On Wednesday I had a fabulous time volunteering for Global Inheritance, which is a non-profit that opened up Environmentaland on Hollywood and Highland awhile back (October 1st, to be exact).  Tuesday night was a public party to celebrate the brief three weeks that the interactive theme park was there and Wednesday was the final closing party, exclusively for people affiliated with the environmental playland.  Not knowing that it was a closing party (and thinking it was an opening one), I was super excited to share the place with my friends.  It’s a pity they won’t be able to enjoy it.  Perhaps we’ll catch them again when they come round to LA next (and hopefully they will!).

The Global Inheritance logo.

You can kind of see how it wraps and overlays...

I started off the night helping set up the food tables and arranging food on them.  I then needed to adorn myself with an Environmentaland t-shirt, so I went to stand in line at the screen printing station.  Sustainable Edition American Apparel t-shirts were available in men’s and women’s sizes.  I took the appropriate one and carefully looked at the six design options, of which we were allowed to choose three to put on our shirts, wherever we wanted.  I knew I wanted the purple one with a whale because not only was it in my favorite color, the whale is just adorable.  I also knew that I liked the faintness of the polar bear one – it would be present, but not drawing too much attention.  Then came the final decision: a cool message or cool design?  I liked both the “Make Love, Not Trash” and the Hit+Run designs and it was hard to choose, but I eventually settled on the former because I liked how it was multiple colors and the message itself was just too cute.  The Hit+Run was harder to “get” and didn’t quite make an impact or statement.

A screen printing machine! It seriously takes like five minutes from start to wear.

I wonder how many volts I was generating... I couldn't see the screen showing the numbers.

Next came the positioning!  Once again, the purple whale was easy – I just wanted it on the chest.  Pretty straightforward.  I’m also a huge fan of having something on the side, kind of wrapping around, so I decided the polar bear would go well there.  The MLNT one I then knew should go on the back, but when I envisioned it I was thinking on the shoulder, but because I didn’t specify, the guy put it on the bottom, overlaying the polar bear.  I quite liked the way he did that – it was his personal flair and style, which put an artistic feel to it.  Extremely pleased with my new shirt, I put it on and got ready to help out at a station only to get called away to join the spinners outside.

Eight bikes were set up, all rigged to a generator battery thing contained inside a large glass box.  That hooked up to a TV that would only run if we provided the power through spinning.  Some volunteers were lined up to participate and we grabbed two people off the street, bribing them with free t-shirts and food.  As we were getting ready to start, suddenly Spiderman came out of nowhere and began to use the bike on the end.  Excited, I tried to recruit him too, but he had to go make some money.  He did say he’d send some people our way though!  After he left, we got on and began to pedal.  There wasn’t much resistance at first and I got overly eager, so I expended a lot of energy at the beginning and wore out pretty quickly.  Soon enough, I was breathing harder and my poor new shirt was getting worn.  We continued on (on and off) for about 20-30 minutes and called it a night from there.

In case you wanted to see how we were powering the TV.

Catered by Lucky Strike, the bowling alley next door!

I went back in to take care of the food for a bit before taking over the registration table for another volunteer.  I ended up there for the rest of the night, greeting people as they came in and making sure they were on our guest list.  A couple of people wandered in acting like they belonged there until they saw I had a guest list, then asked what we were all about before sauntering off.  A few times, the security guard had to chase someone who walked by too fast, ignoring my calls to come check in with me at the table.  Some other staffers came by to chat so I wouldn’t be too lonely when things were slow at the door, which was nice.  Visitors got score sheets from me, which they could use to keep track of points they earned for participating at each station.  Then, in true Chuck-E-Cheese style, you could redeem your points for prizes – in this case, really cool ones!  They had skate decks and Camelbaks and even Coachella tickets for the highest scorers!

Açaí spirit (whatever that means) at the open bar. I have no idea what a spirit is. Açaí however is an oversized blueberry-looking thing from the Amazon!

Well, it used to say: "When in doubt RECYCLE," but as you can see it didn't stick very well. Complete with wheels and handle!

As I was sitting there observing the attendees, I noticed quite a few had these cute little recycle bins that they had decorated.  I wanted one for myself, so when I got a chance, I went looking and found an arts and crafts table full of things to put on it, then saw the undecorated ones hidden in a bottom shelf next to the table.  I grabbed one and began to collect things to decorate it with.  I used some of the glittery stuff they had to write out a message that one of the guys told me earlier in the night: When in doubt, recycle.  Basically the idea is that if you aren’t sure if you should throw something out or recycle it, you should put it in the recycle so it can be sorted.  Otherwise, more likely than not, your recyclables in the trash will go straight to the landfill and never get a chance to be diverted.

The night wound down and people filtered out.  I got my parking validated at the Starbucks and the guy had me tell him a good thing about my day, so I shared with him my volunteer experience and how awesome Environmentaland is.  He was sad that he couldn’t check it out since it was torn down the next day, but when I mentioned their next stop is Portland, he and his coworker from there considered a road trip…  So all in all a fabulous night, though it was too bad parking cost me $7.  But hey, I got some sweet free stuff and had a lovely time volunteering!

Some of the other wonderful exhibits…

You stand at the point and throw a paper airplane at the bullseye.

A whale to greet everyone, asking for a hug!

Organic apples or not? Can you tell the difference?

Golf course, desert style.

Every time people use it, they'd create a horrible clown honking sound that was hilarious.

A performance by Jason Lytle.

Plenty of media around!