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What can you do in 11 days? From July 16 to 26th DoSomething.org held an 11-day awareness campaign titled The Hunt. The premise is quite simple: for each day, there was an issue and a task that represented it.
One of my fellow summer interns, Deb, found out about it, we loved the concept and all immediately decided it would be a cool thing to do. Some tasks were big, some small, but all of them were fun. As the #DSHunt continued members would get statistics about social issues affecting our country everyday, so as we were completing what they asked of us, we were participating in the movement by engaging with hard facts about social issues affecting our country.
Did you know that the average person produces about 5 lbs of trash a day? How about that 42 million Americans can’t read at all or never developed their skills after the 5th grade? Or that 90% of females will experience sexual harassment by the time they are 19? These are huge issues, but even the smallest of tasks can make a big impact. Dosomething.org gave us 11 days of those tasks.
Using Instagram, Vine, and our creativity we were able to participate in the movement. These are just some of the highlights:
DAY ONE: Challenge: Carry your Trash around for a day.
Issue: We're sort of Trashy people.
We decided to be brave and carried around our own trash for a day as we walked around our neighborhood. Although awkward at first we realized two things. First, our neighborhood, Venice Beach, CA, is incredibly open to people walking around with trash bags. To the point where no one really noticed us. We went to the boardwalk for lunch – with our trash bags – and nobody seemed to care! Second thing we learned: there’s some real upside to carrying trash bags with you.
But, in all seriousness, it’s hard to not have the desire to recycle when you carry around all the waste you produce in one day. Afterwards, I know some of my fellow interns really did not like the idea of how much waste they actually produce.
DAY FOUR: Challenge: Tell a stranger something strange about you.
Issue: Don’t Judge a book by its cover
Another day we made a video about the differences in each of us that you can't tell just by looking at us. Only problem: Instagram was not having any of it. As we created an amazing video, Instagram would not post it! We had to shoot it multiple times growing incredibly frustrated, but in the end, we made an awesome video revealing our little secrets that make us unique individuals, celebrating the differences in each of us, no matter how strange (Angie sleeps with her eyes open!). We bonded a lot while making it, and totally fell in love with the end product.
DAY TEN:
Challenge: Create a natural disaster emergency pack
Issue: Natural Disasters can strike at any minute, and many of us are unprepared.
Sometimes we got a little cheeky with our tasks, always understanding the large implications behind it. On the 10th day we made our emergency preparedness pack, including random objects found around our office that would be able to get us out of a sticky situation if MacGyver was our #2 on speed dial. 905 natural catastrophes occur every year; it is important to have a pack ready to go at a moment’s notice, and as much as we would love to have our favorite action hero on speed dial, we probably should have included some water, batteries, and granola bars to get us through the unpredictable. We had a great time coming up with a funny photo, but then had a reflective moment about the implications of living in earthquake country without an emergency preparedness kit.
DAY ELEVEN: Issue: Fight Apathy
DoSomething.org encouraged us to use our own favorite social issue and spread the word to fight apathy. But, the amazing thing is by starting the #DSHunt, Do Something had already fought apathy. We were impressed daily by other posts and how awesome it was to see so many people engaged in the #DSHunt. We loved being part of the beginning of a movement to encourage teens to use social media for social good.
We loved participating and encourage our readers to participate too. Just because the Hunt is over, doesn't mean that the social issues are. What can be accomplished in 11 days? A social movement. Now we just need to continue fighting apathy as we move away from the Hunt and back into our busy schedules, not forgetting the info we learned.
If you would like to see more of what we did follow us on Twitter and Instagram (@ThisBar).
Cristina Diaz is a rising senior at Fordham University in New York, where in her free time she contemplates palm trees and how she wishes they grew in New York.
