activities and games to teach kids ages 6 to 11 about the lasting impact of their actions on the world. This year’s program will run Monday to Friday, August 20 to 24, 9 a.m. to noon. Since they have many returning campers the organizers are coming up with new activities and trails in West Windsor and Plainsboro. There is adult supervision at all times. The cost is $75 per week.
“We want to touch more campers — who can then carry the message home to their families and make lasting changes that result in a greener planet!”
— Lynn Miller
Open House, Go Green Day Camp, 13 Briardale Court, Plainsboro. Friday, April 20, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Meet the organizers of the program for ages 6 to 11 that meets in August. 609-203-6730. https://goinggreencamp.weebly.com.
