Green Saves Green Zoom Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022
5:30 p.m.
Present: Emely Arredondo, Karl Brandspigel, Sharon Burtner, Nita Coleman, Mary Cote, Phil Donahue, Jane Elfring, Marlene Greer, Rodney Johnson, Bobby Plough, Jane Plough, Anne Radke, Julie Robinson, Jared Tardiff
Membership (Julie)
We have 52 members so far. Five are new. Sent invitations to join to city councilors and county commissioners. Working on inviting educators. Will start with high school and middle school teachers in science area, then plan to email elementary teachers. Would like to send invitations to businesses but not sure which to invite. If you have a suggestion, please email Julie.
Plant A Valentine (Jared and Marlene)
Originally planned to give away 100 redbuds and 100 dogwoods, but ended up with 200 redbuds because of a crop failure. We asked people to reserve trees in advance. All the trees were reserved within 8 hours of posting the event flyer on the GSG Facebook page. The post was shared 66 times and reached nearly 10,000 people. We ended up with some no-shows, but had several people who missed out on reserving trees show up and take home the unclaimed trees. We gave away all 200 trees.
Fenwick-Hollowell Trail Restoration (Rodney)
ARC&D has written four grants to CAMA to renovate the parts of the trail on the river and canals. Cost was about $80,000 for each stage. CAMA did not fund the renovation of the north end. Phil and Rodney met with the contractor currently doing the renovation work for ARC&D to get a bid to repair the 463 feet of boardwalk on the north end. Hoping the bid will stay in the $50,000 range. Contractor plans to start on the section behind the hospital in mid-March. When that’s finished, he will start on the north end. Looking at completion of the entire trail in mid-May.
Rotary Corps (Phil)
The purpose of the Corps is to take on a particular challenge in the community. We chose the restoration of the Fenwick-Hollowell Trail. We think it’s a great opportunity for us. A lot of things are going to happen at the trail in the next two years. We’ve identified $55,000 in fundraising. We talked to the city and county, and they have agreed to use $30,000 of tourism funds toward the restoration. CoA has approved $10,000. We have some private donors, the Sterritt/Hollowell family is going to give $10,000, and Sentara has funds available. We have a couple EC Foundation Grants which will be earmarked for the trail maintenance fund, and Visit EC is looking at getting directional signs. The next step after trail renovation will be discussions on what to do with the green space behind CoA. The idea is to use the space for some type of recreation project to tie into the trail.
Pre-Marathon Downtown Litter Cleanup (Marlene)
Event organized by GSG and promoted through social media campaign with several partners – Visit EC, EC Downtown Inc., EC Chamber, EC Historic Neighborhood Association, and Pasquotank County. People show up at Waterfront Park on Saturday, Feb. 26, and we will assign them a section of downtown to clean up. Nita requested and received funding from Pasquotank County to purchase litter cleanup supplies. The kits will be loaned out to people who show up. The focus is to clean up Downtown EC, but we’ll send volunteers to do roadside cleanups along the race route if we have enough people show up. Marlene, two of her friends, Sharon, and Mary will be the volunteers for the event.
Spring Litter Sweep (Nita)
Looking for a change in how we do litter sweep. We’re not going to give away kits at the Library. We want to keep the kits to loan to schools or use in events like the Pre-Marathon cleanup. We’ve had hundreds of volunteers clean up over the past few years. The first time was the best. We had 700 volunteers. Need a fresh idea. Will continue discussion at next meeting.
Roots & Shoots (Julie)
Program developed by Jane Goodall Institute. Student led projects on issues that impact people, animals, and the environment. Students research and identify a local environmental issue, discuss what could be done, prepare themselves for the work ahead, then take action. We are starting with NEAAAT students on the “bottle graveyard” they discovered during their fall litter sweep.
We might offer a summer workshop for teachers on how to use Roots & Shoots in their classroom, or encourage them to take the online course and pay them a stipend when it’s completed. Julie has completed the course. Once teachers decide to move forward, we’ll need to provide volunteers and resources to help with the projects.
Environmental Education for Students
Jane Plough offered tours of their farm for students interested in wildlife habitat – learning about planting for nature, animals, bees and butterflies.
Other suggestions: Tours of Amazon Wind Farm, constructed wetlands, and Fenwick-Hollowell Trail. Litter cleanups at schools. Assist with water sampling.
Anne has numerous lesson plans, environmental handouts, and other K-12 resources to tie into the field trips. Project WET is also a good resource.
Don’t want to be slammed with requests. Need to go slowly and be mindful of our volunteers’ and farmer Steve Harris’ time.
Next GSG meeting will be 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 16 at the Pasquotank County Library.