Nurturing Environmental Action Through Art and Gardening Carla Halstead is an art teacher at an elementary school in Rochester where she has created and fundraised for a school garden as part of her Cornell Climate Stewards (CCS) volunteer project in 2022. This project will be accompanied by a school gardening club that will be ...
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Recognizing the Deep rooted Nature of Trees in Our Communities Abigael Rice inspires climate action change in her community through her passion for trees and education. Abbi works as the education manager for Impact Earth, a composting company in Rochester, which serves as a platform to plan online and in person classes about composting ...
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Nancy N. Doniger and The Little Village that Could: Montour Falls Answers the Climate Action Call As a certified Climate Steward and lover of the outdoors, Nancy N. Doniger uses her skills to add capacity to the Village of Montour Falls Sustainability Committee. Montour Falls, with a population of just 1,604, was the first ...
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A Climate Activist’s Approach to Celebrating Lifelong Learning Dr. Annalisa Raymer is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University, where she teaches courses in adult learning in the Education minor. As a Cornell Climate Stewards (CCS) volunteer, Raymer has been unable to separate her CCS climate actions from her ...
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Managing Wetlands for People and Beavers Erin Moran has been working on implementing a water leveler AKA “Beaver Deceiver” in Yankeetown Pond since she acquired rights to the wetland in 2018. Yankeetown Pond is a circumneutral bog lake in Woodstock, NY part of the Ashokan Watershed. Residents utilize the wetlands for recreational activities, even ...
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Smart Fertilizer Management Practices Lead to Smarter Agriculture Dr. Nancy Jacobson taught biology and a course on global warming for over 20 years at Ithaca College. She retired several years ago in order to spend more time as a volunteer at Citizens’ Climate Lobby including as the lead of their Agriculture Action Team. She has worked ...
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Climate Action in the Historic Village of Clinton Jack Persely has always loved the outdoors, especially backpacking and camping. From a young age, he was always concerned about climate change and the future. In 2011, Hurricane Irene left many streets of Clinton flooded and impassable, adding to the climate anxiety that had been slowly ...
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Planting Seeds of Change: How Joseph’s Volunteering Efforts are Inspiring a Greener Future Joseph Londa, a New Paltz Climate Smart Community Volunteer, is a true inspiration for those looking to make a difference in the fight against climate change. Through his volunteer work with the Climate Smart Communities program, he has been able to ...
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Cornell Climate Steward and Climate Action Innovator Lynne Bailey, from the Town of Hurley in Ulster County, is a leader in climate proactivity. For Ms. Bailey, education is an essential element of fostering climate action. Through her work as a Cornell Climate Steward and member of a Climate Smart Communities Task Force, she developed projects to foster climate awareness among residents of all ages. Focusing ...
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Cooking Up Change: The Inspiring Movement Towards Plant-Based Diets and Sustainable Agriculture Meg Jastran, a registered dietitian who loves to cook and a passionate advocate for climate change, has been volunteering her time to promote plant-based diets and reduce the consumption of animal products in her community. Meg is motivated by her belief that shifting towards plant-based diets is more beneficial for mitigating climate change and protecting people’s health because ...
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Developing Pollinator Pathways at Beacon Schools Holly O’Grady has been involved with a partnership project with Beacon’s Conservation Advisory Committee and the Beacon City School District as a Cornell Climate Steward (CCS) volunteer since 2022. The project focuses on creating pollinator pathways at the elementary schools. She had just recently moved to Beacon from ...
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Art as a Catalyst for Climate Action: The Impact of Youth Engagement Patricia Haines Gooding has been passionate about the arts and their power to inspire creativity and critical thinking for years. Her volunteer efforts focus on the relationship between the arts and climate change, particularly in engaging young people to become stewards of the environment through artistic expression. Patricia has led various projects, including organizing ...
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Making a Difference, Locally, One Step at a Time Valerie Percy is a speech pathologist in an elementary school in Kingston, New York and a community leader in Cornell University’s Climate Stewards (CCS) program. Her motivation to join the program began with a desire to combat feelings of powerlessness amidst a changing climate. She has now channeled her concern into ...
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