Dear Tunza Eco Generation friends,

I would like to share with you about the way I celebrated Earth Hour 2014 this year.

Every year I participate in Earth Hour walkathon at places like Burj Plaza near Burj Khalifa or downtown Dubai but this year I thought of celebrating it in different way. I thought of spreading word about "What and Why" of Earth Hour to those who don't know about it and who normally don't get to join such big celebrations .

I invited 18 teenagers from my neighbourhood  and community and few adults as well and switched off all the lights and gave 1 candle to each of them . In candle light I addressed them telling them about the meaning of Earth Hour , why it is celebrated , how it is celebrated(by switching off the lights for one hour from 8.30-9.30 pm local time) and what message does it convey. Most of them did not know about it and had never attended Earth Hour Celebrations.  We all exchanged our opinions and tips on how we can save energy like switching off the lights in day time and relying on daylight , trying to sit in one room to save many room lights , switching to CFL lamps or other energy savers , using energy efficient appliances(washing machines , irons , refrigerators etc), pre-setting the AC temperatures, operating washing machines only on full loads ,having candle light dinners often, not keeping our mobiles for charging through out the nights etc. All the while we had switched off our lights and had lit the candles only.  Few of us had jointly made environment posters and were holding them .

I also introduced Tunza Eco Generation to this new set of teenagers .

At the end we took a pledge (with our hands in front) saying "Let's save energy , Let's save Mother Earth". To make it more memorable, I served them refreshments which we all enjoyed in candle lights . They all went back carrying a positive message with them , inspired to save energy to save Mother Earth.

When I shared few photos with ?Gulf News? , they appreciated the event by email and recognized it by posting one of my event photos on their FB page.

I am glad that this year I made EARTH HOUR  more meaningful by spreading the awareness of EARTH HOUR and it?s significance and real message behind it.