Quaker Earthcare Witness provides $250 mini-grants to Quaker meetings and groups for environmental projects. In 2009, several meetings used the grants for habitat restoration, environmental education programs, developing a sustainable camp, community gardens, lead remediation, and more. The document encourages donations to expand the mini-grant program and applications are due by May 1, 2010.

1. Quaker Earthcare Witness
Mini-grants 2009
Ruth Hamilton, QEW Mini-grants Clerk
Chapel Hill Friends Meeting
Piedmont Friends Fellowship

2. QEW Mini-Grants
• Environmental matching grants for
meetings and Quaker groups
• Meetings match the $250 grant from the
budget or by fund-raising
• Everyone participating reported success
with the project and appreciation to QEW

3. Albuquerque (N.M.) Monthly Mtg.
• In April, 2009 restored habitat in Cebolla
Canyon, N.M.
• Canyon area overgrazed and canyon walls
were eroding
• BLM, Trout Unlimited, N.M. Wildness
Alliance, and volunteers came together to
build up the canyon with sand bags
• Project will restore the spring for wildlife.
There are only 3 springs in this area of
N.M.

4. Volunteers at Cebolla Canyon

5. Cebolla Spring

6. York (Pa.) Monthly Meeting
• In 2008, York Friends Mtg. reached out to
inner-city school children
• “Science Ladies” taught ecology in 4th-
grade classrooms
• Brought in wildlife programs
• Led environmental field trips

7. Owl visits York, Pa., classroom

8. Classroom meets Skunk

9. Intermountain Yearly Meeting Camp

10. IMYM Quaker Summer Camp
• Started by a group of Young Friends in
Intermountain Yearly Meeting (IMYM)
• Pilot program will start summer 2010.
• Young Adults are searching for a
permanent site as they start campership
fund for low-income families, including
local Native Americans.
• Will have sustainable off-grid building &
“plork” (play+work) garden experiences.

11. Chapel Hill (N.C.) Friends Mtg.
Community Garden &Composter
• Uses a raccoon-proof composter that
works by allowing maximum aeration and
exposure to the elements
• Layers of food and grass cuttings, soil and
dried leaves are added.
• Method is developed by John Jeavons, a
French biodynamic intensive mini-farming
resource. Compost cooks, has no smell,
and doesn’t need turning.

12. Chapel Hill Mtg. Composter

13. Lead removal at Burlington,Vt., Mtg.

14. What is Phytoremediation ?
• Is the use of plants which mitigate the environmental
problem without the need to excavate the contaminant
material and dispose of it elsewhere.
• At Burlington Mtg. soil at a children’s building had 2100
times the accepted lead level. Citrosa geraniums were
planted near the building foundation to absorb the lead.
• In the fall, the leaves were removed and sent to the
landfill. Plants are removed & stored for the winter. A
new lead test is done. The geraniums will be replanted in
the Spring.

15. Susannah McCandless brought this project to Burlington
Friends Meeting. She had worked on a lead-removal
project in Worcester, Mass. as a student at Clark
University.

16. Smithfield, R.I., Meeting
Cemetery Restoration
• Cemetery that had gone back to nature is
now accessible.
• Built a meandering walkway and made a
destination spot for meditation and
appreciation of the natural world
• Friends’ graves from the 18th and 19th
centuries, including a Revolutionary War
drummer and a 19th century woman
doctor.

17. Weed Wrench for clearing the historic cemetery
at Smithfield Meeting.

20. Bloomington, Ind., Friends get Energy Star
Refrigeration
Frigidaire 18.2 cubic feet, 383 kWh estimated yearly electricity use

21. Durham (N.C.) Friends Meeting installed a
point of use hot water heater in an updated
educational building.

22. Decorah (Iowa) Mtg. installs
storm windows

23. Milwaukee (Wis.) Friends Meeting
will restore Anita Koenen Land
Preserve
• Milwaukee Friends Meeting worships in a
Meetinghouse constructed on the Anita
and Jacob Koenen Land Preserve
• Goal is to build a healthy woodlands
ecosystem and a place for spiritual
nurturance.
• Project will restore the 3.17-acre tract
and rid the invasive plants by restoring the
land to its indigenous flora and fauna.

25. Scattergood Friends School Class

26. Energy Class
Scattergood (Iowa) Friends School juniors &
seniors will have an energy conservation class
March-May of 2010, led by energy specialist
David Abazs. At the end of April the class will
head to northern Minnesota and canoe down the
Mississippi River. The group expects to give
presentations along the way to schools,
churches and other interested groups. The
canoe trip will culminate with a river rally in the
southern part of Minnesota.

27. Oak Park, Ill., Mtg. Creates Sustainable
Native Garden in Forest Preserve
• This summer Oak Park planted a native
wildflower garden in the Cook County
Community Trailside Museum.
• Is a multigenerational collaboration with
Downers Grove Friends Mtg.
• The garden is prepared for the winter, and
Cook County is placing signs.

30. Gwynedd, Pa.,
Meeting gets an
Energy Star
refrigerator. It will
cost only $45 a
year to operate.

31. Richmond (Ind.) Friends School
All 35 students at the school (grades K-6th) will be
involved in a community effort of planting the garden,
managing and caring for the garden, and harvesting.
With the use of the tumbler composter and the worm
bin, the whole school would participate in the daily
recycling of their food scraps.

32. How you can help:
• Contribute to the mini-grant fund with a fund-
raiser or by adding a targeted amount to your
QEW donation. For $20 monthly, you can
sponsor the matching funds for a mini-grant.
• QEW funds now support 6 grants. Contributions
of carbon offsets for trips and individual
donations sponsor 4 more grants.
• Plan an environmental project for your Quaker
meeting, church, or group. Application is at
<www.quakerearthcare.org>. Deadline: May 1,
2010.