Earth Day
ENVIRONMENTAL HERO AWARD
Environmental Hero Award 2008
Presented to Juniper Sundance Saturday April 26 at Eco Jam
Holiday Inn, (downtown), Green Bay
"While I am very appreciative of those people who are front line activists, holding big business & government accountable, I thank the Helfenstein Soup Council for recognizing that the way ordinary people live their lives has an impact also.
Our lives encompass a whole circle…but in the interests of time, I'll just mention a 4 areas I've found important.
The first is to be aware of the environmental consequences of your purchases. I look forward to the day when musicians power their concerts from the sun! It's the role of business to sell, but it's our responsibility to purchase wisely. Learn as much as you can, so you don't get duped by ads. Never stop learning, observing, researching, finding out. Find out if your online provider uses sustainable energy for its server centers—which typically are high energy users. Solar charge your batteries—or, if you drive, use lighter rechargers—instead of plugging into the utilities. Buy locally and eliminate shipping energy use; buy organic when possible to decrease petrochemicals used to produce fertilizers/herbicides/pesticides, the harmful effects of ag field runoff, & chemical exposure to farm workers.
And that brings me to my 2nd point: Don't pollute your body. That means chemicals deliberately taken and those that are hidden in our food, water & air. There are a lot of kids now with autism or ADHD. We may not have proof of the causes, but humans are exposing themselves to many things that weren't around before. My youngest son was born with 1 eye missing, & has autism & other problems. Now, I know that herbicides will cause eyes to not develop in lab studies on animals. And I know that close to where I was living there was a farm field on which nothing grew for over a year—not even weeds. But I guess this is a coincidence, not proof. One thing that has been demonstrated, is that people with ADHD who get out in nature are able to focus better & accomplish more.
So that's my 3rd point: Get out in the woods. Enjoy life. Feel the rhythm of the planet.
Think before you buy…Don't pollute your body…Get out in the woods… and what's my last point? Oh yeah…Keep singing! With a song in your heart, you'll make this world a better place. "
Friend Margaret Gerhart Rebbecca Derenne
Margaret receiving the HSC 2007 Environmental Hero Award at the Eco-Jam
Helfenstein (Helping Stone) Soup Council proudly announces the winner of the 2007 Environmental Hero Award, Margaret Mary Gerhard, who has been enthusiastically "saving the planet" by aesthetic recycling her entire life. As a teacher in the public school system for 34 years and as the oldest child of 13 children, Margaret began recycling and living lightly on the earth out of necessity. With constant budget cuts Margaret enlisted family, friends, colleagues, Encore Recyclers, local businesses and industry to assist with donations, recycling for her green endeavors. As an art teacher of elementary and college level students Margaret has taught thousands of students, colleagues, and friends to re-use, re-duce, re-cycle, to transform ordinary discards, "stuff & junk" into innovative works of art for a greener world.
Even without words, she demonstrates her green gospel of recycling by her art, her home furnishings, her attire, her adornments, and her hairdo, which she has donated her long tresses for Locks of love and even shaved her head for children's cancer research. Her entire lifestyle is all about saving the planet, mostly by recycling, but there is more!
Recycling is her passion! Her sincere concern for the environment encompasses a wide and diverse range of "save the planet" activities! Margaret considers the "no Motor" designation of Lake Oneonta one of her greatest accomplishments. Margaret is was a key figure in the revival and development of the Bay Forest Nature area on her school campus. For years she dedicated summer vacation time to Teacher Restoration Corps, restoring and recycling log structures in the nations parks and forest for future generations. An avid hiker, Margaret's pockets always contain bags for picking up litter and eradicating invasive species. She donates financially to various environmental agencies like Transplant Awareness, inc, an agency that encourages folks to recycle themselves as organ and tissue donors which is one of Margaret's favorites. Margaret has also volunteered for the Beacon House, the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair and the Michigan DNR Becoming an Outdoor Woman program.
An active member of a recycling group known as Encore Recyclers, she assists in gathering and routing recycled items to areas of need.
Margaret has recently launched her volunteer Green Arts program and has her art featured in several state galleries and local art exhibits including locally at A Bravo and Kavarna.
The Helfenstein Soup Council is proud to announce Margaret Gerhart as the 2007 Environmental Hero! The award will be given to Margaret during Earth Week at one of the local Green Bay events. The Helfenstein Soup council is a local non profit environmental peace & justice group that has been honoring local hero's in our community since 1994. Margaret may the Forest be with you!
Kim Diaz presenting the 2006 Environmental Hero Award to Steve
at Earth Day Celebration at Baird Creek, Green Bay, WI
Steve shares his experiences about life on the family organic farm
2005 Charlie Frisk: Our Environmental Hero
The 2005 Environmental Hero Award was presented to Charlie Frisk at the Baird Creek Clean-up on Saturday, April RD. by Kim Diaz our facilitator
April 23, 2005
Charlie Frisk has been involved in the Northeastern Wisconsin Audubon Society since 1982. He has served on their board as secretary, president, and conservation and environmental education chairperson. He has also served on the board of the Brown County Conservation Alliance and has served as vice president and environmental education chair person. He is one of the founding members of the Baird Creek Parkway Preservation Foundation and has served as president for the past four years.
As an active member of the Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education he has been a speaker at both state and Midwest conferences. Charlie was one of the organizers for the Midwest Conference in Green Bay. In March of 2003 Charlie was the keynote speaker at the "Northern Landscapes: Connecting People with Nature Conference" at Telemark Lodge in Cable, Wisconsin.
Charlie helped to start up the Northeast Wisconsin High School Environmental Coalition. The coalition is a groups of students representing several northeast Wisconsin high schools.
Charlie Frisk has won several awards including the 2000 Brown County Conservation Alliance Conservationist of the Year Award, the 2001 Green Bay's Beautification Award for Conservation of Natural Resources, the 2003 "environmentalist of the year" award from the Fox Valley Sierra Chapter.
In the Fall of 2002 Charlie was one of the speakers at the Volunteer Water Monitoring Conference in Wisconsin Rapids. Along with his students he has done summer monitoring programs on several area lakes and streams. The research has been used by the DNR, the Kewaunee County Land Conservation Dept., the Brown County Conservation Dept., and St Norbert College. At the conference he spoke about techniques for getting students involved, how to do valid water quality testing, and how to do work effectively with govt. agencies. Charlie has been extensively involved with environmental education for high school students. He has been a speaker on two different occasions at the Governor's High School Environmental Education Conference in Stevens Point. He spoke on volunteer student water monitoring programs and effective letter writing on environmental issues. He has been adviser for teams of students from Luxemburg-Casco competing in the Envirothon competition; a competition testing student's knowledge of soils, water resources, forestry, and wildlife. They placed first and second in state in the Envirothon competition. He is also coach for the Ocean Bowl, a competition to test student's knowledge of oceanography. This year their team finished 4th in the state in the Ocean Bowl competition. Charlie and his wife Kathy teach a course called "Young Naturalists" for upper elementary and middle school students. In this course the students learn about the wildlife and plants of Wisconsin. Most days of the course are spent on field trips and include such activities as visiting a commercial fishing company in Door County and collecting and studying fish and other aquatic organisms.
Charlie is presently part of a team project called the "Lower Fox River Monitoring Project". This is a cooperative project involving students and teachers from UWGB, UW Milwaukee, and six area high schools. They will be testing tributaries of the lower fox River for water chemistry, macro-invertebrates, stream characteristics, and also studying the nesting birds and amphibians in the watershed.
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