Lisa Anderson calls them "the microwave kids." Because they expect to get what they want right away, she explains.
Anderson, 31, used to be an impatient teenager herself. But she says she was neither as bored nor as impatient as the kids she began to notice in her Sandy neighborhood. They needed something to focus on, she decided, some bigger picture than music videos and sitcom reruns.At the beginning of the summer, Anderson, who has no children of her own, got a group of 10 neighborhood children together to start an environmental club - 4Kids By Kids.
Together they have picked up litter in Sandy and set up recycling bins in their own homes. They have also designed four T-shirts, with environmental themes, that are now on sale in Salt Lake City, Park City and Snowbird.
"Our Earth is Like an Apple. If We Keep Taking Bites Out of It . . ." reads the front of a T-shirt designed by 17-year-old Jesse Winters. Turn the T-shirt around and the rest of the message says "All We'll Have Left Is a Rotten Core."
Jesse's drawing, in neon bright colors, depicts an apple covered with oceans and continents, with a large chunk chomped out.
Another design, dreamed up by Anderson and executed by Jesse, shows a melting Earth, a sun wearing sunglasses and the message "Without the Ozone . . . We're Toast!!!"
Colleen Whitmore, 12, came up with a third T-shirt idea: "Just Because Kittys Litter Doesn't Mean You Can." A fourth shirt shows a bloated, burping Earth and the message "Our Earth Has Indigestion. How Do We Spell Relief?" The answer, on the back of the shirt, includes the prefix "Re" and a picture of a leaf.
Right now the group is putting 1 percent of its sales into an environmental trust fund. As Anderson recoups her initial investment, the percentage will grow, she says. The children want to buy trees with the trust fund money.
It's a slow process, just like saving the Earth is, she notes. "I think they're learning that it takes time for things to happen."
Currently the T-shirts are sold at REI, The Sports Stalker, Copper Rivet, Cahoots and Wasatch Touring, in Salt Lake City, and at White Pine Touring, Attitude and Cole Sport in Park City. In September Anderson will try to pitch the shirts to stores along the West Coast.
Anderson admits that the children, who range in age from 5 to 18, are still not as motivated as she wishes they were. They still don't clean their rooms, even though she points out that you can't really work on your larger environment until you start being responsible for cleaning up the mess on your own floor.