By Jac, Go Green Glen Ellyn Co-Founder and President
Greetings Go Green GE fam,
This month marked FIVE years since we started Go Green Glen Ellyn! When we started Go Green GE, we wanted to make it easy, accessible and fun for people to be greener, and connect with other people who cared about that too. What we did not know was that Go Green Glen Ellyn would become that community but also so much more.
Go Green has served as a resource hub for people to go to with their questions (and yes, we love being your “green google!”). We’ve served as a helping hand and trusted advisor to organizations trying to do things more sustainably. We established recycling that didn’t previously exist at signature Glen Ellyn events like the Taste of Glen Ellyn, Downtown Summer Concert Series, and Backyard BBQ. We have funded a number of community sustainability initiatives. We’ve collected everything from candy wrappers to water bottles to almost an entire ton of aluminum (and counting) to have materials recycled or reused. We even got to collaborate with the Chicago Bears two weeks ago! Time and time again we find ourselves working on different initiatives that haven’t been done before.
Take the SportSwap. We have done ten of them since 2022, working with our partners, the GE Park District. This has saved 4000 items from the landfill through re-useand earned $7000. Karin wrote a "how to" for Go Green Illinois and other communities came to see our events and now we see baby SportSwaps popping up all over the region!
We don’t do a very good job saying “no,” which means we can find ourselves overextended on projects (and saying “why did we think this was a good idea again?!”) But each time we learn, we work with new members of the community, we create new relationships and together we make Glen Ellyn a little greener (and then say “oh, that was fun!”, and get ourselves into the next challenge :-)
Let's talk funds and funding:
GGGE has independently provided over $11,500 in grants to local organizations including the Boy Scouts, Bridge Communities, Glen Ellyn Chamber, Downtown Alliance, Glen Ellyn Park District Scholarship Fund, Glen Ellyn Parks Foundation and others.
We have also sponsored community events such as OAKtoberfest, the Village recycling extravaganza, Chamber events, Downtown Alliance programs, local movies at the Glen, school programs and more.
We are 100% volunteer run, we don’t pay ourselves, and anything that does not go back into the community goes to fund our website, newsletter service, supplies for events, insurance in case any volunteers get whacked by a tree branch, and other fun things like that.
Combined with the generous support of the Glen Ellyn fund from the last two years, which primarily supported the aluminum cups for the Downtown Summer Concert Series, we have been able to channel over $36,000 back to the community.
While impressive for our scrappy group, we are in need of additional donations to keep the aluminum cups program going, as well as other needs like storage costs for our lending library, and helping local schools fund environmental field trips and supplies. You can make a donation on our website at https://www.gogreenglenellyn.org/donate (and now I’m done with the pitch!)
Wait, one more pitch -- we need more people to join in to work alongside us. We know everyone is busy, so we will meet you where you are, however you can contribute with your time. Just respond back to this email with, "I'm in!"
While I feel our impact has been substantial, I’m most proud that our Go Green GE community is full of other volunteers, supporters, and friends who have all come together to help make Glen Ellyn a little greener.
It was an incredible feeling to look around the room at our 5th Anniversary Party on Wednesday night and see so many people making new connections and discussing ways how THEY could make Glen Ellyn a little greener. We wanted Go Green Glen Ellyn to be the seed, but for the community to be able to grow and “branch out.” My green heart could not be happier!
Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far on this journey.
infographic by Karin
The picture on the left is from 2021, when Go Green GE was a baby, helping out at the Park District native tree sale. Jac bought the oak she is holding and planted it, and viola! it's growing, just like Go Green!
Second pic of the awesome oak and Go Green co-founders is by the amazing photographer and friend Karly Tearney. She took several of the pictures in this newsletter. You can find her work here. (Thank you Karly!)
One of our Go Green pillars is advocacy. In 2021 and 2022, we advocated for a downtown greenspace, holding meetings with residents and speaking up at Village Trustee meetings. We were thrilled when the Park District and Village worked together to turn a long-closed bank adjacent to the Prairie Path into a downtown park. We were very proud to be one of the first to donate and receive our very own Go Green brick. Go Green had a recent tour of the construction site with PD leaders and we are told it will open mid November! You can contribute to the park HERE.
