Green Iowa Team Finishes Service Year
The 2019-2020 Americorps team wrapped up their service year in mid-August. The team of 5 full-time and 3 summer members made an incredible impact in our community!
Between September of 2019 and March of 2020, the team completed 52 audits across 6 counties. They changed over 1500 lightbulbs, saving families in our community over $9000 dollars and eliminating 80 metric tons of carbon emissions. That is the equivalent of taking 17 gasoline cars off the road!
During the COVID-19 shutdown, the team stepped into crucial community service roles. They covered daily shifts at the Decorah Food Pantry and delivered food for Meals on Wheels, ensuring continuing food access during a time of great need.
As the year continued, the team expanded their service to include outdoor environmental work such as invasive garlic mustard removal, trash pick up, and volunteering at the community butterfly garden.
We also continued our energy work! High-efficiency LED lightbulbs were handed out at the Decorah Food Pantry and the Cresco Food Distribution Site. The team also piloted the Bright Box program, our new, contact-less whole home lighting upgrade. We are excited to expand this program with the new team! If you’d like to get on the list to receive a customized Bright Box, please send an email to heidi@energydistrict.org.
The team also had a chance to dedicate time to individual projects.
Bri wrote many articles and short stories while diving into WED’s fundraising software and grant writing.
Colin W. used his excel spreadsheet prowess to build a spreadsheet to calculate energy and carbon savings from different efficiency measures considered by dairy farmers.
Collin K. organized a two day clean up on the Public Television trail. Volunteers over two days cleared chairs, tires, futon frames, a washer, and much more from the hillside below the trail.
Jessica partnered with the Decorah Mutual Aid Network and the Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging to create a Mail Cheer program. Community members were invited to sign up to receive mail and/or to create pieces of mail to be anonymously sent to other community members. The program is still running so if you’d like to send or receive mail, get the details and sign up here! Read more about the program in the write up in Inspired Magazine.
Lucas set up Analytics on our webpage, allowing us to see which pages are being used most frequently and how people arrive at our website.
Mara worked with the city Sustainability Committee to advance city-wide composting efforts.
Rowan crocheted Ear Savers for mask wearers and took charge of managing WED’s social media accounts.
Troy took the lead on piloting the Bright Box program and took on extra responsibility at the food pantry.
We are so appreciative of the team’s ability to remain flexible and adaptive as work changed dramatically through the last third of their service term! We’ve missed being able to continue our in-home audits but are proud of what the team accomplished despite the many challenges.