The eight high school students gathered in the basement of the Yukon Conservation Building have a long list of decisions to make. For one, they need a costume for Janie-the-Happy-Little-Bush. Janie is the star of their skit for Buy Nothing Day.

These young people are members of Students Aware of Our World (SAW). The skit they are writing is targeted at elementary school students. The SAW members want to teach younger students about recycling and the pitfalls of consumerism.

The skit is their lead activity for raising awareness on Buy Nothing Day. They are also preparing a radio spot and writing an editorial on the impacts of the consumer lifestyle. SAW works on both social and environmental issues. As Buy Nothing Day illustrates, these issues are often intertwined.

This awareness day was started to highlight the fact that North Americans use more than their fair share of the earth's resources. Overconsumption is an environmental issue, as it leads to more waste in the landfills and more pollution from manufacturing. But the students also want to raise awareness on human rights issues, such as the child labour used to make some consumer goods.

SAW members can interpret the day according to their own concerns. "I just see it as everything that you buy ends up as garbage," says Sylvia Frisch, one of the group's members. "You don't need all of these things. They take your attention away from the rest of your life."

This year Buy Nothing Day is set for both Friday, November 27, and Saturday, November 28. The Friday after the American Thanksgiving holiday is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States. Since Friday is not a Canadian holiday, Buy Nothing day has been extended to cover Saturday the 28th as well.

Buy Nothing Day is just one of the issues on which SAW is working. Members have circulated a petition and written letters supporting the Yukon\rquote s Protected Areas Strategy. They volunteered at the Energy Fair in Whitehorse, and they are helping to promote Fairly Traded coffee. This campaign tries to ensure that small-scale farmers get a fair price for their coffee crops.

The students say that awareness of these issues is second nature for most of them. They learned about social and environmental issues at home. Frisch says she went through a period when she begged her mother for Calvin Klein jeans, but that time in her life has passed.

But even though the students picked up many of their values at home, they are very clear that their group is independent. They invite adults to their weekly meetings to give presentations on various topics, but the students decide what they will do with the information.

They obviously do not need adult supervision to help them get organized. Besides writing the script and making the costumes for this skit, they approached various elementary schools to set-up the presentations. The students prepared a handout for the school administrators, explaining what their group is about, and how the presentations will be handled.

At this meeting they assign tasks, settle final details and arrange more meetings. But they're also having fun. The amount of banter around the table shows that while they care about the world's problems, they are far from being crushed by them.

Their group has about 15 members. When asked how other high school students respond to their activism, they say they usually get a good reception."There's none of being the geeky environmental group," as one member puts it.

They also know they will make an impression on younger kids when they go into their classrooms. Yukon kids have all heard about recycling by now, but they've never seen big kids playing Janie-the-Happy-Little-Bush, Super Recycler and the other cast members in this skit.

"They'll remember us even if they don't remember the subject," says Brian Horton, one of the group's members. A competitive cross-country skier, he remembers how he was in awe of the older ski team members when he was just starting out. Now it's his turn to set an example.

"I think it's really important for younger kids to see big kids that are active. I don't know whether the environmental idea will carry over, but I think the idea of active teenagers will carry over."

SAW was not a very active group for a time, but that is clearly not the case now. A decade from now, perhaps a new generation of SAW activists will remember the day that Janie-the-Happy-Little-Bush appeared in their classrooms, dressed in the very best that the Salvation Army has to offer.

For more infomation on Students Aware of Our World, contact the Yukon Conservation Society at 668-5678.