Reflection on atlasGO: Dandilyonn’s Earth Month Challenge

Near the end of March, our life was altered in a way we never thought possible. Because a global pandemic entered our world, we have had to close all contact with the outside world, cancel everything we had ahead of us, and the bravest of us have had to put on their scrubs and sacrifice their own lives for everyone else’s. But most of us are stuck at home, somehow with so much to do and nothing to do all at the same time. 

We understand that staying home for a countless amount of time, often losing track of the day of the week, can be frustrating. To console these feelings, a lot of us have set the goal to achieve greater fitness. Physical activity not only gives us a break from all the emotions stirring in our minds, but also gives us a straightforward method to be productive and purposeful; we feel good after working out even if the rest of the day has been binging Netflix shows. Dandilyonn decided there must be a way to add a charitable aspect to these fitness goals. Action towards combating climate change does not have to halt if we are stuck at home.

Here is where atlasGO comes in. atlasGO is an IOS and Android application that connects 3 major parties: large companies, global issues, and regular people, like us. Basically, a large company will pledge funds for a certain global cause such as planting more trees. Individuals, the “Sweaty Changemakers”, log their exercise hours, raising money to reach the goal pledged by the company. This encourages both fitness and social responsibility. You can learn more about them here: https://atlasgo.org/

We decided to form a Dandilyonn team on atlasGO and challenge ourselves to plant as many trees as possible during April, the official Earth month. Starting with a goal of 100 trees, our incredible 32-member team quickly achieved this. Some of us did yoga, others walked their dogs around the neighborhood, and others did dance aerobics at home, and all together, we planted 400+ trees in just one month! And we did not stop when April finished, in fact today, we have planted exactly 682.77 trees. 

We are so proud of our team for not only pushing themselves physically, but also for cheering each other on as we all kept our inner activist alive during quarantine. Dandilyonn wants to give a few shoutouts to some of our amazing team members!!!

• Sean Peters: Sean, #1 on our Dandilyonn leaderboard throughout this whole challenge, has raised a whopping 80.52 all by himself! You can even find his name in the general leaderboard, where the entire global community of people trying to plant trees can be found (not just dandilyonn); he is 89th in the whole world!
• Srimant Jain and Madhu Jain: These are our international team members! This Dandilyonn project is super special because people all over the world can participate in it. We are so happy to have a continuously growing community!
• Everyone: Yes, shouting out the entire team may be a bit cheesy, but we know motivating yourself and taking out time to work out isn’t easy! Whether you are a teenager balancing workouts and the crazy amounts of homework we get, or you are an adult forcing yourself to take breaks for physical activity between endless work meetings or homeschooling your kids, you are amazing and thank you for participating!

This challenge and your participation in it shows that 1. Our fight for climate change is continuous and vital even during this time, and 2. We are stronger together! If you want to become a part of our Dandilyonn Team, we would love to have you! Check out this link for instructions on how to get started. Thank you again and we hope to see you all soon!