Some people have asked me recently, "What can I do to help? I feel like the battle has already been lost!"
All any concerned citizen needs to do is ask themselves,"What am I good at, and how will that talent help others?"
I found myself asking the same question a few weeks ago, as I was losing sleep over this issue. But what can I really do? I teach from early morning, get home at 5, play with my kids until their bedtime, at best I have an hour each night. Is that enough?
I listed some of the things I could do: paint, teach, write, organize, design, bring people together, and make a website. And I can talk.
So I started doing those things. From 9 until 10 at night, most nights of the week. Soon I had a website with almost 100 friends. Soon I had completed a painting for a benefit auction. Soon, the ball began to roll, and the more people I talked to, the larger the ball became. Suddenly my 5 hours a week became something incredible. Something powerful. Something more important than catching an episode of South Park.
If you can play music, we may need you for a benefit concert in the future. If you can paint, draw, or take photos, donate something you have created to an art auction. Contact me at theverderiver@yahoo.com to find out how.
We'll be holding a large silent auction with Save the Verde in the coming weeks. If you aren't artistic, come to the auction and bid on something. You can own some outstanding art and know it represents something beautiful and important. Some of these works can be had for very low prices.
If you can write, write letters to newspapers, magazines, senators, mayors, and governors. Visit Save the Verde to find out more. Write to magazines like Arizona Highways, Outside, Backpacker and National Geographic, and ask, no, demand that they cover this issue, and make our corrupt county officials look bad on a national level! There is so much that any one person can do!

Hey, maybe it is hopeless. Maybe loss of this river is inevitable. But if you really care, if you really love our wilderness, wouldn't you want to know that you fought for it? Could you deal with the idea that you could have done something but didn't, after it was too late?

If everyone does a little part of what they do best, and join those talents, we can save this river. I have no doubts.