Ensuring the Future by Acting in the Present
Hello SCH!Our first community wide SCH meeting was held last Thursday night at the CH Library. What a wonderful beginning for our grassroots effort to transform Cherry Hill into a more sustainable community! The room was packed with people of all ages, backgrounds and passions. We had representatives from the business, residential, religious, school and government segments of our community. Everyone gathered around the room, talking to each other about sustainability, visiting our business partners, such as Recycle Bank, Plant a Tree USA and Harvest Rain Barrels, or learning about NJ Clean Energy. The program began with some Sustainability Education by Jennifer Kelley, Jodi Raditz and myself. Thank you, Jodi, for the terrific power point presentation! The theme of the evening was opportunity in the face of complex, global problems. I introduced the concept of the community driven “task forces”, such as the No Idling/Clean Air initiative, Sustainable Worship, Sustainable Schools and NJ Clean Energy Community Partners. SCH members representing each of these groups got up and explained their programs with such enthusiasm! Eleven year old, Shelby Robbins, described her about her Girl Scout troop’s No Idling initiative and received a special promise from Mayor Platt that CH Township would put forth a “Clean Air/No Idling” resolution at the next Town Council meeting. SCH Director of Operations, Rob Blatt, gave the audience a quick introduction to SCH’s new website: www.sustainablecherryhill.org and reviewed our mission statement, initial goals and our new non-profit status. Mayor Platt welcomed the group and provided an update on Cherry Hill’s Green Action Plan. Jodi Raditz, representing Cherry Hill Environmental Action Committee and SCH member, Marc Silver talked out the importance of connecting to nature and working together to accomplish this goal for our community. Don Rosenblit, long time CH resident (and my dad!) presented a marketing concept for getting the word out about using reusable bags instead of plastic bags with such clever phrases as “I’m a Reusenik” and “Take the old bag shopping”. The program was filled with education, enthusiasm and positivity! As usual, we ran out of time before running out of things to talk about. A special thank you to the CH Library for hosting the event and to Brian, the tech guy for staying late! Stay tuned for some photos and video from the meeting, as well as a special post with all my Thank You’s to everyone who made it possible for us to achieve this milestone!
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