GLIN==> GL Town Hall: Guest Writer Kami Dolney from the Great Lakes Brewing Company

Dear Great Lakes Neighbor,

Each week we invite grassroots activists, artists, officials, physicians, parents, young people and others to offer insightful commentary on their Great Lakes experiences and views. Of course, we also invite you to comment on their thoughts!

This week, the Town Hall is pleased to welcome Kami Dolney, the Marketing Communications Manager for the Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland, Ohio. Come visit the Great Lakes Town Hall to read and respond to Kami Dolney's stories and perspectives about the Great Lakes every day this week - only in the Great Lakes Town Hall!

About Kami Dolney...

Kami Dolney is the Marketing Communications Manager for Great Lakes Brewing Company (GLBC) in Cleveland, Ohio. For those new to the company, GLBC is a principle-centered, environmentally respectful and socially conscious company committed to crafting fresh, flavorful, high-quality beer and food for the Great Lakes region.

Kami graduated from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, in 1999 with a degree in Economics. No longer interested in crunching statistics, but blessed with a penchant for writing and communication, she spent three and a half years crafting her position as the Director of Marketing & Communications at West Side Ecumenical Ministry (WSEM), a Cleveland social service agency serving those in need. Because of the energy spent on the social service aspect of the organization, the environmental aspect needed particular grooming. Kami took initiative and began a paper recycling program by not only placing recycling bins throughout the complex, but also sorting, separating and delivering the weekly load to the local paper recycling plant...until she got smart and had a recycling dumpster dropped onsite.

Through an interesting turn of events in 2002, Kami ended up as the Marketing Coordinator for GLBC after meeting one of the co-owners at a GLBC-WSEM sponsored event. GLBC had a need (at the time) for a Green Coordinator, which she originally applied for because of her interest in GLBC's "zero waste initiatives" which included running a shuttlebus on biodiesel, utilizing worms for composting office paper and kitchen scraps and recycling spent brewer's grain as cattle feed used by local farmers. The need for marketing supplanted the need for a green coordinator (again at the time) and thus, Kami's role in marketing continued.

Aside from engaging in and communicating about the zero waste initiatives that GLBC executes on a daily basis, Kami has been instrumental in planning GLBC's annual environmental and music fest called the Great Lakes Burning River Fest (www.burningriverfest.org) and serving on GLBC's 501c3 foundation, the Burning River Foundation. In addition, she was an Education Assistant at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo (where she met her husband!) and a volunteer with Youth Outdoors, which introduces inner-city youth to the great outdoors. A Northeast Ohio native her entire life, she considers Lake Erie the crown jewel of this region and wouldn't trade it for anything (except maybe an oceanfront villa in the Mediterranean).

Read and respond to Kami Dolney in the Town Hall

This Week’s Featured Issue…

In addition to guest speakers, the Great Lakes Town Hall focuses on a new featured Great Lakes issue each week, provided by co-moderators Dave Dempsey, Gary Wilson, and Brenna Wanous. This week, Brenna encourages readers to think beyond the list of things we can do the save the planet, and adds one more essential item to the list: Make the connections between nature and our lives.

Don't miss this great opportunity to read and comment on our featured issue - The #1 on the Earth Day To Do List - and the stories and perspectives of Kami Dolney in the Great Lakes Town Hall all this week!

Guest speakers contribute content on a Great Lakes topic of their choice for five days. While there are basic rules of conduct, guest speakers are unedited and diverse views are welcome. If you are interested in serving as a guest speaker, please reply to this email. We encourage individuals of all ages, occupations, and opinions to participate in the conversation.

Your Great Lakes Neighbor,

Brenna Wanous
Great Lakes Town Hall Manager

Biodiversity Project
214 N. Henry St. #201
Madison, WI 53703

(work) 608-250-9876

(cell) 507-456-4944

bwanous@biodiverse.org

Life. Nature. You. Make the Connection.