Hi Friends! 

It’s Erin and Katy again! It’s finally summer and the team has been working hard at crafting new camps and programs for the community while keeping up with the Tideflats Subarea Plan and getting the Tacoma Green New Deal appropriately funded. Needless to say, it’s been a busy month.   

Read on for updates and get to know our new Community Education Coordinator, Lindsay Walker.

Until next month,
Erin & Katy

Erin Dilworth – Deputy Director
Katy Stone – Director of Development

Get to Know Lindsay Walker

Our New Community Education Coordinator

We can’t say enough great things about Lindsay Walker. She’s been a fantastic addition to the CHB team and brings a spark of joy to our office. We sat down with her and asked a few questions that will give you, our readers, a glimpse into what drives her advocacy and passion for educating people about the Salish Sea.

How did you first learn about CHB? When I was first moving to Tacoma, I researched organizations I would want to work for. I came across CHB and thought “wow I would really like to be a part of what they are doing,” but CHB was not hiring at the time. I ended up in a role at another organization where I got to know CHB better by working with them as a community partner. I’m so happy to now have the opportunity to be a part of this team!

Before working at CHB, what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had? I worked for almost five years teaching marine science and sailing on a beautiful wooden sailboat on the Salish Sea. During that time, I led trips up to three weeks long with mostly high school and middle school students, who learned about Salish Sea ecosystems and worked on independent science and policy projects as they learned how to sail the boat. I became a licensed captain, organized filming expeditions, assisted with boat maintenance, and helped run the small non-profit.

What is your proudest career moment and why? I have been an educator for long enough to now see some of my students grow into leaders as marine scientists, responsible mariners, and educators. Attending an environmental education program on the Chesapeake Bay as a middle schooler had a profound impact on me and my career as an educator. I don’t know where I would be if I hadn’t attended that program– just like I can’t know what path my former students would be on without attending my programs. I like to think that something that happened while they were out on the water or in one of our classes sparked something that helped them to live their lives more aware of how amazing this place is and how they can make an impact.

If you could have any superpower or skill what would it be and why? The natural world has so much to teach. I’d want my superpower to be understanding what plants and animals want to communicate to humans. I think it would be hard to hear, but also that animals and plants have a lot of wisdom they could share.

CHB Partners with Hilltop Artists at South Tacoma Library

On June 24, we were proud to work with Hilltop Artists to teach community members how to make glass art. Each participant was asked to create a tile using an “Under the Sea” theme to be fused in a kiln and delivered later. While participants worked on their art pieces, a video was presented that detailed diatoms, kelp, and other issues plaguing marine life in the Salish Sea. This collaboration bridged clean water education with art–a new approach we hope to continue. 

We have an opportunity to become leaders in advancing solutions to climate change while also advancing economic prosperity and public health. The time for talks is over, it’s time for action! Cities like Boston have allocated $35 million towards a Green New Deal this year, and our neighbors up north in Seattle set aside $16 million for Green New Deal investments just last year. $2 million for new climate initiatives is a drop in the bucket compared to the costs of inaction.

The City Manager will work with City Council to determine what initiatives get funding. We have to ensure our budget prioritizes our environment and our health!

Use our comment letter HERE, and feel free to add your own insights, especially on why you care about our City’s budget

To stay up to date on Tacoma’s Green New Deal and other issues, consider subscribing to our Arising Issues mailing list. 

Marquis Says Farewell

First, I want to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone who supported me in my work as CHB’s Climate Justice Community Organizer. It has been a great three years–pandemic and all. The sheer scale of fights against fossil fuel interests and a status quo unwilling to change have been some of the most rewarding work I’ve done. From passing one of the toughest bans on fossil fuel expansion in the nation, to kicking off the Tacoma Green New Deal, we couldn’t have achieved so much AND changed the conversation here in Tacoma without you all. I won’t lie, organizing through a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, a changing climate, and political instability was exhausting. What kept me fighting the good fight, was knowing that we were changing lives and holding corporate polluters and the government accountable for decades of harm in the name of making profits. In a short time, we’ve been able to touch the minds and hearts of thousands of people in Tacoma and beyond, to remind them that we WILL be the generation to stop climate change, create economic prosperity for all, and transform this broken country from the grassroots up. 
 
I am leaving CHB to do a service year with FEMA and will be based in California for the next year or so. After that I hope to be in graduate school, so wish me luck! I am sad to leave but excited to do the vital work of rebuilding communities that need it most. 
 
I won’t sugarcoat it, there are often days when I wonder if we are fighting for a world that would never fight for us. But then I am surrounded by the entire CHB community–folks who show up repeatedly, in ways big and small, and I am reminded this world is worth fighting for.
 
Much love friends,
Marquis King Mason