My dream to change the world

My family has always recycled as much as possible. As early as I can remember my parents collected, reused and recycled everything possible. My first chores at two years old were to bind and stack the weekly papers for recycling and to take the plate scrapings out to the compost pile. The house I grew up in was a recycled Army barracks. My father bought the disassembled building at auction in Alabama and carried it by truck 70 miles and rebuilt it in Florida as our house.

I married a person that grew up in a similar environment, so, it is no wonder that we have continued to recycle and raised our children to do the same. Living in the Metro DC area we are appalled to see the waste and gluttony around us. Our whole family has volunteered collecting food and clothing and worked in local food kitchens, and charity thrift shops.

My dream to change the world is to build the first non-profit Platinum LEED rated building in Northern Virginia. This building will be an environmental education center that will teach the community about sustainability living, and how we can take small actions daily that create a greener living environment. It would also be my goal to teach that these actions benefit the air, water, health, well-being, and also reduce costs to the community and our pocketbooks.

This building will also provide offices for the Complimentary and Alternative Healthcare Community that shares the commitment to helping individuals increase their health through treatments and classes as well as environmental awareness. This complex is designed to be one stop shopping for your every alternative and complimentary healthcare need, as well as, a learning center, an organic restaurant, Health food store and Retreat Center. This center currently exists only on paper and on a website. In order to be Platinum rated LEED I will need a large piece of land in a commercial area that has either a large blacktop that I can re-green, or an old building to deconstruct, before we build the new building. I am hoping that someone needs a large tax write off and they would like to donate this land to this good cause. I have become a branch of a small non-profit, through which I am now able to collect for our collective projects. My architect has told me it will cost around $88 million dollars to build, but I have every confidence that my family's dream will come true. My goal is that it will come to fruition during in the next 5 years. That is my dream to change the world through awareness, one person at a time, one family at a time, one community at a time. To heal the body, mind, soul, family, community and planet, would be a true accomplishment.

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