March 2024 Green Sanctuary News
The compost bin has landed! We will be tracking how much waste is diverted by using a composting service. Do your bit by using the bin for all your compostable waste! If you have questions, please contact Sue Kann (319-471-1895) or Virginia Melroy (319-338-1778 or 319-330-5434.
February All Ages: Justice and Equity. Our theme was based on Reverend Martin Luther King’s words “An inescapable Network of Mutuality”. The reason Reverend King was in Memphis was to support a strike by sanitation workers, most of them Black, who were protesting the unfair and dangerous working conditions imposed by the city’s mayor. This was one of the major events giving rise to the environmental justice (EJ) movement. The EJ movement recognizes that if a neighborhood or community has to be sacrificed for public goods
like highways, landfills, hazardous waste sites, or pipelines, race is usually the strongest determinant of who gets sacrificed. Adults got a chance to learn about some other events, Interstate 235 going through Des Moines’ Black neighborhoods, the Warren County protest against a hazardous waste landfill, the United Church of Christ report on Toxic Wastes and Race, and the Flint water crisis. Kids got a chance to plan a Fair City, where nobody had more than their fair share of things like smelly factories.
March All Ages: Transformation. Our theme is based on words from Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, “Action on behalf of life transforms”. Â Adults can join us in the Fellowship Hall after the service to learn and share about transforming a yard into a haven for wildlife. Â Kids can learn how to recognize signs that wildlife, especially insects, are enjoying their yards.
We are Better Together! Join Green Sanctuary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, build resiliency in the neighborhood, and address environmental justice issues. Can you help? Email Sally Hartman at sallyhartman@hotmail.com or Jan Weaver at jan.weaver57@gmail.com. Our next meeting is Wednesday, March 13 at 7 pm. Join us on Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88132264216. Meeting ID: 881 3226 4216. Passcode 533092.
