Community members honored for work on climate change issues
Cassie McCann’s sixth grade fall 2017 science class at Whitefish Middle School earned the youth Climate Smart Champion award from Climate Smart Glacier Country. The awards were presented Saturday during the Earth Day celebration at Whitefish High School.
Doug Reed, far right, accepts one of the business Climate Smart Champion awards from Steve Thompson while Climate Smart Glacier Country vice chairman Matt Folz talks about Whitefish Lake Restaurant. The awards were presented Saturday during the Earth Day celebration at Whitefish High School. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
Rick Cunningham, executive director of the Big Mountain Commercial Association, speaks about the SNOW bus Saturday after accepting one of the business Climate Smart Champion awards from Steve Thompson. The awards were presented during the Earth Day celebration at Whitefish High School. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
Sierra McCartney as awarded the individual Climate Smart Champion award Saturday for her work on the Climate Action Plan. The awards were presented during the Earth Day celebration at Whitefish High School. Steve Thompson, left, presented her with the award. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
Climate Smart Glacier Country announced the selection of the second annual Climate Smart Champions during a ceremony Saturday at the annual Earth Day Celebration in Whitefish.
Awards were presented to businesses, youth and an individual who are leaders in building local solutions to climate change challenges.
“Earth Day is an appropriate time to honor the innovators who work to strengthen local resilience and build a clean energy future,” said Matt Folz, Vice Chairman of the Climate Smart Glacier Country. “These awards celebrate individuals, businesses, and students who are making a positive difference in the Flathead.”
Climate Smart Champions
Youth Category
Cassie McCann’s sixth grade fall 2017 science class at Whitefish Middle School developed a partnership with local business to display student posters about local climate solutions. Students selected a local business they regularly visit and designed posters with a few tips for customers to make sustainable choices at the business. The customized posters also included a succinct scientific explanation about the greenhouse gas effect. Participating businesses include: Nelson’s Ace Hardware, Sage and Cedar, Loula’s, Village Shop, Buffalo Café, Stumptown Art Studio, Red Caboose, Toggery, Stumptown Snowboards, Jersey Boys and Crystal Winters.
Business Category
Whitefish Lake Restaurant is a pioneer in local efforts to turn food waste into compost through a partnership with Dirt Rich LLC’s food scrap pick-up service. Owner Doug Reed says the restaurant has been pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to incorporate the waste diversion program into kitchen operations while saving money on weekly landfill fees.
Big Mountain Commercial Association has made life easier for skiers and the Earth with its SNOW Bus program. The Shuttle Network of Whitefish (SNOW) reduces traffic and parking congestion while saving roughly 10,000 gallons of gas, equivalent to 100,000 pounds of coal that won’t be burned.
Individual Champion
Sierra McCartney was appointed to the Whitefish Climate Action Plan Committee by Mayor John Muhlfeld and volunteered her evenings and weekends to design and produce the 129-page plan. In addition to hundreds of hours devoted to the CAP, she is a landscape designer for White Cloud Landscaping, where she helped design the gardens and landscaping for Whitefish Schools Center for Sustainability and Entrepreneurship.
Climate Smart Glacier Country tackles the challenges of a changing climate for communities in the Glacier National Park region, and works with partners to create solutions to climate change.