2019 In Review

January 2019

● Guest speakers: Bri McAlevey and Silas Fyler, Heat pumps – how can you heat and cool your house more efficiently?
● SSC/NSGP Sharon residents lobby for a clean energy economy at the State House on
Thursday Jan. 24th

● Sharon’s residential water use of 337 million gallons for 2018 tied with 2017 for lowest since 1985, thanks to water conservation efforts

February 2019
● Speaker: Peter Kane, a proud homeowner of a net-positive house in Westwood, MA
● SSC endorses Green New Deal

March 2019
● Presentation: sustainable plans for the proposed new library (Cheryl Weinstein)
● March Challenge “Bag the Bag” (The SSC 5Rs Committee, Cherry): SSC challenges
folks to refuse plastic checkout bags
● Tips, ideas, and more at our Facebook group about plastic bags (Cherry and others)

● A display highlighting the problems with plastic bag consumption and its impact on
marine animals, Sharon Public Library (Cherry/Debbie)
● A free screening of the documentary Bag It – Is Your Life Too Plastic?, a film about plastic bags that evolves into an extensive investigation into plastic and its effect on our waterways, oceans and bodies.  Saturday March 16th, 1:00pm – 4:00pm, at Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary with refreshments and discussion (Cherry)

● Decorate a free reusable shopping bag and share your concerns about plastic pollution –
free, all ages welcome.  March 23rd, 3:00pm – 4:30pm at the Sharon Public Library
Community Room (Cherry/Debbie)
● Debbie founded Plastic Free Sharon and secured a Grassroots Fund Seed Grant ($750)
for purchasing and distributing reusable bags, mostly to low-income families.  Bags were
distributed in April and December in collaboration with the Sharon Rotary Club, and
were available beginning in December at the Sharon Adult Center.

April 2019
● Speaker: David Zwick of Progressive Asset Management, Socially and Environmentally
Responsible Investing and Fossil Fuel Divestment
● Candidates for School Committee talk about sustainability ideas at meeting and post on
website: Marcy Kaplan, Anna Belak, Adam Shain, Julie Rowe, and Fern Fergus
● Earth Day display highlighting various environmental issues at the Sharon Public
Children’s Library (Debbie/Cherry)

● Organized and retrieved Letters from Children to Planet Earth (Anne and Elana)
● SSC supported statewide plastic bag ban –  ENRA committee (Joint Committee on
Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture) (Debbie)
● SSC co-sponsors and attends MCAN and Toxics Action Center, Local Environmental
Action, Sat. 4/27 in Worcester. Part of MCAN panel on local action (Cheryl)

● Mitzvah Day, Temple Sinai, composting activity
and information (Elana and Cheryl)

May 2019
● Sharon Green Day, Saturday May 4th, 12:00-4:00 PM, Sharon High School (SSC Green
Day Committee Chair, Cheryl)

● The SSC new website launched (Simone and four high school interns)

● Paul awarded the Lynn Wolbarst Sustainability Award, and presented with additional
awards from Senators Paul Feeney (present) and Walter Timilty (present) and
Representative Lou Kafka (in absentia)
● The Ad hoc SSC sub-committee of 5Rs, the Plastic Bag Reduction Committee (Chair,
Debbie) succeeded in passing the Citizen Petition – Plastic Waste (Bags) Reduction
Bylaw Amendment at Town Meeting
● SSC Energy and Climate Committee succeeded in passing a non-binding Citizen Petition
– Resolution for Sharon to Adopt a Goal of Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions to Zero
by 2050 (Paul and five high school students)

● SSC Youth raise $1800 and arrange with town to plant trees at Deborah Sampson Park
(Sara and Jess)
● Speaker: Artie Crocker from NEC Solar and Green Needham to discuss how to solarize
Sharon even more and cross-pollinate ideas for our towns
● Exercise class fundraiser for SSC; Saturday May 11th, 8:00 AM, at THE MAX Challenge,      
Canton (Cheryl)

● Toad & Co. van stops in Sharon, May 31st, Green drinks at The Square (Bri)

June 2019
● Litter Cleanup Campaign, Lake Massapoag, June 15, 9:00 – 11:00 AM (Cherry, Debbie,
Kathi, Ricky, Aneeza)
● Sharon Single-use Food Container Distribution Survey (Debbie, Cherry)
● SSC Annual Meeting; vote in FY 2019-2020 SSC Board Members and Committee Chairs

SSC Board  FY 2019-2020:
President: Cheryl Schnitzer

Vice President: Ellen Bordman
Treasurer: Ruby Gu
Secretary/Clerk: Kathy Farrell
Stuart Brown
Cherry Chun
Tim Humphreys
Paul Lauenstein
Bri McAlevey
Kathi Mirza
Kat Nasti
Ricky Stern

Simone Tamkin
Debbie Tatro
Sandra Widland
SSC Committee Chairs FY 2019-2020:
Arts and Culture (Chair: Kat Nasti)
Communications (Co-chairs: Aaron Tamkin and Jason Grillo)

Democracy (Chair: Paul Lauenstein)
Education (Chair: Artie Crocker)
Energy (Chair: Kathy Farrell)
Food (Chair: Bri McAlevey)
Green Day (Chair: Nivedi Das): Saturday May 4th 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM, Sharon High School
Communities, Interfaith and Multicultural (Chair: Stuart Brown)
Fundraising (Chair: Vacant)
Strategic Planning (Chair: Sandra Widland)

The 5Rs (Chair: Cherry Chun)

Water (Chair: Paul Lauenstein)

Transportation (Chair: Sandra Widland)

Youth (Chair: Aneeza Ahmad)

July 2019
● Litter Cleanup Campaign, Lake Massapoag, July 4, 8:00 – 10:00 AM (Cherry, Debbie,
Kathi, Ricky, Kathy, Judy, Ellen)
● Speaker: Cheryl Schnitzer, The Science Behind Global Warming

● Presentation: The Goloboy brothers kicked off “Sponsor a Street” for litter cleanups, started Google Doc to keep track

● SSC submitted more information to Imagine Sharon for climate change and sustainability
issues and plans in the town’s master plan
● Advertised rare community solar slots available (Kathy)

September 2019
● Speaker: 
Rep. Lou Kafka (and Ted Phillips) talked about the legislative process of a bill
● Presentation: Girl Scout Troop 65090 and composting http://sharontv.com/video/composting

● Meet with Dr. Greer about the proposed artificial turf installation at SHS:  health
and environmental concerns about artificial turf – Ricky and Debbie
● Letter to Town of Sharon Committees – 5 pages, 33 references warning of the
health and environmental concerns of PFAS/artificial turf – Debbie & others

November 2019
● Speaker: Wind energy, Amber Hewitt, National Wildlife Federation

● Spread the word to vote “YES” on Rattlesnake Hill conservation land and solar panel
projects at Special Town Meeting—residents voted to permanently preserve Rattlesnake
Hill, and construct four new solar installations on town land
● GREEN FRIDAY: Sponsor-a-Street initiative of the Sustainable Sharon Coalition is
sponsoring the first-ever Green Friday clean-up of our streets on November 29th, the day
after Thanksgiving (Goloboys)
● Work with town and school officials to fill open Recycling Coordinator position (Kathi,Bri, Patrice, Cheryl)

● Sharon Indian Chinese cultural day (Ruby and Ellen)

December 2019
● Speaker: Debbie Tatro about the environmental and health concerns of artificial turf and
PFAS, with a lengthy discussion to follow. More information at:

https://sustainablesharon.org/artificial-turf/
● Meeting about biking/pedestrian activities around town (Sandra)

● “Show and tell” item or idea for whatever you want to briefly share about how you have a sustainable practice

● Standing Building Committee voted to double the insulation in the new High School
design to reduce carbon emissions (Paul)
● Presentation to the Sharon Conservation Commission requesting that they Vote to block artificial turf installation near Sharon wetlands, upgradient from our drinking water  – Debbie

● Distribute literature from the Toxic Use Reduction Institute at Univ. Mass. Lowell to
town committees to counter the SHS landscape architect’s presentation on pros, cons and
cost comparisons of artificial turf vs. organically maintained natural grass – Debbie