Earth Week: April 18 – 26
The Motivating Vision for the Love This Place! Serve the Earth Week Coopetition
“Compassion is planting a seedling under whose shade we may never sit.” - Ancient Proverb
Who is it that you love? When we think about those who are dear to us, we are reminded of what is truly most important to our 
lives. Our love for those we care about inspire unimaginable feats of human strength, connection, and resilience, and this love moves us to make the world a better and safer place. Love as a force of nature is truly a remarkable power to behold.
lives. Our love for those we care about inspire unimaginable feats of human strength, connection, and resilience, and this love moves us to make the world a better and safer place. Love as a force of nature is truly a remarkable power to behold.
Is there a place near where you live that you love? We interact with the Earth in many ways… walking a dog at a park, kayaking in the ocean, growing a garden, playing on a beach, or getting lost in the beauty of a flower. What would happen if we were to challenge each other to show compassion to the places we love?
It isn’t much of a leap to realize that the sustainability and well-being of our only home, Planet Earth, directly affects the happiness and safety of those who make life so meaningful and beautiful to us. Our relationship to the Earth also nurtures our own personal well-being, allowing us each to feel a deep sense of connection, wonder, peace, and wholeness in this place we all belong to and call our home.
Love This Place! Serve the Earth Week, from April 18 – 26, aims to help us transform our love for those we care about and our love for this place into compassionate action for the Earth and all her inhabitants. It aims to uplift and rally our spirits to live into a positive vision of the future that works for the environment, all of life, and for seven generations of life to come!
And, quite simply:
Mother Earth needs our love!
Since it is the Earth’s land, water, and clean air that we totally depend upon for our sustenance, well-being, and futures, the decision to act compassionately toward our Mother Earth is as natural as breathing. We live in a time calling us to act in unprecedented, unified action to change the narrative of our current story to one of justice, sustainability, and love for one another, all beings, and this place we call home.
Mobilized compassionate action to Protect and Restore the Sacredness of Mother Earth is the ultimate act of compassion, for its benefits reach far beyond our individual selves to all living beings. The youngest among us, and our future generations, are looking to us – their ancestors – to care for the Earth lovingly so that it can support and sustain their lives as well. Let’s play together and bring compassion to life for Mother Earth!
Register for Love This Place! Serve the Earth Week Here!
What are the measurable objectives of the April 18 – 26 “Love This Place! Serve the Earth Week” Coopetition?
The Love This Place! Earth Service Week Coopetition was created to ignite compassionate action and kindness for our Mother Earth. So, how do we measure our impact?
Participants (individual players and/or teams) submit reports of projects or activities to the Compassion Games Report Map. The reports count the number of volunteers, number of hours, number of people served, and amount of monies raised for local causes so we can see the overall impact of a Compassion Games coopetition. In addition to submitting the reports, participants reflect on the impact their actions have had on themselves and their communities, strengthening their learning experience and celebrating their success.
Initiatives or actions for Love This Place! Serve the Earth Week builds upon these core measures. Number of Trees Planted, for example, is a expanded metric for Serve the Earth Week. Below we have highlighted some major “Ways to Play” that individuals or teams can participate in to bring compassion to life for themselves, their communities, and the Earth.
Ways to Play!
Connect the activities and events you or your communities are already engaged in as part of Serve the Earth Week! Let others know about the remarkable work you are doing and invite them to participate to inspire and further catalyze compassionate action around the world. You may be hosting a beach clean up party, helping a recovering ecosystem, volunteering at a community garden or even committing random acts of kindness to fellow Earth beings!
In addition to any of the incredible work you and your community are doing or planning, the Compassion Games is featuring the following Ways to Play to further mobilize fun and meaningful compassionate action for the Earth, our communities, and of course, yourself!
1. The Love This Place! Story Mapping Challenge
Compassion Games has partnered with ESRI to bring the Story Map technology to Love This Place! Serve the
Earth Week. This challenge will ignite a conversation about the love of place, and inspire one another to celebrate and protect the places and homes we love and depend upon. The premise of the Story Mapping Challenge is simple:
Earth Week. This challenge will ignite a conversation about the love of place, and inspire one another to celebrate and protect the places and homes we love and depend upon. The premise of the Story Mapping Challenge is simple:
- Identify your favorite places in nature or your community.
- Geotag these places on the Story Mapping platform.
- Tell your story of the place and why it is significant to you. Share pictures of the place to make it come alive for others.
- Commit to taking care of this special place for yourself, other lifeforms, and future generations to come.
You can share your stories with your friends and communities, and even show them the place in person! Where are the places that are loved the most? Can we get 1,000 stories in by the end of Serve the Earth Week? Game on!
Submit Your Places and Stories Here!
2. Renew the Tree of Life: Sign the Green World Charter and Plant Trees!
ReGreen the World in One Generation… for All Generations to Come!
Join us on a great journey of global regeneration… There is growing recognition among environmentalists that we must address not only conservation and sustainable technologies, but the regeneration of the land to protect and restore the Earth and halt climate change.
When a tree is planted, it breathes in carbon and absorbs it into its body for its lifetime (and trees can live for hundreds to thousands of years!), effectively capturing the carbon that was once in the ground before we burned it as fuel. The planting of trees and land restoration restores biodiversity and arable soil. It also, amazingly, can help alleviate poverty and create food security. To date, the regreening of healthy, thriving ecosystems is the only known ways to re-absorb the excess carbon in our atmosphere that creates the greenhouse gas effect for climate change.
The Green World Campaign aims to regreen one billion acres of degraded land by 2030. Here is how you can help play your part!
- Affirm the “Green World Charter to Renew the Tree of Life”.
- Share the Green World Charter with your community and have them affirm it!
- Team up with local restoration groups to plant trees in your community or in restoration areas near you!
“We pledge to plant new seeds of spirit in the real soil of this world. May each burst forth as a resurgence of hope, a message to children yet unborn that we were mindful of their coming, that we stewarded for them a green and peaceful planet, and kept faith with their future.” -Excerpt from the Green World Charter
3. Become a Secret Agent of Green Compassion!
One of the most popular Ways to Play in the Compassion Games is the Secret Agents of Compassion. Each day of the Earth Week 
coopetition, the International Kindness Headquarters will send out a mission aimed to ignite compassionate action and deepen reflection for ourselves, others, and the Earth. The focus for these secret missions, if you choose to accept them, is to awaken a Green Compassion that is hopeful, connective, and regenerative for self and the planet!
coopetition, the International Kindness Headquarters will send out a mission aimed to ignite compassionate action and deepen reflection for ourselves, others, and the Earth. The focus for these secret missions, if you choose to accept them, is to awaken a Green Compassion that is hopeful, connective, and regenerative for self and the planet!
Sign Up here to receive the daily missions for the Secret Agents of Green Compassion during Earth Week!
4. Participate in a Give-A-Day Service Project
Coming out of the heart of Louisville, our partner and collaborator Mayor Greg Fischer conceived of and implemented the Give-A-Day Week of Service in which citizens are invited and encouraged to take one day out of their week (April 18 – 26) and give it back to their community. The Compassion Games are proud to announce that in partnership with Mayor Fischer we’ve embraced the Give-A-Day Volunteer Service coopetition and added it to the repertoire of Ways to Play for this year’s Earth Week!
It was Mayor Fischer who, in fact, helped catalyze the Compassion Games for the first time in Seattle as a response to his tongue-in-cheek boast that “Louisville is the most compassionate city in the world until proven otherwise!”, and to further rub it in, “We are so compassionate in Louisville that we will go to any city to help them beat us!”
To participate in Give-A-Day, commit to giving one day during Earth Week for a service project in your community. Below are some ideas to help you get started!
How to Play in Love This Place! Serve the Earth Week!
Step 1. Commit to Play (Register HERE!)
Play as an individual, an organization, or a community! Any project you or your community are already doing or planning to do for Earth Week can be included and will benefit from being in the Games and help inspire others. If you’re wondering how to play or get involved, consider some of the featured Ways to Play for Earth Week listed above. Commit to a project, event, or activity that calls to you as a way to be in service to the planet and help to heal our relationships with our Mother Earth and all living beings who call her home. We encourage all players to use the spirit of the coopetition to ignite even more engagement and compassionate action in your community and beyond!
Step 2. Play!
Get out there and have fun! Engage with your activity during Earth Week to ignite an alluring beacon of hope to others that we
humans are capable of being in compassionate service to the world. We are setting -in this challenging time – an unprecedented display of unified, compassionate action to Protect and Restore Mother Earth!
humans are capable of being in compassionate service to the world. We are setting -in this challenging time – an unprecedented display of unified, compassionate action to Protect and Restore Mother Earth!
Step 3. Report
Submit a report of your event or activity on the Compassion Report Map found here to add 
it to the growing wave of unity for Mother Earth across the world. These reports are a source of inspiration, solidarity, and honor for all people who play to bring compassionate action alive for our planet. Reports provide ideas for others, and propel us through competitive altruism to do even more.
it to the growing wave of unity for Mother Earth across the world. These reports are a source of inspiration, solidarity, and honor for all people who play to bring compassionate action alive for our planet. Reports provide ideas for others, and propel us through competitive altruism to do even more.
Step 4. Celebrate, Reflect, and Share!
Just as important as any step in this cycle, we must celebrate and share our success for standing up to do what is right, and to
make the Earth a safer and more compassionate place to live. Share your story with others so the wave of growing unified compassionate action continues to inspire and expand in the hearts and minds of others.
make the Earth a safer and more compassionate place to live. Share your story with others so the wave of growing unified compassionate action continues to inspire and expand in the hearts and minds of others.
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