Environment North Carolina Director Elizabeth Ouzts calls on lawmakers to protect North Carolina’s environment.

Some of the powerful interests who often stand in the way of environmental progress may be worried about new limits on gifts and other perks from lobbyists to North Carolina lawmakers. But here at Environment North Carolina, we’ve always said that you don’t need to pay high-powered lobbyists to get your voice heard in the General Assembly.

All you need is a clipboard.

This summer, hundreds of young people will grab a clipboard, learn about a campaign and head out in teams across the state to canvass for Environment North Carolina.You’ll probably meet one this summer if you’re home when they stop by your neighborhood. While it might seem like a small thing for just one person to renew his or her Environment North Carolina membership this summer, it truly adds up.

This summer, we’ll knock on hundreds of thousands of doors in North Carolina. We’ll have conversations with tens of thousands of North Carolinians in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Greensboro, Asheville, Charlotte and lots of places in between.

Those conversations will help to spread the word about Environment North Carolina. They also help to expand our membership. Having members not only funds our day-to-day operations and campaigns, but it also gives us the political power to come through with concrete results at the state and national level.

Your support in past years helped us protect the North Fork First Broad River and other waterways, and kept pressure on elected officials to promote clean energy.

This year, your contribution could make it possible for us to save our parks and open spaces (see article, page 2), or pass the Renewable Energy Standard (see article, front page).

So when we knock on your door this summer, remember that your support ensures that we can be where you need us most—in the Statehouse, in the halls of Congress and in the community. We’re fundraising so we can keep providing result-oriented grassroots advocacy for North Carolina.

We couldn’t do it without you. Thanks for your support and enjoy your summer.

Elizabeth Ouzts
State Director