WESTERN NY CLIMATE REALITY CHAPTER
MEMBER SPOTLIGHTS
JACKIE MAY
Tell us about yourself.
Jackie May is from Colden, Erie County. She was a project manager/technologist for a large local regional bank and retired in 2016. Her two homes sit on 50 acres of woods that she affectionately calls the Homestead. Jackie’s time and energy goes toward making her Homestead a multigenerational, environmentally responsible oasis. Actions to achieve this goal include implementing a forestry management plan, leveraging solar energy, expanding fruit and nut orchards, and creating a garden with a mix of perennial and annual produce.
How did you get involved in climate work?
Jackie grew up during the time of the first Earth Day so she grew up with the environment as a priority. After retiring, Jackie participated in a Climate Reality Leadership Training in Pittsburgh. Jackie is part of Climate Reality because it’s a resource of ideas on how to improve and make her home as climate friendly and resilient as possible.
Some of the actions you have taken to address climate change.
Jackie is on her town planning board to help influence local climate friendly actions. Climate change is affecting our food supply chain. Jackie spends her time planting fruit and nut trees and a large garden and raising chickens on her Homestead. She supports her local farmer’s market and participates in climate-related tweet storms. As a volunteer with the Red Cross, Jackie provides disaster relief services to people affected by bad weather (becoming more frequent and more severe due to climate change).
NONNA SHTIPELMAN
Tell us about yourself.
Nonna Shtipelman was born in Ukraine and moved to this country (Rochester, NY) in 1975 with her family. She attended college in Rochester, law school in Buffalo, and lived in the Hudson Valley area before living in Alaska for nearly 20 years. She and her husband moved back to New York in 2013 and have lived in Fairport on the east side of Rochester for the last ten years.
How did you get involved in climate work?
Nonna worked for various non-profit environmental groups in New York and Alaska (NYPIRG, Hudson Valley Sloop Clearwater, Discovery Southeast). She also spent 15 years as a seasonal Alaska Department of Fish & Game wildlife technician. Nonna heard about the Western NY Climate Reality Chapter through fellow member Jennifer Fendya.
Some of the actions you have taken to address climate change.
For Nonna, the connection between climate change and individual action drives her behavior. She walks, rides her bike, or takes the bus whenever she can. She shops local and thinks about what she buys, how it was produced, and how long it will last. She engages friends and family in conversations about climate change and lobbies legislators. She and her husband are also exploring getting a heat pump for their home.
These actions often don’t feel enough given the enormity of climate change, and Nonna worries that when others feel the same way, the conversation changes to how we can cope with the effects of climate change instead of what we can do to slow it down.
That’s why Nonna thinks the only way forward is to make it personal. For her, that means inviting the Fairport Supervisor of Public Works for a walk with her dog so he can meet the trees he’s marked for removal in her neighborhood. She is also exploring ways to help others in her community to connect with one another and with the community of plants and animals around us. She believes that if we can see ourselves as part of a community filled with amazing and wonderful individuals – human and other – maybe we can move forward with more care and less resistance.