by Alyssa Howard, Sierra Club Maine Volunteer Leader
Sierra Club Maine celebrated Earth Day with two days of local events to celebrate nature and give back to our communities. On Friday, April 21st, volunteers picked up trash along the Eastern Promenade in Portland. A few locals also offered to pick up trash at a recently abandoned encampment under Tukey’s Bridge near the East End Water Treatment Plant. In less than two hours, the small group had collected enough trash to fill a dump truck. City park employees were thrilled by the effort and expressed amazement that the area was cleaned so quickly by such a small group.
(Volunteers left to right: Jack Sharp, Susan Ryberg, Corey Birdsall, Kayla Birdsall, and Kate Shambaugh)
A local grandmother, Leslie Kaynor, with her grandchildren, Lydia, Thea, and Jack also came out to help. This power team collected trash all morning and had fun while doing it.
Another group of volunteers cleaned up the encampment behind Portland’s Trader Joe’s. Together, the group collected an estimated forty-one bags of trash and filled four needle-sharp boxes. They also passed out 100 bags filled with water, snacks, and Narcan (a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose). Sierra Club Maine staff members Ania Wright and Nyalat Biliew received a great amount of gratitude from the City of Portland, Preble Street, and some folks living in the encampment. Volunteers who joined Ania and Nyalat expressed feeling fulfilled by the experience. “For me, it felt great to do something directly in the community I now live in, and be able to represent the Chapter while doing it,” reflected Ania, Legislative and Political Strategist at Sierra Club Maine.
A third group of locals met to clean up trash at the Greenbelt Walkway in South Portland. Together they collected eight bags of trash.
On Saturday, April 22, Sierra Club members joined an Earth Day Strike in Portland organized by Maine Youth for Climate Justice. Strike attendees heard messages from climate and social justice speakers about tribal sovereignty, water justice, the Pine Tree Amendment, the consumer owned utility, and other important themes. Marching from Monument Square to Portland City Hall, strikers shouted chants urging for 'climate justice now!'
That same day, Sierra Club Maine Outings Leader David von Seggern led an outing to Sebago Lake State Park. With 13 participants, the outing started with a guided tour around the beaver pond by park ranger Colin Garner and then continued onto hiking trails within the park with a stop for bag lunch at the water's edge. This all filled in Earth Day with an appreciation for our Maine parklands and for the industry of one of Maine's most interesting wildlife species.
Sierra Club Maine is grateful to all Earth Day participants, and looks forward to continuing to protect and enjoy our beautiful state.