My First Year As A Blogger!

A year ago today I wrote my first post about the Digital Family Summit in the car on our way back from Philadelphia. I was 9 years old when I started my blog and here are 9 things – memories, moments and learnings – from my first year as a blogger.

Digital Family Summit

The Digital Family Summit is where it all started, my blog everything. I went to a workshop about WordPress. There was a room full of computers and we each sat at a computer and created our own blogs. That is where CallMeHannah began. I also took a photo workshop and listened to great speakers about the power of the internet, social media and also the importance of knowing how to be safe online. The whole weekend was great. I met and connected with some really great people that I am still in touch with. They have encouraged and supported me from the start. Special thanks to Stephanie, Tori and Nakia. All the people there were amazing I made new friends and new memories and I got to learn things from them. If you want to go to the Digital Family Summit 2013 this fall, all the information is here.

JUNO Awards 2013

I was honoured to have been invited by the JUNOS and CARAS to go to Regina, Saskatchewan to be their “On The Ground Eco-Blogger”. The JUNOS are doing great things to be more sustainable and really take care of the environment. They had eco-minded partners such as BullFrog Power, Carbonzero, Strategin Solutions and Me to We to help make their ideas happen! I was given a special tour at The Royal Saskatchewan Museum to see the exhibit The Power Of Music. The special exhibit showcased Canadian artists who are using their voice and influence to share their passion or favourite cause through music and with their fans. I got to look at what artists are doing to change the world and it was so inspiring to see how many people want to make a difference. While in Regina I got to meet and interview many JUNO nominated and winning artists including, Victoria Duffield, Donny Parenteau, Tom Cochrane, Makeshift Innocence, The Tenors, Serena Ryder, Mariana’s Trench, Anjulie and more. My posts are on the JUNO Awards website.

Earth Hour 2013 And WWF

I was also very happy to be chosen by the WWF to be a Earth Hour 2013 Team Captain and speak at the Earth Hour 2013 event in Toronto. My working with them began when I created my  Stop, Start and Continue Earth Hour Pledge to encourage people commit to doing eco-friendly things in the year ahead. In my school I presented it and my entire school took the Earth Hour pledge. I was also told that many other schools and families were using my pledge, which showed me the power of people working together for a great cause. I did a lot of radio, television and newspaper interviews in the week leading up to Earth Hour, so I thank them all for helping me spread the word about the environment. It was a lot of fun and it really showed me that using my voice can make a difference in the world. It’s so amazing when people take action in Earth Hour and then the next day be inspired to do more.

Free The Children

In the last year, Free The Children has become a big part of my blog and also my life. I launched We Create Change at two schools and collected 97,500 pennies to provide clean water for 37 people in Africa. I was so proud that I was invited to We Day as an honoured guest. I was able to spend a day interviewing some of the amazing speakers like co-founder Craig Kielburger, motivational speaker Spencer West, and the always inspiring speaker Molly Burke. At the press conference I asked Martin Sheen a question and he was so kind to me. I have also taken a vow of silence for kids who are silenced and can’t use their voice to make changes for the better in their lives and area they live in. I attended the Youth Summit in the spring and next week I am so excited to be going to Take Action Leadership Camp. Through all of my experiences with Free The Children this year, I have really learned that we can all make a difference, no matter how young you are. One of the most amazing things is seeing all of the young people that have been inspired to find and ignite their spark. When I am with Free The Children I know that I am not alone in my desire to be the change.

Severn Suzuki – Finding My Role Model And Meeting Her And Her Father

One night my mom showed me a video of Severn Cullis-Suzuki and she quickly became one of my role models. What really inspired me about her was that she started caring about the environment when she was 9 years old and I was 9 years old when I started caring about the environment too and started the blog. When Severn was 13 years old when she spoke at the UN about the environment and it’s gone viral, thanks to YouTube. She made me believe that no matter how young you are you can make a difference. I was so happy to have been invited to Roy Thompson Hall to see Severn and her father, David Suzuki speak. Even better,  I got to meet and interview Severn before she got on stage. Severn was so inspiring at the interview, she has always been. She gave such good answers and I learned so much. I also had the chance to meet David Suzuki while we were walking back to our seats. I was a bit tongue-tied and was really shocked that the person who started so many eco-initiatives for us in Canada and around the world was right in front of me. If you want to see the interview I had with Severn it’s On International Womens Day 2013: An Interview with my Role Model, Severn Suzuki.

Connecting With YOU, My Reader

I love reading connecting with readers on my blog. They share their experiences with me and their connections the things that I write about on my blog. I have made many friends around the world through my blog. Many people who have been so nice and encouraging to me. One of them us Chris Read from Canadian Dad. I also love reading the comments that people leave on my posts replying back to them. It feels so good connecting and being able to share. Some of the comments I see say that they have tried my eco-cleaning supplies and I feel so happy that they’re inspired to be eco-friendly with me. My goal for my blog is to get people committed to help the environment or help the world in any way that they can. I truly believe that every little thing that we all do will add up to make a big difference.

Finding My Voice And My Passions

Ever since I started my blog at the Digital Family Summit I have wanted to make a difference in the world. I found so many inspiring people like Craig and Marc Kielburger, Spencer West, Severn Suzuki and Molly Burke. They have all “redefined possible” for me. Each of these people think that no matter how young you are you can make a difference. Craig Kielburger was only 12 years old when he started Free The Children and he believed that adults – even powerful ones would listen to kids – and it’s true. This year I have learned about and participated in many things that I am passionate about including The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, Earth Hour, We Day, We Create Change and We Are Silent. I will continue to explore my passion and use my voice to be the change and inspire others to join me.

Living Eco-Friendly

Me and my family have been doing many things to be more aware and more eco-friendly over the past year. We try to be eco-friendly everywhere. In our house we made special waste bins for our bathrooms and we made a huge recycling center in our garage. We always use reusable water bottles and we also use reusable containers instead of plastic bags. We have made our own eco-cleaning supplies using a recipe from Free The Children’s Mark Kielburger that works amazing and we have even made some for our friends and family. I’m also a lot more aware about garbage and recycling in our community by organizing a Shoreline Cleanup where people came to pick up litter at a trail in our neighbourhood. My school have also done a lot of work to encourage everyone to live eco-friendly. One of my favourite blog posts this year was about eco-friendly school supplies.

Developing My Skills

Over the last year of blogging I have learned a lot about graphics, researching, writing, public speaking and interviews. I can do many things with graphic and I use PicMonkey for the images that you see on my blog.  I think I’ve gotten better at writing and researching from the internet for the posts, and just finding out about interesting news and ideas out there. I research about lots of things like animals, child labour, things for school, the environment, non-profit organizations and so much more. Over the last year I have learned a lot on my blog about how to hyper link, to bold, to colour, numbering and bullets, quotes, categorizing and tagging and more. I have learned so much about how to use my blog and how I can make it awesome. I have done a lot of public speaking through the past year. When I did my speech for We Create Change I motivated the students to bring pennies and and in the end we collected almost 100,000 pennies to provide clean water for people in Africa – a huge number showing what happens when everyone works as a team.  The Earth Hour Pledge was just an idea I had, and love hearing and seeing s many kids use it for their own homes. For interviews I have been on both sides, being interviewed and I have interviewed outlets like CP24 Breakfast Television, Marilyn Denis, Majic 100, George Stroumboulopoulos, Canada AM, CBC Radio, Amber Mac, Marc Saltzman and more. I have interviewed people like Spencer West, Craig Kielburger, CBC’s Jian Ghomeshi, Toronto Star’s Ben Rayner, Toronto Sun’s Jane Stevenson, Amy Ray from The Indigo Girls, Victoria Duffield, Tom Cochrane and more. I love listening to people and what I can learn from others – all of them have inspired me and I thank them for their time and amazing answers to my questions.

I want to thank everyone who has read, commented and shared my blog. I want to thank my special friends at the WWF, Free The Children, The JUNOS and The Digital Family Summit for giving me such amazing and unique experiences. I also want to thank all my teachers and my principal for being so supportive this year. I want to thank my family for being part of this awesome year with me.

Even though she can’t read I want to thank my dog Indigo it is because of her I have a love of animals and who taught me about responsibility, respect and love towards all living things on earth.