Give Cleaner Air a Chance This Thursday
7 am to Midnight Thursday, September 19th
Downwinders At Risk
Local, Determined, and Effective
Our Goal: $2,500 –
one month's salary for Director Jim Schermbeck
Every year the Dallas-based Communities Foundation sponsors a region-wide 18-hour fundraising marathon called "Giving Day" for local non-profits. This year, it's happening on Thursday.
From 7 am until 12 Midnight on Thursday you can contribute to Downwinders' work at the Foundation's special Giving Day website.
Donations of $25 or more can grow with matching funds and special rewards throughout the day. It's a great way to see your support of our work go further – sometimes by a lot.
This year, our goal is to raise a month's salary for our Director, Jim Schermbeck. That's $2,500. We know that's a lot for us in one day, but we think we have a good case to make.
Jim is the only full time professional staff person in Dallas-Fort Worth devoted to helping citizens in their fights for clean air.
His salary is where most of our budget goes. We hope you agree this is money well spent.
In the last five years, Downwinders has become one of the most effective and influential environmental groups in DFW. A list of our victories includes:
The cessation of hazardous waste burning at the Midlothian cement plants in southern DFW.
The closing or conversion of all seven older dirty wet kilns in Midlothian.
The closing of the outlaw Exide lead smelter in Frisco.
The denial of the awful Trinity East gas drilling permits in Dallas.
It's this track record of success that earned the group the very first Green Source Grassroots Environmental Leadership Award in 2012, voted on by our peers in the local environmental community.
We believe our ability to fund a professional staff person to assist local residents in their fights has been a major factor in our success.
Polluters and their allies usually have armies of lawyers, PR staff, and paid-for "technical experts." Citizens not so much.
Jim Schermbeck is Downwinders's attempt to balance the equation. He helps us bring decades of experience to every new fight. He helps find valuable resources and expertise. He helps teach citizens how to win.
DFW is the 4th largest metro area in the US. There are almost 7 million people who live here. We've had illegal levels of smog for at least the last 23 years. We host the largest concentration of cement manufacturing in the US, as well as the densest urban gas drilling field.
All this, and yet Jim is the only person who's available to offer full-time help for DFW residents who are fighting to get safe and legal air to breathe.
He's not on the staff of any large state or national group. His salary is raised by himself and the Downwinders' board of directors who all live in North Texas.
Our focus is here, where you live. Because it's where we live too.
We know many of you can't come to all the meetings and events we promote. But you still want to help us do our work. Thursday's Giving Day offers a great opportunity for anyone that can give $25 to help us a lot.
We tote the note for a local professional organizer because we believe it makes a decisive positive difference in the air we breathe and the rights we win.
If you agree, please show your support this Thursday by donating $25 or more to Downwinders at Risk at the Giving Day website.
Thanks very much for your support. We can't be successful without it.