January update from your local Southwest Indiana Network
January 21, 2026
Your invite to join us in 2026!
Happy New Year!
Welcome to the first Southwest Indiana Network update of 2026. We hope that you are keeping warm and safe this winter.
In this newsletter:
🌺 Join Sierra Club at the Tri-State Creation Care Conference in February 📚 Your invite to the Hoosier Chapter Book Club 🥾 Find out about upcoming events and outings ✍️ Keep in touch and get involved in our work.
Happy reading! Rebecca Dien-Johns Chapter Digital Strategist
Tri-State Creation Care's annual conference
Join the Indiana Beyond Coal team at Tri-State Creation Care’s annual conference at the Islamic Center of Evansville.
This is a free event, and doors open at 8:30am CT. No registration is required.
Keynote speakers include Janet McCabe, former deputy director of the EPA, and Steven Rhodes, designer and builder of green homes in Ohio. A tour of the Islamic Center will be offered at noon.
The Islamic Center of Evansville’s mosque is a net zero building that won the 2024 Islamic Society of North America’s Green Mosque Award and was 1 of 39 US faith congregations in the U.S. to have earned a 2021 EPA Energy Star certification.
It's the 2nd year of our Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter Book Club! This year we have some fantastic reading selections as well as opportunities for members to submit suggestions for future books. Have a book you want to see us read this year? Email your recommendation to colleen.curtin@sierraclub.org.
Our first Book Club this year is January 27th for Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization by Bill McKibben.
Meet with us on February 24th for When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy by Beronda L. Montgomery.
On March 31st check out Intertwined: Women, Nature, and Climate Justice by Rebecca Kormos with us.
Look for the poll in the February Hoosier Chapter Newsletter to vote on our April selection!
Colleen Curtin Outreach Coordinator
Upcoming Events and Outings
Tue, Jan 27, 2026; 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (Eastern) Hoosier Chapter Book Club: Here Comes the Sun by Bill Mckibben (virtual)
Wed, Feb 4, 2026; 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM (Eastern) Hoosier Chapter Outreach Team: Volunteer Tabling Training (virtual)
Fri, Feb 20, 2026; 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM (Eastern) Winter Hike at Paynetown SRA/Monroe Lake Bloomington, IN (registration required)
Be on the lookout for outings in the Southwest Indiana outings as they start to populate on the Hoosier Chapter events page. Have a place you’d love to see us hike? Reach out!
If you would like to stay up to date on what the Beyond Coal Campaign is doing in Southwest Indiana, our Repower Ohio River Valley team meets on the third Thursday of each month. Email nicole.chandler@sierraclub.org if you would like to be added to the calendar invite.
About the Southwest Indiana Network
Beyond Coal Organizer Nicole with Big Foot at the Wesselman Woods Earth Day, April 2024. Photo: Jerry Rairdon.
The Southwest Indiana Network of the Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter serves Vanderburgh and surrounding counties.
To get involved with our activities this year, email Chapter Outreach Coordinator, Colleen Curtin: coleen.curtin@sierraclub.org
