|
|
Kathryn Hutton—Atlanta,
Georgia
Centennial Group Excom Member
Kathryn Hutton, an Atlanta attorney specializing in environmental tort legislation,
first became interested in the environment in her early 20s while living in
France. Catalytic converters weren’t required there at the time, and Hutton became
acutely aware of air quality issues and her own desire to make a difference.
Upon returning to the United States, she helped establish the Political Committee
for the Sierra Club’s New York City Group and was active in her law school’s
environmental club.
"
My 20s were a lot about exploration," says Hutton, who speaks French, German,
and Italian. "In my 30s I began asking, ‘What am I here for?’ Environmental
work is a part of my life’s purpose. I tell people about the work I’m
doing and make the Sierra Club a part of my daily life. I’ve gotten others
involved by keeping environmentalism a topic of conversation."
Hutton was recently involved with two highly successful fundraisers—a screening
of the Sierra Club’s award-winning Ansel documentary, which she emceed,
and an event in which members of the Atlanta Beat women’s professional
soccer team modeled fashions and donated the proceeds to the Georgia Chapter’s
clean water campaign.
"
I don’t think people come by the desire to work for the environment by
accident," says Hutton, who teaches yoga, plays tennis, and goes hiking
and rock-climbing in her spare time. "Environmental work is my ministry,
and I make it fit with all other elements of my life."
Charlie Oriez—Littleton, Colorado
Member, Rocky Mountain Chapter
Charlie Oriez is saving the environment, one hard drive at a time. When
the chair of the Rocky Mountain Chapter turned to him last year and said, "Charlie,
I want you to keep computers out of landfills," he set out to find
a solution. Tens of thousands of PCs are dumped in landfills every year
here
and overseas,
where the heavy metals in their components leach into the groundwater.
Oriez connected with the Polis Foundation, which channels old computers
from government
and businesses into needy schools. He found additional donors, and now
says that his chapter keeps 2,500 machines a year in middle schools instead
of
landfills.
"We’ve got a great group here in Colorado," he says. "We
feed off each others’ ideas." As past webmaster of the chapter site,
he has strengthened the Club’s presence in cyberspace in a number of ways.
Due to Charlie’s work, every Club leader nationwide can now get his
or her own Sierra Club e-mail address. (Contact your chapter webmaster
or go to
rmc.sierraclub.org/infotech.shtml)
Oriez helped the Club get into the digital era. At the 1981 National Committee
meeting, when he "didn’t know you weren’t supposed to just pipe
up," he offered repeated suggestions for how to electronically transmit
records from chapters to the national office. The board sent him and three
other techies off to a separate room, and the Technology Committee was
born.
In May of 2001, Oriez was diagnosed with lung cancer and told he had 18 months
to live. Now, more than two years later, he has kept active with day hikes
and volunteer work for the Sierra Club, the Polis Foundation, and other groups.
Thank
you for your digital vision and ongoing commitment Charlie, and we wish you
the very best.
Melanie Mac Innis—Berkeley, California
Inner City Outings Leader
"Seventeen years ago I fit the profile of an ICO participant," recalls
Melanie Mac Innis. "I lived on the streets in Florida and Georgia, used
drugs, dropped out of high school and ran away from my mother’s house.
After a year or so on the streets, I moved to California to live with my father,
on
the condition
that I graduate from high school."
Not only did Mac Innis keep her part of the bargain, she flourished,
completing not only high school but also a bachelor’s degree and a master’s
degree in the humanities. While attending San Francisco State University,
she took a course in American Sign Language and got involved in a program
for the
hearing impaired run by the local Big Brothers and Sisters.
"One of my activities as part of the hearing impaired program was river
rafting with the Sierra Club’s Inner City Outings (ICO)," she says. "I’d
never really done any sort of outdoor activity; I was a street kid and I didn’t
even consider the outdoors. But when one of the rafting leaders asked me the
following year if I’d like to train to become a guide, I said "Why
not?" The rest, as they say, is history.
"ICO changed my life," says Mac Innis, who now works for the Environmental
Water Caucus on California Water Policy. "My third season I realized there
was passion in my life—I was passionless before that—and over the
last ten years, being a white water guide has become my first identity. I’ve
incorporated the Sierra Club’s mission and vision into my own life through
ICO, and I’ve gained a family, friends, and support system. Now I’m
giving those things back."
—By Tom Valtin and Brian Vanneman
Know someone whose story is deserving? Contact us at The Planet, 85 Second
St., Second Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105; planet@sierraclub.org.
Up to Top
|
