Putting a Polish on Presentations
Tabling is a great way to connect people to resources, answer quick questions or help people through a small challenge and then send them on their way. Presentations, on the other hand, allow you to dive deep on your favorite Master Recycler topic.
Read four tips on how to make your presentations shine.
Welcome Class 63!
Keep an eye out for new folks volunteering and extend them a warm welcome. Washington County’s class graduated on Wednesday October 26th in Tigard. These folks are super enthusiastic and full of great ideas and projects.
Class 63 on a rainy day at the Nature's Needs Compost facility.
Appreciations
Centurion (100)
A big thank you to Brenda Demaree (Class 37) completing over 100 hours—putting her in the Centurion status. Brenda is the Facility Manager at the Purdy Paint Supplies Factory. They have managed to be a zero waste facility since 2009 (shortly after she took the class). You would not believe how creative they have been at finding a new home for all the odd materials that come from the factory floor. Brenda brings fun into every sustainability project so that people feel ownership and stay engaged. She is pictured here in a throwback shot from 2008 when we were rolling out the new Portland Recycles! campaign that added roll carts and new plastics to the mix. She has been involved since then!
Certified Master Recyclers (30)
Thank you to the four people who completed their 30 hour commitment and became Certified Master Recyclers this month!
Denise Slattery (Class 57) spent her 30 volunteer hours in a number of different settings. She offered presentations on recycling for green teams in several workplaces in Portland and Lake Oswego. She also promoted The ReBuilding Center at trade shows and the Fix-It Fair. She tackled the conversation of food waste prevention and completed her certification talking to kids at a harvest fest in Lake Oswego about ugly food (where she actually had them taste funny looking food blindly) and taught them how to make their own Seed Bombs. As you can see from the kids lined up in her Instagram picture, her table was a hit.
From staffing booths at multiple Sunday Parkways to training and organizing green teams at Earth Day and the Brewfest, Nancy Norman (Class 58) spent her volunteer hours in a meaningful way that both inspired folks and captured a lot of recycling. Rumor has it that Nancy joined the Washington County sustainability team as an intern in Facilities. So she will continue to do great things for the environment.
Erin Morland (Class 62) spent most of her volunteer hours sharing strategies with folks about how to reduce waste. She was at events from Sherwood to NE Portland and Beaverton to Multnomah Village, chatting about how to properly store food, plan shopping, fix and maintain your stuff, swap and share! Erin is pictured with her class at The ReBuilding Center in the far right back corner.
Kayla Sheafer (Class 62) started out offering an educational presentation at a Canby preschool, inspiring toxics-free pest control at the General Canby Days and talking with neighbors. She then moved to East County staffing tables at the Gresham and Montavilla Farmers Markets. She bravely staffed a Portland CAN Save Your Food booth during one of the soggiest days of the year to wrap up her 30 hour commitment.
Volunteer Opportunities
Click on the calendar image to get more details.
Conservation News
Make a Pact, Pack It Out
Erin Fitzgerald’s (Class 33) blog says: I love running and playing outside. What I don’t love is the litter I see along the trails—gel tops, wrappers, miscellaneous paper and plastic, etc.
Litter isn’t only unattractive, it can be incredibly costly to clean up and is harmful to the environment and wildlife. Ever since my run on Mt. Hood Ski Bowl, I’m much more aware of trail trash and am determined to do something about it. I pick up and carry out what I find, but there’s many trails I have yet to explore, so I need your help.
This gallery showcases some of the trash others and I have found and packed out to bring awareness to our trashy trail problem. Our wilderness belongs to all of us; it’s up to us to keep it beautiful and viable—let’s Make a Pact, Pack it Out.
Add your trail trash pictures to her gallery via Instagram using the hashtag #makeapactpackitout (if you don’t have an Instagram account, upload your pictures here and I’ll add them).
Course Offering: Less is More, Getting to One Can of Garbage a Year
Are you concerned about the environmental issues facing us but unsure what you can do to help? Reducing your waste is a simple, profound way to decrease your impact on the planet and save money, too.
Master Recycler and waste reduction advocate Betty Shelley and her husband, Jon, (Both Class 2) have generated just one 35-gallon can of garbage per year since 2006. After so many people asked how they accomplished this, they decided to offer a class to help others realize they too could reduce their waste. In the three-session class, Less is More: Getting to One Can of Garbage a Year, Betty Shelley teaches her techniques for reducing waste and why that’s so important. The interactive format encourages participants to examine their behaviors and learn how to make lasting changes. Curb climate change instead of your garbage!
The class is specifically designed to:
- Information about where our waste comes from and where it goes when we throw it away.
- Explain the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – as well as how to avoid waste before it even gets to your home.
- Raise awareness of the impacts of water, energy and other resource waste, and ways to prevent it.
- Help you make a difference with techniques for waste reduction, whether it be to one can a month, a quarter or a year.
The next series of the class begins November 2. Please visit the website for more information www.reduceyourwasteproject.com
Job Opportunities
- Three Americorps positions related to waste in Clark County
- Portland Planning and Sustainability Energy Performance Reporting
- LeanPath inc. Food Waste Prevention Coach.
More listings in the Master Recycler Jobseekers Board.
Contributions to this month's newsletter include J Lauren Norris, Alicia Polacok and Wing Grabowski.