The Rochester Youth Climate Leaders met during Earth Week for their first official student-run meeting. The leadership team of Tierra Cherelin, Jacob LaDue, Thomas Neumaier, Benny Smith and Liam Smith opened the meeting by introducing themselves and the specific areas of interest they would help lead within the organization. After that, the website for formally rolled out (check it out here or at http://www.rycl.tk/), thanks to the work of Thomas, and the larger group broke out into interest sub-sections to brainstorm goals and make plans for each area: outreach, events, advocacy/policy, communication, and local projects.

Still adding new members each month, the RYCL group now included students from 6th-12th grade from at least ten local urban and suburban schools. The planning sessions were fruitful with immediate ideas for the remainder of the school year, as well as plans for next year. Forest Melcher attended as the liaison for SUNY Geneseo and RIT sustainability student groups to RYCL.

The final part of the meeting was devoted to making signs for the upcoming Earth Day Eve Climate March.