[1]I gave my first Yukon radio interview today. Porchlight may be translated into Gwich'in [2], a language spoken in Old Crow (and other northern communities). Talking with Elizabeth, our President, tonight (she's in Toronto) it occurred to us that an indirect contribution that Porchlight may make is adding an effective translation of "compact fluoresent" to northern First Nations languages. That would be cool, though I'm very confident that I have way more to learn from northern First Nations folks than they can glean from me.
The Yukon radio station found out about us not because two of our team are actually in Whitehorse right now (planning the campaign), but because Porchlight was profiled in the Ottawa Sun on the weekend. Small world. I'd said in the interview that we wanted to deliver bulbs on dogsleds. My ignorance about the reality of life in the north obviously attracted some attention.
And that's one of the best parts of this job, of this campaign. We're not sure where this will take us, or where it will go, or how it will work out. Yep, we're going to deliver energy efficient light bulbs in the Yukon in February. And it will be fine. Wherever we go we meet people who want to do something about climate change. And changing a light bulb is the universal first action. No matter where we are.
In any language.