Our Great Salt Lake Ambassadors are leveraging their unique skills and background to grow the flow one person at a time. Ambassadors meet with a member of the Grow the Flow team to develop a personalized volunteer plan specific to their interests and availability. Among a host of personalized activities, this plan may include posting to social media pages, hosting conversation groups, tabling at events, or writing Letters to the Editor. Please read on to learn about a few ambassadors and why they are playing their role to save our saline lake.
Meet Samantha Godwin, a third generation Salt Lake City resident. Sam can be found hiking with her dog, reusing everything she can imagine, swapping stories with friends, and brainstorming ideas for a plastic-alternative product business, Bee Zero Plastic. She became a Great Salt Lake Ambassador because she has felt action assuage her fears regarding the effects of dust storms and decreased snowpack on Utah property values. When asked about her experience as an ambassador, Sam said “if I can help in the level I can help and [Great Salt Lake researchers and leaders] can help in other areas, we’re our own ecosystem working towards an ecosystem!” In addition to tabling at events, Sam plans to host a paint night where a Grow the Flow representative will speak about the lake and opportunities to be involved in its rescue.
Ellie Currey loves reading, cats, and playing with her brother. She became interested in helping Great Salt Lake at the Youth Climate Conference where she noted the integral role Great Salt Lake plays in our daily lives and those of the birds and animals who depend on it. As an Ambassador, Ellie recently worked at a booth for the Dear Pelican Project, an effort led out by Mr. Josh-Craner’s 6th grade class to fold 10,000 origami pelicans and teach about Great Salt Lake wildlife. She reflected, “It was amazing seeing all the different people who care about the lake…As we learned from the 6th graders, little kids can change a lot as the government listens to their demographic.”
Having recently moved to Salt Lake from Massachusetts, John provides a fresh outlook into the dangers facing Great Salt Lake. He has added meaningful insight to lobby days and tabling events with his background in environmental policy development. John remarked, “the legislative changes are very important and should not be diminished, but in the end, the saving force is each individual changing their own actions, increasing their own awareness, and helping others be better stewards… of the precious resource we know as water.”
Thank you to our ambassadors for their engagement and resolve; it has been an honor to work with you! We admire you and thank you for your efforts and commitment: you inspire us!
For those of you who are reading this and have not yet joined us: we invite you to consider joining our community of Great Salt Lake Ambassadors. No matter your background, your experiences and connections provide unique opportunities to protect our home. Together we can discover these opportunities and build our capacity to get water to the lake and make a long term impact on the ecological security of our community.