Dear Ms. Communicate,
We are two high school students who just recently attended the "Global Day of Action" in Vancouver. To our disappointment, it was not a rally but instead it turned out to be more of a volunteer orientation.
We then decided to jump in and be volunteers and we tried to hand out fliers to pedestrians and educate them about the Tar Sands. Might as well, right? However, since we are youth, the adult volunteers did not take us seriously or acknowledge us. Yet, we thought that people our age would be more welcomed, if not by the pedestrians, at least by these activists. If this situation were to happen again, what should we do?
Dear the young and the ignored,
It’s possible since this was your first time with the group that they didn’t know who you were. Did you introduce yourself to the organizers? Or did you just grab flyers and act like you were part of the group? If so, I can see why they might be a bit miffed, but there’s no reason you can’t recover from this not-great start.
So here’s some ideas if this happens again: Ignore them right back. Get more of your friends to go with you. Volunteer together, so you have some friends with you. Start your own “branch” or even a separate group to do actions on your own, or in partnership with others.
Ms. C
