By Sharon Cuff, Executive Committee Member, Membership Chair, Group Delegate, Northeastern PA Group Member
Building strong partnerships and deep diving into litter are the focuses of the Community Clean-ups led by the Sierra Club NEPA Group's Outings Leader, Fawn Contreras. In 2024, the Sierra Club NEPA Group, Valley Community Library, and Keep NEPA Beautiful partnered with multiple organizations to continue cleaning up Lackawanna County. Fawn has been a member of the Sierra Club for five years and has led numerous outings and cleanups for three years.
Fawn leads Community Clean-up attendees in conversations about where the litter comes from, why it's bad for the environment and our health, and ways to reduce our waste. These conversations can bring about grassroots change that is the foundation of the Sierra Club.
This past October, Fawn was awarded the Pennsylvania Library Association Best Practices Award for Powerful Partnership, in recognition of her hard work organizing 19 Community Clean-ups with 17 amazing partners. At the Library Association Conference, Fawn and Deputy Director of the PA Sierra Club, Sarah Corcoran presented to participants from around the state on the library’s Growing Green Partnerships & Programs. They shared how the Valley Community Library partners with the Sierra Club on several programs bringing environmental literacy into the library and the library out into nature. They also shared how this one partnership brought in so many new environmental organizations to work with them.
Following the conference, Fawn was invited to present at the Keep PA Beautiful Stewardship Summit about educational programs and partnerships. Her talk highlighted the ways the Library, Sierra Club, and Keep NEPA Beautiful partner together on Clean-ups, what they do beyond just picking up litter, and why libraries are so amazing to work with.
The NEPA Group is so proud to bring recognition to our area through the hard work of this strong and wonderful partnership between the Sierra Club and Valley Community Library. We hope this inspires you to get involved with your local library. You might even connect with someone who becomes both a volunteer and an Outings Leader like Fawn.
After such a busy year, Fawn has made the difficult decision not to re-run for NEPA Group Executive Committee, as she plans to further her education. Fawn works full-time as the Head of Youth Services at the Valley Community Library. Her goal is to get her master’s degree in library science and become the Children's Librarian at the Library. Fawn will still organize Community Clean-Ups and lead hikes on a smaller scale. We wish her and her family all the best as she embarks on this next chapter, adding "student" to her long list of titles including wife, mother, and volunteer.
Here is a complete breakdown of the Litter Study for 2024:
2,042 plastic bottles
1,733 cigarette butts
1,385 cans (806 were beer cans)
821 food wrappers
806 single-use cups (481 plastic cups, 214 Styrofoam)
762 single-use bags
421 plastic lids from cups
405 glass bottles
262 straws
88+ articles of clothing
79 Styrofoam material pieces
41 vapes
37 balloons
20 diapers
11 tires
This blog was included as part of the December 2024 Sylvanian newsletter. Please click here to check out more articles from this edition!