Volunteer: Clean Air for MT Kids

Want to make sure the kids at your child’s school are breathing clean air? Up for an easy, low-commitment volunteer project that will have a big impact?

Join our Clean Air for Montana Kids network!

By Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan

Part of the nonprofit Families for a Livable Climate, Clean Air for Montana Kids is a group of parent volunteers who will help order and maintain HEPA air purifier units in their child’s school (initiating the effort, or joining an effort already underway).

Photo by Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan

HEPA air purifier units help clean pollution from the air during wildfire smoke events and winter inversions, which is super-important for kids because this pollution can damage their growing lungs. Particulate matter in smoke increases the severity and frequency of asthma attacks, can cause difficulty breathing, and makes children more susceptible to infectious diseases like the flu.  

Luckily, there’s a great solution available: HEPA air purifiers.

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) is currently offering FREE purifiers to all Montana K-12 schools. Clean Air for Montana Kids is here to make sure schools take advantage of this offer and help administrators take care of them.

Here’s what we may need parent leads to do (depending on what your school is doing already):

·      Make sure your school places an order for its free HEPA air purifiers. Some schools may have already done so—great! If not, you can help your principal place the order (it’s really easy).

·      Distribute our one-page flyer to classrooms to make sure teachers and staff know how to use them (also really easy).

·      Switch out the HEPA filters on each unit, which needs to be done about every 6 months.

Interested? Join us now to make a BIG difference with a SMALL time commitment.