Here's To a Toxic Free NC In 2014!

by Ileana Rodriguez, Development Director

As 2013 comes to a close, we want to say thank you for supporting our work at Toxic Free NC. You are the reason why we had such an amazing year. Thank you!

Here are some highlights from 2013:

• We traveled throughout North Carolina to train child care providers to use less-toxic pest control, helping to protect hundreds of children from exposure to toxic chemicals. 
• We worked with our national and statewide partners to try and strengthen the Chemical Safety Improvement Act, bipartisan legislation that would reform the outdated Toxic Substances Control Act of 1979.
• In the spring, Anna Jensen joined us as Community Organizer to lead our campaigns with migrant and seasonal farm workers.
• This December, Fawn Pattison moved into a new role as Senior Advocate to strengthen our efforts in advocating for environmental health and justice.
• And we welcomed Levy Schroeder, who as our new Executive Director, will lead the way for us to become an even stronger and more effective organization in 2014 and beyond.

Can we count on you to help us keep growing stronger in 2014? Make a year-end gift to Toxic Free NC today to build a toxic-free future for tomorrow! 

On behalf of all of us, thank you for supporting Toxic Free NC and making our achievements possible. Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2014!

Lead the Way to a Toxic Free Future

by Ileana Rodriguez, Development Director

Reverend Bill Kearney

Toxic Free NC’s recipe for change is all about people power. By building leadership in front-line communities, we hope to make change through the hearts, minds and hands of incredible people like you.

Your year-end donation will help lead the way to a toxic-free future. Make a gift today! 

When you make a gift, it will be put to work helping to grow Toxic Free NC and our Community Leadership Council, a group of leaders from across North Carolina who work together to reduce pesticide pollution and toxic chemicals at home in their communities across the state.

“Toxic Free NC connects me to new resources and new ways of thinking. Becoming part of the leadership at Toxic Free NC made me a stronger leader in my own community.”

Reverend Bill Kearney, Warrenton NC
Toxic Free NC Community Leadership Council, 2010-2012
Board of Directors, 2012-Present

Your gift of $25, $50, $100 - or whatever is meaningful to you - will be put to work supporting grassroots leaders like Bill. Help us keep fighting together to reduce pesticides and toxic chemicals in our environment, our food and our bodies. 

Join Bill and Toxic Free NC in leading the way to a toxic-free future for us and our families. Donate today!

Join Jessica in Supporting Toxic Free NC

by Ileana Rodriguez, Development Director and Jessica Burroughs, Volunteer, Activist, and Toxic Free NC supporter

Meet Jessica Burroughs. She's a mom, activist and supporter of Toxic Free NC. Here's her story about why she supports Toxic Free NC:

When my first son was a year old, I read a newspaper story about three Latina women, all migrant farmworkers, whose children were born with horrific deformities. All three women had been sprayed with pesticides while working on the fields during their pregnancies.

Perhaps because the three children were around my son's age, and perhaps because of the nature of their deformities (one, for example, was born with neither arms nor legs), I couldn't get the story out of my head.

When I learned of a group in NC fighting to stop the spraying of fields during working hours, I became an immediate advocate of Toxic Free NC. When I reached out to Toxic Free NC, staff inspired me to write a letter to the editor about this injustice.

Since that time, Toxic Free NC has raised my awareness about how to protect my family, as much as possible, from toxic chemicals. They have empowered me to ask my children's preschool director to use a non-toxic, integrated pest management system to get rid of bugs. They have shown me how to make my own non-toxic household cleaners, and even invited me and one of my sons to join them in DC to urge Sens. Burr and Hagan to support the Safe Chemicals Act.

Will you join Jessica in standing up to protect our children from the dangers of pesticides and toxic chemicals? Make a gift today so we can keep fighting for a toxic-free future in North Carolina!

To meet our fundraising goal for this year, we need to raise $30,000 by December 31st. We want to raise $5,000 of that goal in the next week.

Your gift of $25, $50, $100 - or whatever is meaningful to you - will be put to work growing grassroots leaders like Jessica who will keep fighting to reduce pesticides and toxic chemicals in our environment, our food and our bodies.

Join Jessica and Toxic Free NC in fighting for a toxic-free future for us and our families. Donate today!

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Throughout this week, join us on Facebook and stay tuned here as we share stories about how you are making it possible for us to grow a more toxic-free future for us and our families.  If you have a story to share, please leave a comment or send us an email - we'd love to hear it!

Toxic Free NC is All About You

by Ileana Rodriguez, Development Director

As the year comes to an end, we're reflecting on our accomplishments and making big plans for the future. Looking back on where we've been in 2013, we know that the main ingredient in our recipe for success is you. 

Toxic Free NC is all about people power. From hands-on organic gardening workshops, citizen lobbying visits and developing leadership in front-line communities, we're making change through the hearts, minds and hands of incredible people like you.

We wouldn't be a strong organization without your support. And we need your support more than ever right now.

To meet our fundraising goal for this year, we need to raise $30,000 by December 31st. We want to raise $5,000 of that goal in the next week.

Make a gift today so we can keep fighting for a toxic-free future in North Carolina! 

Your gift of $25, $50, $100 - or whatever is meaningful to you - will be put to work growing grassroots leaders that power all our work.

Thank you for all that you do to support Toxic Free NC! We're grateful to have your support as we work together to reduce pesticides and toxic chemicals in our environment, our food and our bodies.

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Throughout this week, join us on Facebook and stay tuned to your inbox as we share stories about how you are making it possible for us to grow a more toxic-free future for us and our families.

If you have a story to share, please leave a comment or send us an email - we'd love to hear it!

Organic & Sustainable Christmas Trees and Wreaths: North Carolina 2013 Buying Guide

by Toxic Free NC staff and Margaret Vaughn, volunteer

This holiday season, we hope you'll consider an organic or low-spray Christmas tree or wreath! Check out our updated buying guide to find a pesticide-tree near you.

Buying an sustainably-grown Christmas tree means that you will:

• Protect your family from pesticide residues being brought into your home.
• Keep Christmas tree workers and their families from being exposed to pesticides on the job.
• Support local growers who respect their workers and our environment.

Find out more about the pesticides commonly used on Christmas trees and why you should avoid them.

Toxic Free NC's 2013 Organic & Sustainable Christmas Trees and Wreaths: North Carolina Buying Guide was also recently featured in the news, along with one of the growers on our list, Doug Murphy (of Murphy's Tree Farm and Nursery).

You can also learn about other growers who use sustainable and/or organic practices, such as What Fir Tree Farm in Boone and a host of others!

Nathaniel Maram of What Fir! Tree Farm

Margaret Vaughn has a strong interest in environmental health issues and, in particular, their relationship to the food that we grow, buy, and eat.  She is excited to be back in her home state of North Carolina after completing a graduate degree in public health at New York University.