AmeriCorps*VISTA

Environmental Stewardship

As the VISTA Project Coordinator of the Montana Legal Services Association (MLSA) VISTA Project, I am honored to nominate Marie Phillips for the Service Impact Award.

Since July 2010, Marie has been serving as an AmeriCorps*VISTA member through the MLSA VISTA Project. She serves at Student Advocates for Valuing the Environment (S.A.V.E.) Foundation, which works to expand recycling infrastructure, affect positive environmental policy, and provide educational resources and events in Helena and across Montana.

Marie has been working extensively on community outreach by developing and updating educational materials and newsletters, as well as sharing information with the community via email lists and their website. This community outreach increases S.A.V.E.’s visibility in the community and informs Montanans about the importance of recycling. The extensive outreach Marie has conducted has led to the recruitment of additional volunteers to help with S.A.V.E.’s recycling events, like their plastics recycling drives.

In addition, she has been meeting with various community organizations to gather more information about environmental issues affecting low-income Montanans. Marie met with the Department of Environmental Quality on gray water reuse systems and how they can be used to conserve water. From this visit, Marie began creating a gray water educational guide for community members with important facts about gray water issues and what they can do to conserve water. To further the issue of gray water, Marie developed a partnership with Bart Manion, who is developing an informational center in Bozeman, MT with a display of a gray water reuse system. She was able to arrange for S.A.V.E. to be a sponsor of this educational center and will assist in creating educational materials for distribution there. She also visited the Bio-Energy Center at Montana State University Northern in Havre, MT to learn about biodiesel manufacturing. Using the invaluable information she gained from this experience, Marie created an informational DVD that will be posted on the S.A.V.E. website and displayed at community events. She also organized S.A.V.E.’s annual Erase your E-Waste recycling drive that served at least 200 community members.

The work that Marie has done during her service inspired the MLSA VISTA Project’s VISTA of the Quarter Award, which she was awarded in February 2011. This award is given to a VISTA member who has demonstrated outstanding service based on the quarterly reports they submit to the VISTA Project Coordinator.

Marie has also been focusing on researching important environmental issues, like electronics recycling models in other states, the Yellowstone-Teton Regional Transportation Initiative and the associated Linx Transportation Co-Op and put together information from this pool of research to help S.A.V.E. as it continues to provide education on environmental issues. Marie’s continued outreach efforts help inform low-income Montanans on ways they can conserve and reduce their monthly expenses on water, electricity and fuel, which will help them move out of poverty.

Photo included: Marie Phillips with her VISTA of the Quarter Award.