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	Home Boston Grants Initiative About Us Contact and Staff Info  Brochure and Annual Report Grant Guidelines Grant Application Form Grant Report Form Trainings Current Newsletter  Archived Newsletters Grant Distribution Map Grantee Contact Information Air Biotechnology Energy Land Use Natural Resources Population/Consumption Toxics/Hazards Urban Environment Water General Grassroots Web Links		January 2002 Notes from NEGEF's Executive Director NEGEF'S Fifth Annual Retreat Grantee Success Stories Earning Victories NEGEF's Bits & Pieces NEGEF Grantmaking NEGEF Contact Information NOTES FROM DIRECTOR ( back to top ) I'm sitting here in my office at 50 State Street. 50 seems to be the number of the day; weather.com says that's what Montpelier, Vermont should expect for today's high temperature. Projections for Washington, D.C. are even worse. It may hit 70 degrees there before the day's over. Oh, those poor, confused cherry blossoms. Heard they are petitioning to have the skating rink compressors turned up city-wide so they don't burst forth before the late March visitors come to town. Global Warming….Climate Change….Carbon Emissions…. Energy Independence….What's a local activist to do? It doesn't matter what your issue is. The challenge is always the same - rally the troops. And we always ask: "How can I make a difference?" There's an element common to the work of all local organizers - leadership. Whether working on environmental stewardship or community theater, it's one skill we all need. It's something we all have, but often don't know how best to tap or use effectively. How we practice leadership comes in many venues. Two weekends ago, I attended a celebration of leadership at the Barre Opera House, the 645-seat facility that is the cultural heart of Central Vermont. We don't have a lot of people in this part of the world: only 8,400 people in Montpelier, Vermont's capital, and 9,300 folks in our neighboring sister town, Barre. None-the-less, the performance hall had standing room only as it paid tribute to local citizen "Russell Smith: Actor, director, producer, designer, referee, co-worker, writer, composer, husband, father and friend." As I sat, clapped, stood and stomped through the three-hour review of Russ' gifts to the arts, I saw the power of one local visionary. Russ is a golden thread that's been holding together the mosaic of Central Vermont's volunteerism for the last 30 years. I mention this event because Russ is a friend of mine, and he has pancreatic cancer. This tribute split my thinking into two tracks - about local leadership in general, and about environmental insults that may or may not be causing some of the public health issues we see increasing all around us. Russ is both a serious community activist and one who taught lots of us how to revel in the joy of song, dance and theater. He was among the first to see the potential of the run-down Opera House and he led the drive to reclaim and restore it. With his guidance, we built a children's theater program for our kids. Russ was the power source behind dozens of local adult theater productions, and he has taken on some difficult advocate roles, too. One was his stint on the Montpelier School Board where, in spite of a contentious and split board, Russ' leadership held the school's superintendent and management accountable on arts and academic issues and made our local schools a little better. Thinking about how one person can move the masses, I understood why 700 people came out to thank Russ for all he had done. He displayed leadership attributes that are applicable to any community challenge. Simple as they are, they are fundamental to any campaign. Community leaders: · Find the big and mostly little talents in friends and neighbors and know how to draw them out. · Know how to ask for help in a way that makes people say, "Of course, why wouldn't I want to do that." · Believe "we can do that." · Believe in the fundamental good of people. Thanks, Russ. We'll keep the heat on while we turn global warming down. And speaking of leadership….. Leadership Training for NEGEF Grantees Here's an opportunity you might not want to miss - The League of Conservation Voters Education Fund is accepting applications for their Environmental Leadership Institute (ELI) that will be held in the New England region June 23-28. The ELI is a rigorous program where participants actively engage in the learning process through a challenging simulation exercise. Over the course of the week, participants work in teams to produce comprehensive campaign plans. They acquire hands-on experience with strategic planning, message development, consensus building, and a variety of other valuable skills. The program is demanding but highly effective at strengthening individual leadership potential. We know that many of you are busy and don't think that you have five days to spare, but we have had some grantees attend this training, and they and their organizations really benefited from it. Give us a call for more information. NEGEF'S FIFTH ANNUAL RETREAT ( back to top ) Another outstanding gathering in northern New Hampshire Over 130 NEGEF grantees, staff, workshop facilitators, board and grantmaking committee members gathered in Madison, NH last October for NEGEF's fifth annual Grantees' Retreat. The fall foliage was spectacular and the weather was on our side for two full days of activities at the Purity Springs Resort. This year's retreat theme, "Global Issues-Local Actions: For Grassroots Activists who are Making a Difference", focused on common themes and efforts across New England communities. Some of the highlights of the Retreat: · Keynote Speaker Bill McKibben, a prolific freelance writer and environmental activist, detailed the onset of the greenhouse effect in his best selling book, The End of Nature. McKibben challenges the American public to redefine democracy and patriotism. Mckibben spoke about the need to take all the brilliant and energetic strategies of local grassroots groups fighting dumps and cleaning up rivers and make those tactics national and international. · Grantee panels on Environmental Justice, Smart Growth and Global Warming introduced new information and stimulated vital discussion on these issues. ·A gorgeous sunny afternoon took many retreat participants outside for hikes in the woods, while others toured the Earle Family organic farm. ·The Center For a New American Dream Workshop shared information about their "Turning the Tide Campaign" involving nine actions you can take in your daily life to protect the environment. Check their website for more information: www.newdream.org/turnthetide/ ·Skills trainings: Fundraising with Andy Robinson, author of Grassroots Grants and his soon to be released book, Selling Social Change: Earned Income Strategies for Grassroots Groups. Leadership with Bernadette Del Chiaro, Organizing Director for the Toxics Action Center and NEGEF Board Member, and Kim DeFeo, Connecticut Field Director for the Toxics Action Center. Community Organizing with Pam Bender, now working with Management Consulting Services in Boston. Campaign Development with Will Everitt, Development Director for the Toxics Action Center. ·Music and dancing with Mango Groove, a New Hampshire-based steel band. ·Networking and exchanging of information throughout the Retreat. ·One-on-one "meal discussions" between grantees and trainers Andy Robinson and Sharon Behar who shared some of their organizing knowledge. ·NEGEF Focus Groups with grantees. A very heart felt thank you to all the grantees who stayed to participate in our focus group discussions about NEGEF skills building workshops and trainings. We received many Retreat Evalua-tions that we will use in planning for next year's Retreat. Here are a few comments from our grantees: --It was definitely a shot in the arm as we experience a temporary lull in fundraising. I feel like I have some new tools and a strengthened spirit to go out and fight. --It leaves me very optimistic that there are groups like yours that care enough to think about how we might all benefit from each other and grow campaigns with each other's help (in addition to some excellent professional training). --This was the best conference I have ever been to; I came home feeling so glad to meet so many active citizens. They were inspiring - so nice to be around intelligent/ informed people. --The most meaningful aspect of the Retreat is being with other activists. As you well know, "tilting at windmills" is tiring. Sharing ideas is so beneficial. --NEGEF fills an important niche in supporting really small, grassroots groups. --Most of us probably know instinctively what we need to do to build our group and fundraise; what we need is the moral support and friendship and perspective we get from our growing relationships, to realize how much work it is for all of us, and that we're indeed not alone in our battles (and we are not crazy!). --Topics for another workshop: Boards - functions, activating, retreat, accomplishing, celebrating; Capacity Building - enlarge group. --If time had permitted, "like cause" organizations to share specific tactics such as "partnering" could have been constructive. --Considerer asking people to bring their own instruments to jam together instead of hiring a band. And from Ellen Burns, a grantee from Ridgefield (CT) Open Space Association, some of the photos of bumper stickers she took for a collage she sent to us. As she wrote, "Upon our arrival Friday morning, the first thing that struck me was the number of 'cause' bumper stickers on the cars, making it clear that we were not at a meeting of my colleagues. I'm a CPA by profession, and believe me, the cars don't have stickers like that at our meetings, more likely ones that say stuff like 'Bush/Cheney'!" SUCCESS STORIES ( back to top ) Concerned Citizens of Freetown - Freetown, MA Members of Concerned Citizens of Freetown, Massachusetts recently defeated a million-dollar enterprise. Eighty trucks a day, filled with fly ash generated from PG & E coal-fired power plants, drove into their comm-unity. Over 80% of PG & E's fly ash had been dumped into unlined landfills in Freetown for more than 25 years. The fly ash is potentially toxic, containing arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, and lead, amongst other contaminants. On May 7, 2001 voters of Freetown overwhelmingly supported a referendum calling for fly ash to be banned from their town. Although the town ban was challenged in court, the Freetown residents' vote was upheld. Concerned Citizens of Freetown was organized in 1999. Their aim is to reach a broad range of residents in their diverse community and to educate them about environmental pollution. One focus of the organization is environmental justice. Some of you may remember Rev. Curtis Dias who spoke at last fall's NEGEF Grantee Retreat on the Environmental Justice panel. The Standard-Times, a newspaper out of New Bedford, Mass., recently published the following article, recognizing the work of Concerned Citizens of Freetown, and specifically honoring as Women of the Year the three members who spearheaded the fight against the fly ash. "Three took on toxic dumping -- and won" By MONICA ALLEN, Standard-Times staff writer - December 31, 2001 FREETOWN -- For nearly 20 years, Nanci Lown questioned the wisdom of dumping sooty coal fly ash onto the land along the shore of Payne Cove. She would look across the cove from her back yard on Narrows Road and shake her head at the dump off South Main Street owned by a local businessman. But despite her questioning, nothing changed. Nearly 300,000 tons of ash were piled on each year. That was until this last year, when Ms. Lown, a 47-year-old outdoor enthusiast who once ran an organic farm, teamed up with two housewives who had never spoken at a public meeting; the three led a successful campaign to ban all dumping of ash in their community. "I became driven because of Laurie and Donna, who were battling the issue alone and no one was listening," Ms. Lown said. This month, a committee at The Standard-Times decided to name Nanci Lown, Laurie Peckham and Donna Brightman as Women of the Year for SouthCoast. Their grassroots campaign set off a ripple that has continued to challenge old state law and national policy on coal waste. "They are a tremendous inspiration to every community dealing with problems people think are impossible to solve," said Jan Schlichtmann, the Beverly environmental lawyer who gained national fame in the Woburn toxic dumping case that was subject of the book and movie, "A Civil Action." "They're all mothers," he said. "It's usually the mothers that can't sleep at night, and not the bureaucrats, that tell us about these problems." The spark that lighted the fire in Mrs. Peckham, a 40-year-old part-time hairdresser, wife and mom, and Mrs. Brightman, a 44-year-old wife, mother and part-time pharmacy technician, was the decision by K.R. Rezendes, Inc. to expand its fly ash dumping to a second site -- a gravel pit behind the rural, wooded neighborhood where they live. Mrs. Peckham, her husband, Shawn, and their three children had barely moved into what was their dream house on High Street when they heard that the powerful local business was planning to dump ash in an abandoned quarry on Copicut Road. "At first I wasn't sure what the material was," Mrs. Peckham said. "Shawn and I went to the selectmen's meeting and I was quite upset with the answers I got." Mrs. Peckham said a selectman told her in a condescending fashion that there was no reason for concern. But this brush-off made Mrs. Peckham suspicious. She telephoned Mrs. Brightman, who lived a short distance from her on High Street. The two had grown up next to each other in Westport. Very quickly they learned that a state law passed in the 1970s exempted fly ash from state environmental regulations if it was used as a structural fill, such as in the operation on Copicut Road. The two were at a selectmen's meeting asking questions about the dumping when they met Ms. Lown. "Thank God for Nanci," Mrs. Peckham said. Neither Mrs. Peckham nor Mrs. Brightman had ever been involved in a political or environmental campaign. But Ms. Lown, who grew up in Fall River with six brothers and a sister, was a fighter from childhood. For more than a year, the three women devoted themselves to understanding the dangers of fly ash and to convincing their community that if K.R. Rezendes could start filling up a gravel pit on Copicut Road, the company could start filling holes anywhere in town with a substance that contained arsenic and other carcinogens. "One phone call led to hundreds of phone calls," Mrs. Brightman said. "My life was not my own. I didn't do anything else but work on fly ash." For Mrs. Brightman, that meant foregoing lumberjack competitions to see her husband, Edward, compete. It meant attending meetings two and three nights a week. For Mrs. Peckham and Ms. Lown, who have children at home, it meant explaining to them why their mother spent so much time on fly ash. "They got sick of it," Mrs. Peckham said. All along, Ms. Lown knew that no matter how determined she and the two women were, they needed allies, in particular allies with scientific knowledge. She contacted Charles Norris, a Colorado-based hydrogeologist with expertise on coal waste effects on groundwater. "I believe that Chuck Norris was able to sway the more professional people," she said. Mr. Norris gave key testimony at the May Town Meeting, where voters decided 470-337 to ban coal ash dumping once and for all. This scientific expertise also helped, as K.R. Rezendes and PG&E Generating, the power company that operates two coal plants that produce fly ash as a waste product, hired their own scientists to try to convince townspeople that fly ash dumping posed no health risk. When contacted to comment on the three Freetown women, these proponents of fly ash dumping declined to make a statement. Tom Powers, a spokesman for PG&E, said he'd thought about making some comment for more than a day but did not want to say something that sounded like sour grapes. The company had poured money into advertisements, an opinion poll and scientific presentations to oppose the women's campaign. David Johnston, the deputy regional director of the Department of Environmental Protection, was not so reticent. The women had met several times with him over the yearlong campaign and expressed frustration with his agency's hesitancy to examine the effects of fly ash. But in the end it was a letter from the department citing concern about groundwater contamination at the South Main Street fly ash dump that convinced May voters to support the ban. "They really spent a lot of time and energy learning about the environment and the issue," Mr. Johnston said. "What I found additionally refreshing was their willingness to go through the process, meet with the right people. They always wanted to learn more." Although the day-to-day campaign is over, Ms. Lown has continued to fight at the state and national level for tighter regulation of coal waste dumping. The Legislature is considering a bill that would require coal waste to be placed in lined landfills. At the national level, she is working with the Environmental Protection Agency to push for greater regulation. "They are the three mice that roared," Mr. Schlichtmann said. "The three mice that were not blind." EARNING VICTORIES ( back to top ) NEGEF receives a number of newsletters from other organizations around New England, and once in a while we find articles that we think will be of interest to our grantees. This is from the summer 2001 newsletter of Maine Initiatives, A Fund for Change, written by Charlie Bernstein, their marketing and communications coordinator and a former grassroots organizer and fundraiser. "The Practical Organizer" Grassroots organizers often talk about winning on issues. But victories are not so much won as earned, through careful planning and hard work. Luck is needed, too, but you make your luck - that is, organizers must be proactive in creating the conditions that will let them achieve their goals. But proactive how? What are the elements of a winning issue campaign? How do you earn victories? Choose the right issue. A condition that makes life difficult is a problem. A concern being debated is an issue. Problems choose us, we choose issues. Since you probably want your organization to do good work for a long time, the issues you choose should do two things: improve people's lives and build the organization. Ask: · Is it deeply and widely felt? Immediate "backyard" and "pocketbook" issues are most likely to engage people. · Does it unify the community you're organizing? For instance, in a neighborhood torn by racial attacks, the issue of racism itself might prove divisive, while an issue shared by all races, such as school funding or affordable housing, can bring divided people together. · Is it easily understood? An old organizing principle: avoid any issue you can't explain on a bumpersticker. · Are there concrete solutions? A volcano in the cornfield might be a problem, but if there's no solution, there's no issue. · Do people own the issue? Asking people what they care about can help you involve them and bring focus and dimension to your work. Enlist your planners from among your allies. Comprise your planning group with people who agree with you, understand the need for change, and have a self-interest. If you're organizing to stop a WalMart from being built, neighbors and local small retail business owners certainly belong in your planning group. A WalMart representative does not. Offer an escalating range of solutions. It pays to develop a mix of piece-of-cake, taller-order, and pie-in-the-sky proposals. If the issue is the proposed WalMart, getting select-people to join your members on a walking tour of the site is a piece of cake, enacting a local construction moratorium is a taller order, and a statewide ban on new big-box stores wins, so it pays to have an agreed-upon platform of small, medium, and big proposals, one that evolves to reflect changing conditions. This lets you make progress while positioning yourself for the next steps. Deal with decision-makers. Corporations and government hire community affairs professionals to deal with the public. Though these go-betweens are usually sympathetic, encouraging, and accessible, they have no authority to make or change policy. Find out who can actually deliver on each of your proposals and present your platform to them. Involve your base of support. Grassroots organizations make change through strength of numbers. Through door-knocking, phoning, leafleting, petitioning, speaking in public, generating publicity, and net-working with membership organiza-tions, you can build a powerful coali-tion and make genuine progress. Stage creative events. A press conference? Why not a rally where that WalMart is proposed? A letter to the mayor? Why not a letter-writing campaign culminating with in-person delivery by your membership? Visual aids and props help engage your constituency and capture the media's imagination. Gestures people can make together create a sense of solidarity among your supporters. Stay in touch. It's not enough to talk to someone once. Frequent communication with people by phone and in person (not email) is essential! Always negotiate publicly. While professional advocacy groups simply have their staff lobby policymakers, grassroots groups promote and negotiate their platforms only at public events. So when Sam Walton calls to make a deal in WalMart's behalf - or invites a few of you to come meet behind closed doors - tell him he'll have to come and talk with the whole group. Build fundraising into all of your activities. Yes, the F word: fundraising. To make it work, make it a habit. Fun, fortune, and future are also F words - so get started! Any event can include a raffle. Bean suppers are cheap, fun and profitable. Businesses like advertis-ing in program booklets and news-letters. Dues, subscriptions, and annual appeals help keep people connected. And remember: donating and fundraising increase a member's sense of owning the group. The Wobblies, some of history's most inclusive trade unionists, said, "You'll get pie in the sky when you die," in a song that challenged having to wait that long. In grassroots organizing, issues are bricks for building a structure tall and broad enough to let us all reach that pie - while we're still around to enjoy it. BITS AND PIECES ( back to top ) To our Vermont Activists - Would you like to have an easy way to keep in touch with environmental events in the state of Vermont? The Vermont Environmental Calendar, a volunteer effort, provides a free listing of environmental conferences, hearings, meetings, education courses, hikes, and other events around the state, delivered once a week to your email box. You will also receive occasional environmental alerts (no more than 1-2 per week). To subscribe to this informative service, send an email message to: vermontenvironment-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. And to our Maine activists - If you don't already know about Maine Environmental Policy Institute's website, check it out. It is updated every day to provide you with the latest environmental news from all the state newspapers, as well as references to important published reports. There are also links to a large number of local, state, regional and national organizations working on a wide range of issues. The web address is: www.meepi.org. From American P.I.E. (www.AmericanPIE.org), a reminder for the new year taken from Sigurd Olson, a wilderness warrior and environmental activist, about simple activities to improve our physical, mental and environmental health in 2002. Feed the birds Buy less Walk to the nearest park Listen to night sounds Talk to a plant Pick up litter Buy less Hug a tree, learn its name Enjoy silence Reduce the size of your lawn Study a cobweb Put up a birdhouse Use hand tools Give away something you don't use Walk through the woods Ride a bike Start a garden Sit by a rushing stream Eat organic foods Teach a child to find the big dipper Learn to use a compass Ride on a bus Shop with a cloth bag Learn to identify animal tracks Watch the sun set Crack nuts Smell the flowers Create your own wildlife sanctuary Reuse/Recycling Contacts Appliances - Donate: Goodwill, (800) 664-6577, www.goodwill.org. Recycle: Steel Recycling Institute, (800) YES-1-CAN, www.recycle-steel.org. Batteries - Recycle all types: Battery Solutions, (734) 467-9110, www.batteryrecycling.com. Recycle rechargeables locally: Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation, (800) 8-BATTERY, www.rbrc.org. Compact Discs & Other Media - Refinish old CDs: AuralTech, (888) 454-3223, www.nsynch.com/~auraltech. Recycle CDs, tapes, computer disks: Green Disk, (800) 305-DISK, www.greendisk.com. Eyeglasses - Donate: Contact your local Lions Club or eye care chain. Computers & Home Electronics - Donate or recycle PCs: Electronics Industries Alliance Consumer Education Initiative, (703) 907-7500, www.eiae.org. Recycle PCs: IBM PC Recycling Service, (800) SHOP-IBM. Ink-Jet & Laser Toner Cartridges - Recycle: AAAEnvironmental, (847) 583-1215, www.aaaenvironmentalinc.com or check your Yellow Pages. Oil - American Petroleum Institute lists Used Motor Oil Hotlines for each state, (202) 682-8000, www.recycleoil.org. Phones - Donate cell phones: Collective Good, (770) 856-9021, www.collectivegood.com, or Call to Protect, www.donateaphone.com. Recycle single-line phones: Reclamere, (814) 386-2927, www.reclamere.com. Recycle office phones: (800) PHONE-GUYS, www.1800phoneguys.com. Foam Packing Peanuts & Blocks - Reuse packaging peanuts: Plastic Loose Fill Producers Council, (800) 828-2214. Reuse foam blocks: the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers, (410) 451-8340 NEGEF GRANTMAKING ( back to top ) NEGEF awarded 47 grants for a total of $84,347 in November 2001. The following groups received grants at our November Grantmaking Committee meeting: Athol Bird and Nature Center - Athol, MA - $2,000 To hold a series of events to engage area residents in program planning for the Millers River Environmental Center. Canton Advocates for Responsible Expansion - Canton, CT - $2,500 To stop a proposed strip mall development which would pave over 14 acres of historic farmland. Citizens Awareness Network - Shelburne, MA - $1,000 To support the organizing initiative to address the selling, relicensing and building of new nukes in New England and the northeast. Citizens for a Quiet Orange - Orange, VT - $1,500 To continue their work to get the Bull's Eye Sporting Center shut down for ten years because of their numerous permit violations. Citizens for a Sensible 66 - Middlefield, CT - $2,000 To help fund the campaign to oppose the CT DOT's plan to turn Route 66 into a four-lane highway with 6 lane intersections. Coalition for Alternatives to Trucks Through Our Town - Arlington, VT - $2,500 To help defray the costs associated with the Act 250 application by Casella Waste Management for an access road across existing farmland in a rural residential zone. Concerned Citizens of Freetown (West) - Assonet, MA - $2,500 To educate the public about the dangers of coal ash, to organize citizens to oppose the dumping of coal ash in town, and to develop a strong coalition around the issue. Cove Brook Watershed Council - Hampden, ME - $1,800 To hire an environmental engineer to survey the waterway and advise the Council on measures needed to protect the watershed. Deerfield River Watershed Assn. - Worthington, MA - $1,000 To review for the Association the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission documents related to the licensing of hydroelectric developments on the Deerfield River. Firefighter/University PAVEPAWS Study - Sandwich, MA - $1,500 To conduct time domain analysis of the radiation output at firehouses throughout Cape Cod and the Islands. Friends of Muddy Brook Basin - Williston, VT - $1,500 To work towards limiting future development on land adjacent to Muddy Brook. Friends of the Suncook River - Center Barnstead, NH - $2,000 To purchase a laptop and software to be dedicated to GIS purposes for maps of the watershed. Greater Boston Environmental Justice Network - Roxbury, MA - $2,500 To support the Network's annual conference, "Environmental Justice in the 'Hood 2002", membership meetings and network communications. Greater Norwalk Clean Air Coalition - Stamford, CT - $2,000 To motivate people to attend meetings/forums/public hearings and build an effective grassroots network to help in the struggle to clean up the Sooty Six power plants. Green Decade Coalition/Newton - Newton, MA - $1,500 To create a project which will educate Newton citizens through the installation and demonstration of functioning solar systems. Groundwork Bridgeport - Bridgeport, CT - $2,000 To help fund the "Community Tool Chest", a campaign to buy tools that can be transported to the various neighborhood sites. Hampstead Preservation Committee - Hampstead, NH - $2,000 To expand the expertise of the local committee formed to review development proposals and make certain that the legal safeguards that are there to protect citizens from unsafe or inappropriate development are followed. Hanover Conservation Council - Hanover, NH - $1,500 To fund a facilitator to lead the board through an evaluation process to decide what aspects of the mission need further review, draft a vision statement, and create a rough outline of 3-5 year goals. Maine Conservation Voters Education Fund - Augusta, ME - $1,500 To research and publish "A Conservationist's Guide to Maine Government" which will provide information for citizens on the decision-making entities that have an impact on Maine's natural resources. Maine Lead Action Project - Portland, ME - $1,990 To help fund a one-day conference to enhance the organizing skills of Healthy Communities coalitions participating in lead poisoning prevention initiatives. Middle Ground - Dover-Foxcroft, ME - $2,032 To produce a traveling interactive art exhibit that articulates the connection people have to the Maine woods. Middlesex Clean Air Association - Portland, CT - $2,000 To aid in grassroots organizing locally and statewide to clean up the six oldest and dirtiest power plants in Connecticut. Middletown First - Middletown, RI - $2,500 To organize, inform citizens, and hire traffic, environmental, and real estate experts to help fight a proposed mall to be located in a watershed protection district and floodplain. Mount Desert Island Water Quality Coalition - Mount Desert, ME - $2,000 To strengthen the MDI Water Quality Coalition by broadening the base of community support. Mousam Lake Watershed Conservation Project - Alfred, ME $1,500 To establish a local infrastructure for long-term community management of the Mousam Lake Watershed. Neighbors Opposed to a Polluted Environment - Lexington, MA - $2,500 To protect wetlands, waterways and recharge areas tributary to public and private water supplies at Winning Farm and to have oil and hazardous materials remediated. Peace and Plenty Community Garden - Providence, RI - $2,000 To help renovate a community garden by installing water, repairing fences, and replacing old and damage raised beds. Preserve Our Pond - North Scituate, MA - $2,000 To continue their work to stop the use of a pesticide called Methoprene in or near water where there are fish or shellfish. Project Laundry List - S. Royalton, VT - $1,500 To continue producing quality printed materials, to improve and constantly update the website, and further improve database capabilities and data quality. Quincy Environmental Network -Quincy, MA - $2,500 To keep Quincy citizens informed of local environmental issues as they arise through their website, email, local press, quarterly meetings and mailings. Randolph Gateway Fund - Randolph, VT - $2,000 To oppose the development of proposed commercial storage units along the 'gateway' into the village of Randolph. Residents Environmentally Active - Abington, MA - $2,000 To help fund the campaign to oppose the Abington Trash Transfer Station. Solar Youth - New Haven, CT - $2,500 To support two programs, a Neighborhood Steward Team and the Youth Advisory Group, that engage urban youth to identify local problems and address them through community action. South Weymouth Against Toxins -South Weymouth, MA - $1,300 To conduct tests to determine if the waste water treatment plant is the source of increased levels of arsenic in the community. Sudbury Earth Decade Committee - Sudbury, MA - $2,000 To set up an office and hire a part-time secretary in order to increase the effectiveness of ongoing projects in Sudbury and across the state. Sustainable Energy Resource Group - Thetford, VT - $2,000 To work with towns in Vermont to organize energy committees to begin implementing energy components in their town plans. Three Rivers Coalition - Newmarket, NH - $500 To cover the costs of sending one member of the coalition to attend the Land Trust Alliance's national rally and conference. Town of Durham Integrated Waste Management Advisory Committee - Durham, NH - $1,500 To support an education outreach campaign about integrated waste management and waste prevention. Tumbledown Conservation Alliance - Wilton, ME - $1,500 To conduct a fundraising campaign to protect 30,000 acres through public fee ownership and conservation easements in the Mt. Blue/Tumbledown Mountain area. Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley - Norwich, VT - $1,500 To put a boardwalk through a wetland area on the church property as part of a nature walk that demonstrates one of the seven principles of their faith. United Barre Against the Dump - Barre, VT - $2,500 To help fund the campaign to oppose the siting of a solid waste facility in a residential area. Valley Climate Protection Coalition- Amherst, MA - $1,500 To reduce greenhouse gases in the Connecticut River Valley towns, to increase citizen involvement in local policy development on energy issues, and to assist the community in taking actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Vermont Earth Institute - Norwich, VT - $1,500 To support a part-time staff person to market, start and support community discussion groups in the Montpelier area. Waltham Land Trust - Waltham, MA - $1,500 To help fund its work with a local fundraising consultant who is helping the Board of Directors design and conduct their fundraising campaign to protect more open space in Waltham. Western Maine Citizens for Clean Air and Water - West Paris, ME - $2,500 To give voice to the concern of the increasing impact of environmental toxins on the citizens of Maine in the form of elevated cancer rates, ADHD, asthma and skin problems, among others. NEGEF CONTACT ( back to top ) P. O. Box 1057 Montpelier, VT 05601 (802) 223-4622 (phone) (802) 229-1734 (fax) info@grassrootsfund.org (email) www.grassrootsfund.org (website)
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