OUR LADY OF GOOD COUNSEL
GREEN CHURCH COMMITTEE
Minutes – Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Present – Fr. Paul Conway, Katie Marchese, Salvatore Marchese, Betty Boisonneau, John
Plecash, Rose-Marie Valade, Karen Gionette, Wanda Taillefer, Chris Shoust, Suzanne Shoust
Chair: Chris Shoust
Opening Prayer
Approval of the Agenda – Motion: Salvatore, Second: Katie – Approved
Approval of the Minutes of the February 16, 2023 Meeting – Motion: Fr. Paul, Second:
Wanda – Approved
Approval of the Minutes of the March 22, 2023 Meeting – Motion: Karen, Second: Wanda –
Approved
Business Arising:
1. Last highway cleanup – Planning on May 27th for the last highway cleanup. Chris will pickup the signs, bags and vests a couple days before. We will invite others to join with a notice in the bulletin. Any new individuals will be required to watch the video and sign a waiver prior to cleanup. Video will be shown at 9:00 am, others will arrive for 9:30 to meet and divide up into groups to head out.
2. Adopt a street – The certificate of coverage for insurance is doable. We would need to provide the insurance company with the name of the street we want to adopt. Before a cleanup, we need to let the insurance company know the details and date. We discussed choosing Pine Street, and cleaning it up in sections, starting with the section from McNabb to Wellington.
3. Clean North update – We discussed if we as a committee want to partner with Clean North on any activities, such as their invasive plant removal or tree planting. Clean North could partner with us with our cleanup. We discussed looking into this. Questioned if we partner with them on a cleanup, could we get insurance through them. We also discussed if we could get added to their email list, as to be informed of any upcoming events and notices. Salvatore mentioned that their structure isn’t the best, it’s loose. They currently don’t have a dedicated base of volunteers. We
should follow up and ask them with regards to cleanups, partnering up and insurance.

Note: with a new priest soon to arrive at the parish, we hope that this individual will be on board with our committee, and cleanups moving forward
4. Pollinator – Salvatore reached out to someone for more information. Pollinators are good in terms of pollinating supply/bee-line. The individual offered to come and speak on this with us. We are interested to learn more information on this and hear more about it. Possibly inviting this person to speak at a meeting in January, something to arrange and invite other parishioners to come as well to learn more. If we don’t want to have a pollinator on the church property, others can come, learn more, and do at their own homes. We can make arrangements for a meeting date and add a notice in the bulletin to invite others to join. Salvatore will follow up and
see when she may be available.
5. Article on the committee by Sault Star or Sault This Week – Rose-Marie suggested that we reach out to Brian Kelly or Elaine Della-Mattia about writing an article about our committee, raising awareness. Chris will reach out to Brian Kelly.

6. Letters to companies to lobby for change in products – We discussed wanting to write/send letters to companies to ask them to change things such as changing their packaging to something more eco-friendly. Sending letters to companies that have made changes and thanking them. We want to advocate and lobby for change. Reaching out to people, as a third party kind of stance. We can take notice in stores, on shelves, “see something, say something” with how they package their products, take notice of waste and suggesting better ways. Also taking photos of products, or mental notes of what’s out there that have changed to eco / paper packaging. We should select one company each meeting to mail or email a letter, asking for change. Rose-Marie also suggested letters of appreciation. We can prepare a couple template
letters. We will start compiling a list of companies and stores the have made changes and send them a letter saying we are appreciative of their changes.

7. Alternative recycling locations – We will start compiling a list of local places that recycle items we cannot put in household recycle bins. For example, empty makeup containers, contact lenses, old electronics, batteries. We will compile a list and share it with parishioners. Clean North also has a list on their website of where/what to donate rather than throw away.

New Business:
1. Laudato Si’ week with films like The Letter – We want to show this film the week of May 21-28. We watched the trailer at our meeting. We decided we want to show this at the church to educate and raise awareness on the environmental crisis. We will

invite our parishioners for a movie screening and have a discussion afterwards. We’ll test it to make sure it will be easily visible for viewing at the church before inviting others to watch.
2. Educating the parish – This was tabled at this time.
3. Hazardous Waste Depot – Chris let us know that the depot is now open. For the season of creation, we will start collecting small items from parishioners at the church and bringing them to the depot. A notice will be put in the bulletin as a spring/summer cleanup collection 1-2 Sundays coming up.
4. Thank you card to Mary Trevisan – We want to thank Mary for her time on the committee, for her enthusiasm, help with the highway cleanups (along with her husband George’s help), her ideas, information she brought to us and her baking. Betty will organize a card to make sure she knows how much her commitment and participation was appreciated. Although she sadly had to resign as a committee member, she has offered to continue with any volunteering we may need, if she is available.

Closing Prayer
Next meeting – Tuesday, June 13 at 7:00 pm, chair: Chris