Climate Game Show — Late Night For the Planet: Early Morning Edition with Late Night for the Planet

Late Night for the Planet is the top-rated late night game show in the Adirondacks! It is also the only one we know of. If you know of another one, please do not tell us about it as we would probably have to rewrite this bio to say "second best". LN4TP is the only late night show in the region that specifically focuses on environmental and social justice issues through interviews, games and comedy. LN4TP is run by SUNY Plattsburgh students and hosts monthly live shows at Olive Ridley's in Plattsburgh. We also host a podcast, also called "Late Night for the Planet." Our goals are to raise awareness about important issues facing the ADKs and Lake Champlain Basin, celebrate local environmental and social justice heroes, and build community through laughter. 

Learning to Care for People and Places with Sam Baker and Tammy Morgan

Sam Baker and Tammy Morgan, local Lake Placid High School teachers, will share about their transformational trip to Eswatini, with the 501 Collective, to live and work on a regenerative farm while being completely immersed in Swazi culture. Sam and Tammy will share their learning, insights, and ideas about regenerative agriculture, and how places all across the world are finding innovative solutions to the climate crisis.

Grand Finale with Developing Artists

Do you want to be a part of closing out the whole summit by making a performing arts piece with two incredible high school climate artivists from NYC?  Have you always wondered how art and performance can be used to take action on climate change? Join us to create an original piece together in our workshop to close the Adirondack Youth Climate Summit, and make a difference with your art! This is an opportunity to take something you care about (poetry, music, acting, etc.) and perform with your peers, for your peers.

*** Bring an instrument if you play one. 

Art in a Changing Climate: Creativity, Care and Cultivating Connection

Art is a powerful tool for understanding and documenting our changing climate. It offers pathways for personal reflection, emotional healing, and hope – while also inspiring awareness and action. In this workshop, we’ll explore how creative expression can help us process eco-anxiety, connect with our personal and community values, and respond to the challenges of a changing climate. Through hands-on art-making and mindful reflection, participants will discover how art can cultivate resilience, motivation, and collective hope in the face of unprecedented times. 

• Session Leader(s): 

  • Michale Glennon: Michale Glennon is a wildlife ecologist, fiber artist, and director of Wool and Water, a project of the Adirondack Watershed Institute at Paul Smith’s College. Wool and Water is a collaborative project that blends fiber art with scientific information to create visual representations of changing water quality conditions in the Adirondacks and beyond. Knitting, crochet, weaving and other fiber arts are used to illustrate concepts and trends related to our waterways, and to provide inspiration for their protection. As Director of Research at the Adirondack Watershed Institute, Dr. Glennon uses wildlife as a tool for understanding threats to ecological integrity and watershed health. She helps provide leadership to AWI's scientific research program, support high quality research opportunities for students, and advocate for science in support of the management and stewardship of the natural resources of the Adirondack Park. Michale is also a board member for the Adirondack Council and Traditional Arts in Upstate New York.

  • Nadia Harvieux: Nadia Harvieux is an environmental educator with the Finger Lakes Institute of Hobart and William Smith College, based in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of New York State. As a life-long advocate of environmental stewardship, Nadia supports collaborative efforts of community members, students, scientists and local agencies to safeguard the environmental health of local lakes, streams and watersheds. She is proud to be the coordinator of the Finger Lakes Youth Climate Summit, modeled after the Adirondack Youth Climate Summit, which has engaged hundreds of young people in climate action throughout Western and Central NY.

  • Natalee Wrege: Natalee is a science communicator, educator and nature-inspired artist who lives and works in the heart of New York State's Adirondack Park. Her passion is connecting people to the environment by facilitating place-based experiences and adventures that elicit curiosity and care of the natural world. Natalee focuses on communicating concepts in environmental education, natural resource management, responsible recreation, and climate literacy. She is the Education and Outreach Manager at Paul Smith's College Visitor Interpretive Center. 

Fluid Verse: Water, Climate Stories & Slam Poetry

This interactive workshop invites participants to explore their personal connections to our changing climate through their relationship to water, storytelling and spoken word poetry. Rooted in eco-somatics, we will engage in guided conversation and narrative-based reflection, leading to the creation of several collaborative slam poetry pieces. The session culminates in a lively and supportive slam poetry event where participants can share their work. Participants will learn how to leverage creative modalities as a way to engage in climate conversations.

• Session Leader(s): 

  • Stephanie Ashenfelder: Stephanie Ashenfelder is a scholar, educator, and creative practitioner whose work bridges the intersections of art, design, technology, and community engagement. Currently a faculty member at the University of Rochester, Stephanie specializes in new media and design, focusing on projects that address environmental sustainability, social justice, and equity through participatory and human-centered approaches. Stephanie leads community-engaged projects which use an arts centered framework that leverages digital tools to archive personal and community art and narrative. More information about her work: echolab.arts 

How to Create a Green Team with Enthusiasm and Hopefully Success

Join Emma Willar’s Green Team to learn from their proven track record of success to learn key tips and tricks to create, sustain, and grow an effective green team with enthusiasm and success. Creating a Green Team is hard, making sure that you maintain enthusiasm and buy in is even harder. The Emma Willard Green Team will share their success stories and learnings so that you can have a stellar Green Team at your school as well!

• Session Leader(s): 

  • Emma Willard Green Team: High school students from the Emma Willard School’s Green Team are attending the Adirondack Youth Climate Summit to lead a workshop, present their Interschool Panel project, and share learning with others about how they have been effective in taking climate action in their community. This Green Team has a strong and consistent member base, and has filled each school year with different high impact sustainability projects, such as their Interschool Panels!

  • Members: Francesca Thornton, Manon Sabatier, Esme Aalberts, Avery Webb, Lada Sirithummapiti, Maela N'dolo, Catherine Seol, Helen Liu, Goldie Phillips, Colleen Graham

Microplastics Everywhere!

Look into a window of ongoing research in the Lake Champlain basin and discover the havoc of microplastic pollution on aquatic ecosystems. With Lake Champlain Sea Grant and the researchers of Lake Champlain Research Institute of SUNY Plattsburgh, students will learn about the complex problem of microplastics, participate in fish dissections and microscopy activities, and share some solutions to manage the impact of microplastics everywhere.

• Session Leader(s): 

  • Tori DesRocher: Tori is the Watershed Education Coordinator for Lake Champlain Sea Grant at SUNY Plattsburgh, providing watershed science education to K-12 audiences and teaching professional development to classroom educators in the Lake Champlain basin. Here, she facilitates workforce development and the growth of the watershed educator program for undergraduate college students. Tori specializes in K-12 outdoor education and curriculum development to NYS educational standards. She holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies at Siena University and is pursuing a Masters of Science in Natural Resources and Ecology at SUNY Plattsburgh. In her free time she enjoys cornhole, indoor and beach volleyball, and "herping" in the local streams.

  • Ashley Eaton: Ashley is the Watershed and Lake Education Coordinator for Lake Champlain Sea Grant at the University of Vermont.  There, she oversees the Watershed Alliance K-12 education program, coordinates watershed science professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers, and oversees an undergraduate Watershed Education internship program. She has a BS in Education and Environmental Science, MS in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont, and a doctorate in Sustainability from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point. She is immensely grateful for all the time she has spent connecting and learning from natural systems; today she is most likely found  mountain biking, skiing, or SUPing with her floppy eared pup Callie.

  • Allison Morrow: Allison is a graduate assistant with the Lake Champlain Research Institute, pursuing a M.S. in Natural Resources and Ecology with a research focus on microplastics in Lake Champlain. At LCRI she collects sand samples from beaches and water samples from tributaries to quantify and identify plastics that flow into the lake. She has other participatory roles in graduate research at LCRI, including collecting phytoplankton and zooplankton and assisting with the department's long term lake monitoring program. Her research will map microplastics found throughout the lake, determine possible input methods, and assess what kind of plastic can be found in local fish communities. In her free time she enjoys swimming, mountain biking, skiing, running, and competing in triathlons. 

Teacher Workshop: Everything You Need to Know About the New Climate Action Planning Framework

We have been hard at work this year updating our Climate Action Planning Framework to be more comprehensive & place-based, fusing our previous model with Earth Force’s Environmental Action Civics approach. Come to this session to familiarize yourself with the new steps and learn how you can best support your school team during the Day 2 Climate Action Planning session. Even if you are not able to attend Day 2, we recommend coming to this workshop so that you can work with your school team to design a Climate Action Project!

• Session Leader(s):  

  • Cedar Barg: Cedar Barg (they/them) is the Climate Network Manager at The Wild Center, where they support the international Youth Climate Summit Network of over 250 total summits in 11 countries and 26 states. They have a B.A. in Environmental Science and English and a M.S. in Experiential and Outdoor Education. In their free time, Cedar is a community bike organizer, reader, guitar player, and novice printmaker. 

More Joy, Less Food Waste: Making Food Scrap Reduction at Your School Fun!

Come learn how to be part of the solution to the problem with food waste and develop a food waste action plan for your school! During this workshop, you’ll learn why food waste is a problem and how to tackle it at your school through education, reduction, and recycling with real-world, successful examples from Skidmore College. With the support of the presenters, you will work to develop a food waste action plan for your school with your new learned knowledge that centers joy, fun, and is ready to be implemented right away!

• Session Leader(s): 

  • Celia Darling: Celia Darling (she/her) is the Sustainability Coordinator at Skidmore College. She earned an M.S. in Environmental Policy and a B.S. in Political Science from Clarkson University where her graduate work focused on community engagement in Lake Placid’s LEED Community recertification process and organized Clarkson’s compost program. In high school, she worked with the New York Youth Climate Leaders to divest NY's public pension fund and worked with the Rochester Youth Climate Leaders to establish a county-wide Climate Action Plan. She has also interned with the Alaska Center's Alaska Youth for Environmental Action program supporting youth environmental advocacy work, did trail maintenance in the Adirondacks with Champlain Area Trails, and studied aquatic connectivity in the Adirondacks through Clarkson’s Adirondack Semester.

  • Miranda Wolf: Miranda Wolf (she/her) works at NYS Department of Environmental Conservation as an Environmental Program Specialist in the Organics Reduction and Recycling Section, within the Division of Materials Management. Before starting at the NYSDEC in 2024, Miranda earned both her Bachelors and Masters from Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY. As a student at Clarkson, she was involved in a multitude of food waste related projects with both her undergraduate capstone and Masters project focused on K-12 food waste education.

  • Klara Burkhart-Spiegel: Klara Burkhart-Spiegel (she/they) is studying geoscience with a minor in environmental science at Skidmore College with the hope of pursuing a career in earth science and environmental education. She grew up on a family-owned vegetable CSA farm in central New York where she worked full time last summer, which further grew her love for sustainability and the outdoors. She also spent a summer as a camp counselor and intern at Roger’s Environmental Education Center learning about her local environment and exploring the woods with her campers. Now, she is excited to be involved in sustainability at Skidmore College as a Compost Manager to learn more about sustainability and how to engage the community to make our world a better place. 

  • Zak Maxey: Zak Maxey (He/Him) is an undergraduate student at Skidmore College majoring in Philosophy and Economics who works as a Compost Manager for the Skidmore Sustainability Office. Zak started composting with Skidmore during his freshman year, and has since worked as one of the student Compost Managers. As a Compost Manager, Zak has focused on increasing community engagement with sustainable efforts like composting on campus. Additionally, he attended the NY state Organics Summit as a representative of Skidmore College, and presented there about Skidmore's efforts to reduce on campus food waste. He is currently working with a CampusSustainable Subcommittee to develop the next ten year Campus Sustainability Plan, with his efforts focused on Lands & Grounds, Procurement, and Waste. His passion for sustainability atSkidmore College comes from growing up in the Adirondack Park. Being close to home, Skidmore College is a place Zak feels connected to through the natural beauty of the area and its adjacency to the Adirondacks. He hopes to continue making Skidmore, and other campuses, more active sustainable communities.

  • Leah Haveson: Leah Haveson is currently attaining an ecology track-Biology major at Skidmore College. Growing up she fostered dogs and cats, and spent many hours at city hall meetings, advocating for the ban of puppy mills alongside her community. This set her on a mission to help bring people together in favor of kindness and empathy for the environment and all its inhabitants. In middle school and high school she organized multiple climate marches, where she began gaining professional experience in the world of sustainability. Over the summer, she completed a Nature Education Internship at the Grass River Natural Area, in Michigan. There, she developed skills in nature education between the kindergarten and high school levels and a familiarity with wetland conservation ecology. Currently in her third year of college, when she is not in a lab class, or the art studio, she is working hard as one of the compost managers at Skidmore’s on-site compost facility.

Bike-Packing in the Adirondacks

Bikepacking in the Adirondacks is like taking your bike on an epic adventure through the mountains! Imagine riding along quiet forest trails, splashing through streams, and setting up camp beside a sparkling lake. You carry everything you need—your tent, snacks, and gear—right on your bike. Every hill you climb leads to amazing views, and every downhill feels like flying! At night, you can sit around the campfire with friends, tell stories, and look up at the stars. It’s the perfect mix of biking, camping, and exploring—an unforgettable way to experience the outdoors and have a ton of fun! 

• Session Leader(s): 

  • Justin Oliver: Justin Oliver is the owner of Silver Birch Cycles in Saranac Lake, New York, where he combines his love of the outdoors with a lifelong passion for bikes and community. Justin grew up on a small beef cattle farm in central New York, where he learned to work hard, fix what’s in front of him, and appreciate open spaces. In 2003, Justin moved to the Adirondacks to be closer to the mountains—and I’ve been here ever since. Cycling and bikepacking have taken over Justin’s life, but what he loves most is exploring right here at home. Silver Birch Cycles is a way to share that sense of adventure with others. When Justin isn’t in the shop, you’ll find him pedaling somewhere quiet, out on the water, or juggling. More than anything, he enjoys being outside, meeting people who love the same, and finding new ways to keep life—and the wheels—turning.

What Can Ewe Do: Ecological Farming Practices for Sustainable Food and Fashion

The sustainable management of livestock is a huge discussion topic on the stage of climate change. In this session, you'll have the opportunity to meet with some of the sheep from our farm and learn firsthand about the beneficial uses of grazing animals for sustainable ecosystem management, carbon sequestration, and durable, reusable, and recyclable clothing manufacturing. Stop by and meet a key component of the natural carbon cycle and hear about the challenges of ecologically conscious farming in the Adirondack Park.

• Session Leader(s):

  • Educational Farmers: Established in 1938, North Country School has always had a close connection with the land, engaging its students with sustainable farming practices for nearly 100 years. As educational farmers in this space, it is our role to blend the crossover between classroom education and the real world connection of agriculture and food. With just 4 year round farmers, it can be challenging to orchestrate the integration of over 80 students with horses, sheep, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and nearly 10 acres of combined annual and perennial crop spaces across our 300 acre campus, but the impact such an educational setting has is unmatched. We are committed to treating our farm and school as a whole ecosystem, visualizing the effects of our work on the entire landscape, rather than specific spots. Showcasing the true value of ecologically conscious agriculture and respectful relationships with animals is at the heart of our mission.

Climate to the Stage

Be a part of closing out the whole summit by making a performing arts piece with 2 incredible high school climate artivists from NYC. We will make an original piece together in our workshop to show everyone! This is a chance to take something you really care about and perform a poem/song /monologue with your peers. Bring an instrument if you play one. 

• Session Leader(s): 

  • Mia Fowler: Mia is a New York City high school student who is an actress, writer, and an artivist who has been using her art to create a more just world. She is an active member of developing artists and read her poetry at 2024 Climate Week NYC!

  • Esme Thorne: Esme Thorne is a 17-year-old artist and 5-year member of Developing Artists. She is an actor and musician born and raised in New York City, and she has performed across the city at venues such as The Public and the Vineyard Theatre.

Drum Composter Tour

Join Jennifer Perry, co-founder of Compost for Good and co-owner of River Valley Regeneratives, to learn about community scale composting, how composting works/functions, and everything you need to know about the process of compositing. At this workshop, you will have the opportunity to tour The Wild Center’s drum composter, and learn about how composting takes place at scale!

• Session Leader(s):

  • Jennifer Perry: Jennifer Perry is a cofounder, project manager and grant writer for Compost for Good (CFG) in the NY North Country. CfG provides support for community scale composting initiatives through technical assistance, microscopy consultations, guidance documents, educational videos, peer to peer connections, grant assistance, and more.  Jennifer also co-owns and operates River Valley Regeneratives - a food scrap hauling, composting, and market garden business in the Adirondack Mountains where she and her partner have diverted 1.25 million pounds of food scraps to soil enriching compost. Her greatest joy is to help her fellow community composters achieve their goals through thoughtfully crafted project design and implementation. In her spare time, she can be found growing vegetables, traveling to remote northern places, and frollicking in the Adirondack backcountry that she is blessed to call her backyard.

Make Your Voice Heard: Climate Change Quilt

Would you like to share your commitment to fighting climate change through artistic expression? Join the Climate Change Quilt movement and contribute to making 1,000 quilts nationwide. Even if you don’t feel particularly artistic, you can help with this movement by using one of our pre-made patterns or writing your message on a pre-made quilt square. No sewing experience needed! Have fun, be creative, and express yourself!

• Session Leader(s): 

  • Dr. Pamela Mischen: Dr. Pamela Mischen has a BS in international agriculture and rural development from Cornell University, and an MS in agribusiness and PhD in public administration from Arizona State University. She is professor of environmental studies at Binghamton University and serves as the University’s Chief Sustainability Officer. Her current research is on the reasons why some people, but not others, engage in sustainability behaviors. As the initiator of the Climate Change Quilt project, she hopes to encourage people throughout the United States to show their support for actions at the individual, community, state and national level that mitigate climate change.