The Sierra Club has about 100,000 members and supporters across North Carolina - people who care about exploring, enjoying and protecting our environment for all our communities and those who will come after us.
In honor of National Volunteer Appreciation Week (April 18-24) and Earth Day (April 22), we celebrated a few of those folks on social media. Here again are the people who give their time, energy and passion to safeguard our air and water, help people threatened by pollution, cherish our wild places and endangered species, and so much more! If you're impressed by what they're doing, we hope you'll get in touch with us about volunteering, too!
Hwa Huang, Capital Group
Hwa Huang’s advocacy for the environment began when he was a research fellow at the EPA, and it continues now that he's a grad student at N.C. State University, chair of our Capital Group, a member of the Chapter's Steering Committee, AND a member of our new Climate Change team!
Hwa aims to inspire more people to fight climate change and help create new solutions to protect the planet and future generations. He is currently fighting to protect the William B Umstead State Park from a proposed rock quarry, which would cause significant environmental impacts.
Anna Campbell, Cape Fear Group
Anna Campbell is an environmental enthusiast, entrepreneur and community leader who serves as conservation committee chair for the Cape Fear Sierra Club. She's passionate about leaving her planet better than she found it.
Anna is working with other Cape Fear Group members and local community groups and businesses on a Compost Carolina project. It highlights how local businesses, organizations, and community leaders are helping by using compostable products and supporting composting efforts.
Gerry Kingsley, Central Piedmont Group
Gerry Kingsley is an avid environmentalist and outdoor enthusiast who fills his weekends with a great deal of hiking, backpacking, and bicycling.
Gerry joined the Sierra Club in 2017 when he led a busload of activists to the People's Climate March in Washington DC. At that point he joined the Central Piedmont Group's executive committee, which he now chairs. He also serves as the Group's Treasurer and represents the group on the state executive committee.
He believes that stewardship and conservation of our planet and its fragile ecosystems are among our most important responsibilities - and that the environment is central to nearly all the issues we face today. But he's an optimist and believes we can survive and prosper while addressing these issues.
Tina Katsanos, Beyond Coal Campaign
Tina Katsanos is the chair of The Climate Reality Project's Charlotte chapter. As a mother, she understands the importance of mitigating climate change for her son and for all of our children and future generations.
She teaches about climate change, environmentalism, and sustainability at UNC Charlotte, leads the Charlotte NAACP environmental justice committee, and is a member of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Climate leadership group and the City of Charlotte SEAP Citizens Working Group.
Tina's favorite action was collaborating with the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in a "Dark Age Duke" skit done in front of Duke Energy's headquarters in Charlotte where she played the Herald alongside her son, who played the Grim Reaper. She looks forward to future collaborations with the Sierra Club and its Beyond Coal Campaign.
Nicole Gaines, Piedmont Plateau Group and N.C. Chapter
She's served us in multiple leadership roles, as the first African American woman to be chair of the Piedmont Plateau Group and, as of this year, chair of the N.C. Chapter.
Nicole is an at-large member of the Greensboro Sustainability Council, a founding member of the Solar Power Now Coalition, and volunteer coordinator for Greensboro’s 2017 Women’s March.
She's guest-lectured for environmental studies courses at UNC-Greensboro and Guilford College, and been a panelist discussing urban sustainability and public-private partnerships at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment.
Nicole was an integral stakeholder in the Equitable Access and Just Transition team as part of Governor Cooper's Executive Order 80 Clean Energy Plan
Join us in celebrating the passion, leadership and dedication these volunteers bring to building a cleaner, healthier, more sustainable future. More than that - join them in volunteering to protect our environment! The N.C. Chapter would love to have your time, energy, brainpower - anything you have to offer that will help us explore, enjoy and protect the planet and the folks who live on it!