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June Havens

Ocean Springs, Mississippi
Activist
Gulf Coast Group

"The day after the 2004 presidential election, the first thing I did was rejoin the Sierra Club," says retired educator June Havens. "I resolved that I had to move on, and that seemed like a good way to start."

A Jackson native, Havens first joined the Club in the 1980s, drawn by the local outings program. Her activism centered on an ultimately successful effort by the Sierra Club and the town of Richton to stop a proposed nuclear waste dump in Perry County.

Havens says the demands of her teaching job were the main reason she temporarily scaled back her Club involvement, "but I'm glad to be back." Lately her activist energies have focused on solid waste issues in Jackson County -- "God's country," as she calls it -- where her husband Gene's family has lived for generations.

"The Sierra Club was instrumental in helping stop a proposed landfill in the community of Bonnie Chapel, where Gene's father grew up," she says. "We now have a very good name there. It was impressive to see how the Club brought media attention to the issue and got people out to all the public hearings."

Gene Havens works at a shipyard in nearby Pascagoula, and in their free time the couple enjoys exploring the Gulf Islands National Seashore in their 28-foot sailboat. "Last year we got caught in a storm in the middle of the night at Horn Island," June says. "It tossed us up and down so much our rudder bent on the shallow bottom. After a very scary night we left at daybreak, leaving our swamped dinghy because the water was so rough. It was a little more adventure than we'd bargained for."

Published: May 30, 2007