Thanks Tons, Columbians!

An estimated 400 volunteers turned out on the morning of October 16 for the 7th Annual Hinkson Clean Sweep in Columbia, Missouri, nearly doubling last year's turnout.

"The Clean Sweep is proof that if you organize it, people will show up in droves," says Scott Dye, a Columbia resident and director of the Sierra Club's Water Sentinels Program, who helped organize the event. "It's just one of the many reasons I'm proud to call Columbia my home." That's Dye below with Amy Meier of the Missouri Stream Team, one of the event's co-sponsors.

Photo by Lisa Rohmiller

Volunteers convened at half a dozen sites along the creek, which runs just south of downtown Columbia and the University of Missouri. Everyone was given two bright red garbage bags to fill up, and many people ended up asking for more bags.

Scouring the stream banks and wading through the creek's shallows, participants removed 2.5 tons of trash and more than a dozen tires over the course of the 2-hour cleanup.

Brower Youth Award Recognizes Remarkable Puerto Rican Activist

To understand how Ana Elisa Peréz Quintero of San Juan has accomplished so much in her young life, you'd have to consider her upbringing. She grew up amidst the beautiful backdrop of Puerto Rico. And her father was an ardent member of the labor movement. Before he passed away of cancer, when Ana Elisa was just 13, "he told me to get started at a young age and to follow your passions," she said.

Ana Elisa, now 20, is one of only six young people to receive the distinguished Brower Youth Award. Award winners are selected from thousands of applicants through the Earth Island Institute's New Leaders Initiative. She was in San Francisco this week for the award ceremony.

She said she wasn't expecting the honor and was in the middle of research when she got the call. "It was very surprising," she said. But it shouldn't be.

You can meet her in this video.

 

 

Tennessee Volunteer Led By Example: A Tribute to Carl Wolfe

The Sierra Club lost a true hero on September 25 when Carl Wolfe died of injuries sustained in an accident near his home in Mountain City, Tennessee. He was 70 years old.

An avid outdoorsman and steadfast volunteer with the Sierra Club's Water Sentinels Program, Wolfe devoted his retirement to environmental causes, most notably his single-minded determination to clean up local creeks and roadways in Johnson County. By his example, he changed local attitudes and inspired a renewed sense of stewardship among his fellow citizens.

"Carl was one of the most natural grassroots activists I've ever met," says friend and local Sierra Club leader Gloria Griffith. "His enthusiasm was boundless and contagious—he was a real driving force. For those of us who are trying to carve out a meaningful life of service, Carl will always be an inspiration."

Jersey Sierrans, Princeton Students Team Up on Canal Cleanup

The New Jersey Sierra Club and the Princeton University Student Volunteers Council (SVC) teamed up this September to clean up two key sites along the Delaware and Raritan Canal in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.

The event was organized by Sierra Club volunteers Leona and George Fluck, below, in conjunction with the Club's Water Sentinels Program, which donated t-shirts, mesh bags, and vulcanized gloves & liners to all cleanup participants. "The Sentinels t-shirts are so important as a recognition for volunteers," Leona says. "The students wore them proudly."

The Flucks, Sierra Club life members, have been organizing river-based cleanups in New Jersey for years. "As leaders of canoe and kayak trips, we see first-hand the pollution and trash in our precious waterways," says Leona, who serves as Outings Chair for the Club's Central Jersey Group and coordinates local Water Sentinels activities.

On the day of the cleanup, 14 Princeton students—mostly incoming freshmen—joined four Sierra Club volunteers in collecting and bagging an estimated 820 pounds of trash and more than 1,200 pounds of material suitable for recycling. Below, George Fluck briefs student volunteers at one of the cleanup sites.

The D& R Canal, connecting the Delaware and Raritan Rivers, was built in the 1830s, prior to the advent of railroads, as an efficient and reliable means of transporting freight between Philadelphia and New York City. In 1974, most of the canal system was declared a state park, and today it is used for canoeing, kayaking, fishing, and as a vital water source—about 75 million gallons are pumped out every day by the New Jersey Water Supply Authority.

Sierra Club Fills Yet Another Coal Ash Hearing

This week was the second-to-last Environmental Protection Agency public hearing on coal ash. This hearing was in Louisville, Kentucky, and again, Sierra Club organizers (including our Kentucky Water Sentinels) did amazing work turning out hundreds of people who support strong federal safeguards on toxic coal ash.

The day went very well, according to Sierra Club organizers Tom Pearce and Lauren McGrath. The day started off with Greenpeace hanging a huge banner from the hotel where the hearing was being held.

McGrath and Pearce said EPA hearing from clean energy advocates all day. Then at mid-day, the Sierra Club and allies held a press event.


That evening the coalition held a rally featuring a keynote address from Wendell Berry. From there, the huge crowd of more than 250 people marched to LG&E to call on the utility to clean up its coal.


Later in the evening, the crowd followed Berry back in to the hearing where he gave his rousing testimony followed by a very long standing ovation, said McGrath and Pearce.

Here's a good quote from Nachy Kanfer, a Beyond Coal Campaign organizer in Ohio:

The coal industry people were demoralized from the moment Greenpeace dropped their banner at 9am, and it went downhill from there. My favorite moment: 200 people entering the hearing room in silent single-file immediately following the rally, just in time for Wendell Berry to testify - and then giving him a 90-second standing ovation. The EPA folks just had to sit there, stare out at the packed auditorium full of yellow t-shirts, and wait for people to stop clapping before they could be heard to call the next number.

Way to go, Beyond Coal organizers!