By Emily Davis, Secretary/Treasurer, Southeastern PA Group
This year’s GreenFest Philly took a very different format. Instead of hundreds of people meandering between several blocks of booths learning about environmental issues and organizations with music in the background, this year it was held as a “Zoom” event spread out over two weeks during which each organization had a specific time and date to present itself.
We decided to make our virtual “booth” as traditional as possible, giving visitors a chance to learn about Sierra Club as well as a few of our activities. Our chapter chair, Jim Wylie, began with an overview of Sierra Club and our Southeastern Pennsylvania Group, then participants had the opportunity to meet with other volunteer leaders to learn about specific activities.
Our outings co-chair, Meredith Nutting, spoke about past outings, the status of the outing program this year and our plans for future outings. Environmental justice was addressed by Robin Mann and Megan Fitzgerald. They spoke about Sierra Club’s engagement with the movement, the challenges of communities of color and particularly, the Eastwick Community in southwest Philadelphia. Karen Melton presented facts and figures about plastics and then led a discussion about how we can address the problem of plastics through our own individual actions. The final two groups discussed the Ready for 100 campaign. Bill Sabey spoke about Ready for 100 projects in Delaware, Bucks, Montgomery and Chester Counties and how the teams have helped municipalities plan for the transition to 100% clean energy. Dave Moscatello and Jeanne Myers spoke about the program in the City of Philadelphia and how the team is working to make the resolution passed by City Council and the pledge signed by the mayor a reality.
All of the activities of the 2020 GreenFest are still available here and you can watch our program here.
This blog was included as part of the 2021 Winter Sylvanian newsletter. Please click here to check out more articles from this edition!