Caption: Nancy J. Meyer (center) receives the Prince George’s Sierra Club’s 2019 Environmental Service Award from Martha Ainsworth (left), Chair of the Prince George’s Sierra Club Group, and a congratulatory Proclamation from the Prince George’s County Council from Councilwoman Jolene Ivey (right), at Watkins Regional Park. Photo courtesy of Marian Dombroski.
The Prince George’s Sierra Club Group has awarded its 2019 Walter “Mike” Maloney Environmental Service Award to Nancy J. Meyer, C.E.O. of Community Forklift, a non-profit reuse center for home improvement supplies in the Port Town of Edmonston. The award is presented annually to a County resident for excellence in local environmental service.
“This award honors Nancy J. Meyer’s outstanding leadership in putting Community Forklift on a positive and sustainable trajectory -- to promote reuse, reduce waste, and conserve resources; create green jobs; and build the community in Prince George’s County,” said Martha Ainsworth, Chair of the Prince George’s Sierra Club Group. The award was presented to Meyer on Saturday, June 8th, at the Prince George’s Sierra Club picnic at Watkins Regional Park in Kettering, Maryland.
In presenting the award, Ainsworth reminded those present that “At the outset, Community Forklift was not assured of success. Meyer’s leadership has been a critical factor in securing the organization’s survival and sustainability while pursuing its environmental, economic, and community development objectives.”
Community Forklift
Community Forklift is a non-profit reuse center that accepts donations of unwanted and salvaged building materials and home improvement supplies and makes them available to the public at low cost. It occupies a 34,000 square foot warehouse on three acres in Edmonston, a working-class town along the Anacostia River.
However, the non-profit’s objectives go beyond providing low-cost building and home improvement supplies. “The heart of Community Forklift is building community and people,” according to Meyer. “Reuse provides not only a cycle keeping the value of materials, it also creates jobs.” Forklift’s mission is to lift up local communities by: promoting reuse, conserving resources, and keeping discarded building supplies out of the landfill; creating green jobs that build the local economy; offering education on reuse, recycling, and sustainable living to the community; and donating supplies to local non-profits and needy neighbors.
Meyer’s leadership
When Community Forklift opened in 2005, it was struggling. Meyer saw an ad for an opening and wanted to help. “In addition to a life-long interest in the environment and in reuse, Nancy brought an impressive set of skills uniquely suited to help Forklift’s mission,” Ainsworth explained. “She had experience in the building trades, having worked nearly 4 years as a carpenter-apprentice, witnessing usable discarded building materials at many construction sites. And she had experience running non-profits, including the recycling center for the University of Maryland and the Community Art Center at the Stamp Student Union.”
Initially hired as a part-time Business Manager, Meyer eventually took on more responsibilities and became the C.E.O. of Community Forklift. With her input and under her leadership, the non-profit negotiated a more favorable lease, boosted income by finding new sources and opportunities, was restructured to facilitate grants, and its debt was refinanced.
Meyer took advantage of every little “niche” and opportunity to expand the reuse operation and improve its economic viability. The initial reliance on a deconstruction company for materials was augmented by a consignment arrangement in antique and vintage items, purchased not only locally but by Hollywood film-makers. A tree-felling company now sends its milled boards to Forklift for sale. The number of employees has risen from half a dozen to 50 full- and part-time workers, with benefits. Forklift has acquired an additional 16,000 square feet of storage next door and an on-line business. The community has been engaged via outreach and education. Forklift’s numerous awards are testimony of its success (see www.communityforklift.org).
Asked about the future, Meyer responded that her vision is to find the resources to acquire the full 12 acres of brownfield in the current location (of which Forklift occupies 3 acres) to develop a park or commons where reuse businesses could co-locate. “This would promote community economic development through waste,” she said. “There’s a bigger picture goal: Live differently.”
Adam C. Ortiz, former Director of the Prince George’s County Department of the Environment and former Mayor of Edmonston, calls Meyer “a visionary for a closed-loop green economy and the heart of our movement.” A member of the Community Forklift Board, he remarked that “after a rocky startup, Nancy has steadied the Community Forklift ship and charted its future. She professionalized its operations, developed relationships with contractors and non-profits, and created a community space and a green destination in the region for people in all walks of life.” (Ortiz was the recipient of the 2018 Environmental Service Award and is currently Director of the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection.)
On hand at the award picnic was Prince George’s County Councilwoman Jolene Ivey (District 5), who presented Meyer with a Proclamation from the Prince George’s County Council, congratulating her on receiving the 2019 Environmental Service Award and saluting her “personal commitment to the community, environment, and Prince George’s County.”
Caption: Nancy J. Meyer (center) receives the Prince George’s Sierra Club’s 2019 Environmental Service Award from Martha Ainsworth (left), Chair of the Prince George’s Sierra Club Group, and a congratulatory Proclamation from the Prince George’s County Council from Councilwoman Jolene Ivey (right), at Watkins Regional Park. Photo courtesy of Marian Dombroski.
“Nancy manages to salvage building materials, our environment, and people, all at the same time,” remarked Councilwoman Ivey. “She figures out where she can have the best impact and goes beyond expectations. Whether it’s stopping a concrete batching plant from setting up in her community or expanding a salvaging business into an award-winning community jewel, Nancy is a force of nature. I’m so proud to have her not only in my county but in my district.”
Nancy J. Meyer grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey. As a girl, she hunted for treasures that neighbors put out at the curb for the town’s “junk days,” salvaging a unicycle, an accordion, and a surfboard, among others. She organized stream clean-ups in junior high school, and in high school started a battered women’s shelter. After high school, she traveled through Appalachia with a friend, taking in the struggles of the local people, learning about the appropriation of land, coal mining, labor issues, and environmental impacts. She holds a B.A. from the University of Maryland, College Park.