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You're listening to EcoSpeak CLE, where the eco-curious explore the unique and thriving environmental community here in Northeast Ohio. My name is Diane Bickett and my producer is Greg Rotuno. Together, we bring you inspiring stories from local sustainability leaders and invite you to connect, learn and live with our community and planet in mind.
Greg:This episode of EcoSpeak CLE is sponsored by Good Nature Organic Lawn Care. Lawns need care, not chemicals.
Diane:Hello friends, april has finally arrived and it's a very busy month for our sustainability partners across the region as we celebrate 54 years of hard-fought environmental progress since the first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. Today, the work of educating, advocating and change-making is ever more serious and, at times, overwhelming. So here at EcoSpeak CLE, we believe that action and involvement is better than fretting. So we know you agree. And to celebrate Earth Month and the power of grassroots community involvement, we bring you two members of the Cleveland Heights Green Team co-founder Catalina Wagers and Suzanne Zilber. The Cleveland Heights Green Team was founded in 2021 with the goal of inspiring people to embrace everyday choices and actions through a sustainability lens, knowing that every green action does matter and does make a difference, no matter how small. So please stay with us as we talk about Earth Month and the Heights, the importance of grassroots involvement, how you might join a green team or start one of your own, and other ways to celebrate Earth Day in the land.
Diane:Welcome Catalina and welcome Suzanne. Thank you. Thanks, diane, all right. So first a little bit about Catalina. Catalina Wagers lives in Cleveland Heights, in the Fairfax neighborhood. She's originally from Columbia and she's a co-founder of the Cleveland Heights Green Team and is actively involved with several local organizations that work to advance Northeast Ohio through better access to education, policy advocacy and environmental protection. And Suzanne Zilber is a relative newcomer to Cleveland Heights, moving here from Iowa over two years ago, and she immediately rolled up her sleeves getting involved with several local organizations that have enabled her to continue pursuing her passion for social justice and environmental justice activism, and she's also a psychologist. Welcome, suzanne. Thank you, all right, so why don't we start with Catalina, since you're the co-founder of the Green Team? Tell us about how that all got started.
Catalina:It actually started when we joined a class by Cuyahoga Recycles. It was to become a recycling ambassador, and that was in the winter of 2021. In the middle of COVID and during the class, I met two other women that lived in Cleveland Heights, also newcomers to Northeast Ohio, and we decided to meet and have a conversation about our passion for the environment and how we could actually get involved with our city. That led us to talk to many different local groups, grassroots organizations. We actually talked to our city hall and we inquire about, you know, are there any organizations that would focus on educating and providing opportunities for the community to volunteer in green actions? And we found out that they were not. So we decided to form our own group and we called it the Cleveland Heights Green Team.
Diane:That's awesome. You know I was still the director of the Solid Waste District at the time you took the course. I probably gave one of the sessions.
Catalina:Yes, I think you spoke in one of the sessions. Yes, I think I was involved in one of the sessions.
Diane:Yeah, and I retired that spring and, unfortunately, because of COVID, that used to be the master recycler class and that was an in-person thing, but then we had to go online, which was not ideal, but it sounded like it worked out well for you. Yes, it did. It was great. Not ideal, but it sounded like it worked out well for you. Yes, it did, it was great.
Suzanne:Suzanne, tell us how you became involved with the Green Team and how long you've been with them. Well, when I was coming to Cleveland to look for a place to live, my brother gave me a copy of the Heights Observer because there was all sorts of ads and other things that might be helpful to me, and I saw an article from the Cleveland Heights Green Team and I had a question about whether or not there was a place to do refillable soaps and dish soaps and things like that. So I emailed the Green Team from Iowa to ask that question and then learned more about the Green Team and I like doing arts and crafts with kids and so I was willing to volunteer to do that as an activity with the Green Team as a starting point.
Diane:Oh, I love that.
Suzanne:Yeah.
Diane:Is that the reason you moved to Cleveland Heights?
Suzanne:There were lots of reasons that I moved to Cleveland Heights, and one of them was that it seemed like there was a lot of citizen leadership here and lots of people doing good for the community, just as volunteers, that's great.
Diane:Well, I think that's true and welcome to the area. Let's back up a little bit and talk about what activities in addition to some of the children's programming that you do. I remember going to a couple of your eco fairs at Coventry and you always had a good array of vendors and educational stations and stuff talking about recycling and what other things have you put together, catalina?
Catalina:Well, we are very active in the community. You're right. We have co-hosted with Heights Library, who are great partners to us Now for EcoFest. In addition to that, we are very active on green space beautification. We have partnerships across many other groups in our city and what we call the Heights, which encompasses University Heights, shaker Heights as well. We do cleanups public cleanups, we do private cleanups. We have projects such as Caledonia Ravine.
Catalina:We've been working now almost three years trying to revitalize the Caledonia Ravine in the north part of Cleveland Heights. We host and co-host educational forums and we are very well known for our Recycling Right in the Heights Challenge, which basically we teach our community how to recycle right, because the rules keep on changing and we want to make sure that people know what the latest and greatest is. So we've become sort of like a household name. We are invited to a lot of fairs, a lot of events happening. We are co-hosting actually not co-hosting but co-sponsoring for example, the crowdsourcing conversations hosted by Future Heights this year. So what I want to say is we do a lot of things. We're very active.
Diane:And how many members do you think you have and do you want to shout out to your other co-founding members and do you want?
Catalina:to shout out to your other co-founding members. So my co-founding members are Natalie Elwell and Alex Zetarek, two amazing women who are also very passionate about the environment. We started the three of us and it is an interesting organization because anybody can be part of it. We don't have membership. We don't ask people for money. We invite and welcome anybody who wants to be part of the group. The only thing they need to do is sign up, and then they receive our monthly newsletter and they are invited to participate and take action. So right now, we have about 350 people that have signed up. Oh, wow, yes, and what we love about our organization is that we meet people where they are at. Some people love to do cleanups. Some people love to like Suzanne. She is amazing with children, so that's how she contributes. There are so many ways for people to contribute, and I think that that's what makes our group very interesting.
Diane:And you have your own website too, so that's how people would sign up then, right?
Catalina:so through the website chgreenteamorg. We also are active in social media facebook, instagram. This is a Cleveland high screen team and we, because we do so many outdoors events, we collect signatures during the events and that's how we interact with our community.
Suzanne:The recycling challenge that we've done at the eco fairs and at Coventry Street Fair and so on is an excellent activity for families to do together because the children can participate in trying to figure out what can be recycled, what can have to go to trash and what might need to be taken even to another place outside of our street side recycling and they feel it's a lot of fun and they like to see their parents not get everything right. Green Team also held an educational event for the community where they had people speaking who are doing work in other cities and that was held at the Cleveland Heights High School. The Green Team also hosted candidate forums for mayor and city council members and so, yeah, so the Green Team is covering advocacy and sort of the political policy side of things, the educational piece, and then directly trying to, you know, improve through trash pickups. I've done some of that. I did the trash pickup at Kane Park. It's amazing what you will find there. So quite a variety of activities, so a lot of different ways for people to plug in.
Diane:Yeah, a lot of ways to get involved, depending on what their interests. I see you have recycling drives. You know where you're collecting some of the hard to recycle materials that the Solid Waste District collects, like light strands and electronics. What other things, and how do those work?
Suzanne:Well, one of the things the Green Team did was collect political signs and or then eventually just sort of advertising that where to take your political signs so those could be recycled, and then the the Christmas light collection benefits the zoo. Is that correct, catalina?
Diane:That's right. That's right. Lights for Lions. I know the Solid Waste District slash Cuyahoga Recycles is doing a collection for eclipse glasses for the after the solar eclipse. Do you have any collection locations in the Heights for those?
Catalina:Yes, so we are working both with the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes and with the Heights Libraries and we are letting them borrow our bins and we are advertising in our community to please drop off their glasses at these drop-off points. To please drop off their glasses at these drop-off points, and then we will be driving them to Cuyahoga Recycles and Garfield. So yes, we're part of that Cool.
Diane:Okay, what can you tell me about Earth Month in the Heights? I know there's events and activities taking place all over the county, but let's focus first on what you've got going on.
Catalina:The idea of Earth Month is to inspire the community to engage in what we call green activities throughout the month, and what we have done is that we have communicated with residents, with organizations, businesses, schools. We have said to them if you guys are planning something through April, let us know. And we developed a community calendar, an interactive community calendar where everything lives so people can see what's happening every single day and they can choose to participate, register, volunteer throughout the month. At this point, we have 25 different events happening through April and more coming, and they're implementing for everybody, at every age and ability, at every age and ability. So it's a very exciting program because, as far as we know, this is like the only one in our area that is crowdsourcing from the entire community for the community.
Diane:Very exciting, and you're. You're kicking off, I believe, with a make and take which is a community party.
Catalina:Tell us about that, so in December we had a community DIY event to celebrate our community and we invited people to come and make holiday gifts from upcycled materials and then take them home from upcycled materials and then take them home. It was so successful, diane, that we decided to do that again in April. Actually, april 2nd is National DIY Day. So we are hosting on Wednesday a free craft making party for the entire family and we are going to be making bird scissors out of upcycled materials and we are also making reusable shopping bags.
Diane:Okay, and where is that going to be?
Catalina:It's going to be at Made Cleveland on Coventry.
Diane:Okay awesome and tell me about what's happening at the Shaker Heights Nature Center on April 24th.
Catalina:Oh, yes.
Catalina:So one of the things that the Green Team does is really develop partnerships and bring these partnerships and make them accessible to our community. And bring these partnerships and make them accessible to our community. So we actually wanted to put a workshop that we call an eco-friendly backyard oasis, and there are going to be three businesses that are going to talk to our residents about how to make your backyard an eco-friendly oasis. So we have organic lawn care coming to talk about pesticides and what options do we have to care for our lawns that do not require pesticides. We have the high street people coming to talk about the importance of trees and they will be collecting names to plant trees for trees in University Heights and Cleveland Heights. And then we have Meadows City Nursery coming to talk about native plants and how to build a garden from native plants and how to build a garden from native plants. All that starts seven o'clock, is free for our community and it's a way for us to engage with these local businesses and be able to ask questions that are practical and helpful.
Diane:I think that's great that you're organizing that for the community and I love that our sponsor, good Nature Organic Lawn Care, is speaking at that event. That's right. So I should pause here to thank Good Nature Organic Lawn Care for sponsoring this episode. Really, good Nature has been providing healthier and safer solutions for all kinds of issues to our community for over 20 years solutions for all kinds of issues to our community for over 20 years.
Diane:Alec McLennan, the owner, would say if you want a green suburban lawn without the chemicals, Good Nature can help. And if you'd like to turn your lawn into a pollinator lawn, they can also help with that. And if you'd like to spend time in your yard without being attacked by ticks and mosquitoes, good Nature can help. So they are offering EcoSpeak CLE listeners a $50 discount on any one of their services. You could just call them today or visit them on their website whygoodnaturecom or call them at 216-641-9800. Okay, if you want to get involved in your community and you're not living in the Heights, there are ways to connect with, like the Bay Village Green Team, sustainable Berea City of Brooklyn has Keep Brooklyn Beautiful. Cleveland has Old Brooklyn Recycles and Sustainable Edgewater and, of course, the Cleveland Heights Green Team. Does Shaker Heights have a green team too? They do not have a green team too?
Catalina:I think they do not have a green team.
Diane:Okay, but they're part of the Sustainable Heights Network.
Catalina:They are.
Diane:Uh-huh, so people can connect with that. Then there's also Keep Euclid Beautiful. The Fairview Park Green Team is awesome, the Highland Heights Green Task Force they put together a Facebook group called Greener Together Network of Northeast Ohio and they're very good about posting events and things. Keep Lakewood beautiful, the Rocky River Green Team and the South Euclid Recycling Committee, which has been around for a long, long time too. So lots of work being done in these communities. If you'd like to check them out, there's a list with links that we'll post in our show notes. So, suzanne, can you talk about, maybe, the importance of grassroots involvement, what that means to you and why connecting with other organizations to kind of amplify all the good works that are being done is important?
Suzanne:Well, you know, I feel that individuals can feel overwhelmed by the news about okay, now there's a new rule to be a good person with the environment, and now there's another new rule, and I think it's important for us to not feel alone as we're trying to improve the environment, and then we learn from each other as we go and we create a movement, and so it's fun. Relationships are really important as a way to sustain the environment, so creating these community organizations is going to make it easier for everybody to do the right thing and figure out what the right thing is to do.
Diane:And I think the values that you share. You know anyone can join. You're inclusive, you respect each other. You're inclusive, you respect each other, you're optimistic and I think, most importantly, it's a fun way to get involved and meet your neighbors and just do something positive, would you agree?
Suzanne:Yes, I've met so many wonderful people at the eco fairs or the Coventry Street Fair, the Calendonia event. I had a great time with children making little books from reused materials and meeting those families, and so I think it's just a win win. It builds community and makes the world a better place builds community and makes the world a better place.
Diane:Suzanne and Catalina, do you have any advice for people wanting to start a green team if there isn't one in their community or in their workplace or in their school, and how important is it to kind of interface with the city administration?
Suzanne:Well, what I can share is how the city is supporting us. Currently, they are promoting our events in the city's weekly news email and inviting us to participate in the city's Earth Day Challenge, and we look forward to more collaboration with the city council and leading organizations such as Heights Libraries, the Nature Center, Future Heights, Cleveland Heights Green Team, local businesses, several churches and basically all the other grassroots organizations working in the community. A key role for the Cleveland Heights Green Team is to be a hub so that we can connect and amplify the work that local organizations are doing for the environment.
Diane:Is it necessary, you think, to get the approval of your city to start a green team? Or can people just say I'm going to start a community cleanup and I'm going to call myself whatever green team and just get started?
Catalina:Well, I'm just going to tell you how we started. We actually reached out to the city and we saw a need for a group like ours, and the city saw the same thing I needed for a group like ours to help them with some of the things that they don't have to stop for the budget, for it's always a good idea to reach out to the city and to have a relationship with both the mayor's office and city council. We have a fantastic relationship with some of our leaders and they have attended many of our events and they're very supportive. So that also opens the doors to meet other organizations that are very important in your community, such as your libraries or the League of Women Voters, or a nature center, if there is one, or a metro park, and so it's this idea of becoming a hub and it's a web of relationships. That's how we work.
Catalina:So the more relationships and the more partnerships, the more we can do. And, yes, I think that if you're going to do a cleanup, you know it's a good idea to let your recreations, parks and recreations know that you're going to be doing a cleanup. In many cases they will help you. We use the Heights Observer, our local newspaper, every single month there is an article and we tell the community what's happening. That is an important relationship to us, so our advice is A there are a lot of great organizations already doing great work in our communities, so find out first if there is something already there that you can join.
Catalina:If there isn't then I think that's very important to have a clear vision of what your group wants to do and wants to be, and then reach out. Reach out to local grassroots groups, reach out to the city, reach out to some of the key organizations maybe a church in your community and then you can build from there. Everything that we have accomplished in the past three years really has been because we have made really strong partnerships and we delivered to. So it is a win-win for everybody.
Diane:Thank you for that advice and I think Karen Miller, with Hayao Hoga Recycles, is convening meetings with the various green teams so you can share ideas about. You know different activities and projects to plan. Are you a part of those?
Catalina:Yes, so we call it. It took a while for all of us to get together, but it's starting to take form. It's called the Northeast Ohio Green Team Coalition and it actually is being sort of like managed loosely managed through the county. We have a Google group that we connect to this Google group and then we have meetings, monthly by monthly meetings. We share what we're working on, what we would like to work together as a team. Right now we are working on, for example, working with local retailers to eliminate single-use plastics. So that is one initiative that we are all coming together in our own ways to support.
Catalina:I highly recommend reaching out to us through the Cleveland High Screen team, and then we can put you in touch with the group and join any of these meetings.
Diane:What a great way to amplify everybody's work. Suzanne, can you talk about real quick what the resources that the Green Team has on its website that people can check out?
Suzanne:Yes, there's a calendar of events that aren't just the Green Team's events but other organizations' events that relate to environmental issues. There's a lot of instructive information. There's a where can I section, where can I recycle, upcycle, fix things, volunteer, how can I get help planting trees, and then there's another section that's how to, so getting more specifically about which things we're supposed to recycle and how, and so this is a lot of helpful, practical information on the website. Great, great resource.
Diane:Okay, well, thank you. I'm going to wrap with just a couple other announcements regarding Earth Month, and again, these things will be in our show notes. But Sustainable Cleveland also has a community events calendar which details Earth Month celebrations. They've got things taking place at Kent State, cleveland State, the Cleveland Cinematheque Theater. They've got two events going on at the City Hall Rotunda one to kick off Earth Month on April 8th and also on Earth Day itself. They've got vendors and all sorts of exhibitors and stuff in the Rotunda at City Hall. That's also free.
Diane:I want to also mention on April 14th, laurel School is putting on the Northeast Ohio Youth Climate Summit and it's for kids in grades 8 through 12, and they're looking for people from all over Cuyahoga County, northeast Ohio, to join them for workshops, panels and a green career fair. So that's for students grades eight through 12. There's a ton of things that I'm sure I didn't mention that you know you might be thinking about and mad that I didn't mention it, but, like Suzanne said, there are so many things happening in Northeast Ohio for Earth Month that we can't possibly cover them all here. But check in with your local green team and check out some of these calendars and you'll find something that speaks to you. So I want to thank our guests. We really appreciate Catalina and Suzanne for joining us. Thank you.
Catalina:Thank you so much. Catalina is joining us from her vacation.
Suzanne:Thank you, thanks for what you're doing.
Diane:Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you taking time off your vacation and the short notice to join us today, both.
Greg:We hope you've enjoyed this episode of EcoSpeak CLE. You can find our full catalog of episodes on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are available the first and third Tuesday of each month. Please follow EcoSpeak CLE on Facebook and Instagram and become part of the conversation. If you would like to send us feedback and suggestions, or if you'd like to become a sponsor of Ecospeak CLE, you can email us at hello at ecospeakclecom. Stay tuned for more important and inspiring stories to come.