Last Call for Your End-of-Year Donations

December 2019

Dear friend and OVEC supporter,                  

As we approach the New Year, I hope you’ll take a few minutes to consider why it’s so important to include OVEC in your year-end contributions.

Randi (left) at the OVEC table at the 2019 WV Science Teachers Association conference. Randi designed and presented three curricula that teachers could take back to their schools, titled “Climate Change: The Science and Solutions,” “The Benefits of Renewable Energy,” and “Fracking, Cracker Plants, Plastics and You.”

I know from experience that the fight for environmental justice is often overwhelming. Having an organization like OVEC, staffed with caring people who understand what’s at stake, makes a huge difference to people like me who want to protect communities, the environment, and our climate from the harm caused by polluting industries. Like other volunteers, I enthusiastically offer both my time and financial support because I feel so strongly about OVEC’s mission and the work they—we!—do.

I first found OVEC while I was pursuing my doctoral degree in environmental studies. As I researched threats to non-timber forest products in Appalachia, I learned about mountaintop coal mining and how it destroys the mesophytic forests of the region, leaving nothing intact, not even the soil.

Of course, in doing that research, so many sources pointed back to OVEC. When I called the office, OVEC staff not only shared more information about mountaintop removal, but they also introduced me to community leaders they worked with—like Larry Gibson—who passionately shared their stories.

My husband and I joined OVEC and became volunteers more than ten years ago. Although we live in Ohio, we believe the work OVEC is engaged in is extremely important and affects all of us in the Tri-State region. My heart aches over the scheme politicians are pushing to turn the Ohio Valley into a petrochemical/plastics corridor, but I’m hopeful because OVEC aims to slow and ultimately stop this proposed massive petrochemical build-out. We’ll need your support to do this, to build the cross-state citizen opposition we need to halt further expansion of what would be a massive environmental mistake for our region. We have to do this, for the sake of our air, water, climate—and kids!

OVEC also continues working on other issues related to clean water and climate change, including mountaintop removal and renewable energy, as well as the underlying issues of clean elections and fair courts. Your generous, tax-deductible donation will enable this dedicated group to carry on its unrelenting efforts to stand against the powerful and polluting industries that threaten our clean air, clean water, and the places we love.

As a committed OVEC member, I wish you a holiday season surrounded by the people you love most, filled with beauty, and laughter! And, I urge you to donate online at ohvec.org before December 31, 2019.

To the cleaner, greener vision of our future that we work daily to achieve,

Randi Pokladnik, PhD

See Randi’s three lesson plans: Climate Change: The Science and Solutions, The Benefits of Renewable Energy, and Fracking, Cracker Plants, Plastics and You.

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Your Donation Dollars Are Put to Good Use with OVEC! 

We have been around more than three decades and we know how to achieve our goals on a scrappy, tight budget. We put your donation dollars to excellent use.

For instance, in 2019, OVEC staff have organized and/or spoken at 40 community meetings, providing residents with information about the harmful impacts of fracking, pipelines, and ASH (the proposed petrochemical mega-complex). If you don’t know what ASH is, check out any or all of five short videos on the topic that a skilled college intern Evan Gilland created this summer. Find them here.

There’s so much more! Stay up to date on all OVEC does with your donations. Explore our newsletters, action alerts, blogs and news (click the acorn tab at ohvec.org/news to find links to news stories that feature comments from our OVEC’s work, the stories or enter the headline into a web search engine).

Please donate to OVEC today, so that we enter the year 2020 ready to strongly defend our water, communities, and climate!

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