Thanks to our incredible network of supporters we were able to secure a 2-1 match donation for any dollar of giving to our end of year appeal “Another World is Possible” through December 31. That means that $100= $300, $25=$75 and so on. Can you help us raise the $12,000 we need to meet our match  goal? Right now, your donation can have triple the impact on our work for health and justice! 

Grassroots Fundraising with numerous small dollar donations is what allows our organization to remain an independent voice in the fight for racial and environmental justice! This is a great opportunity to join our work through giving to make a big impact!

Donate online today! https://www.cacwny.org/donate/

Dear Clean Air community, 

On June 5th, 2021, I gathered with people that I love, respect and admire to watch the three infamous smokestacks at Tonawanda Coke topple down. I brought two of my children with me as we battled sandflies to watch those three brick mountains topple to the ground. We all know that those stacks weren’t just an eyesore, but a symbol of the pain, grief, loss and anger that our communities have felt for decades.

The emotions I felt on that day and the months after are honestly still hard for me to put into words. Waves of grief, of joy, of trepidation, of pride and anger flowed through me as we stood together on the banks of the Niagara River.  I lost my mother and my grandmother to cancer, both of whom lived and grew up less than two miles from those nasty stacks. My sisters and I breathed in chemicals from those stacks and those like it for our entire childhoods. Members of my church filled the pews time and time again to mourn the losses of those we knew. My fellow Clean Air members and I were called radical, crazy and too emotional for wanting the site cleaned up to the highest possible standard. It was all so much. 

Those stacks came down because the people rose up. It’s so much more than a catchy little phrase; it is the god’s honest truth. I choose to do this work, this hard, exhausting work, because we are organizing for a new world, and we’re winning.  A world where babies won’t ever breathe in benzyne. A world where we can plant gardens and make mud pies in our backyards without fear of poisons mixed with clay and dirt. A world where no one has to have a bake sale or basket raffle to fund a funeral, because the people we’re mourning will have never experienced the suffering that comes from someone else’s greed and oppression. I choose to organize with Clean Air because I believe that our members’ visions for a new world are possible, and we’re building the power we need to get there. 

You have heard from two of our incredible environmental justice campaigns this week on how they are building and leading a new world and you will be hearing from more in the coming weeks. I have the honor and privilege to work alongside our membership as we stop the bad of someone else’s wildest dreams and build justice, liberation, health and dignity in our world. 

Will you join us this holiday season by investing in our members’ visions? Our grassroots fundraising work enables us to be bold, visionary and get to the roots of our interlocking systems of oppression that are killing us. 

With bread and roses,

Emily Terrana 

Director of Leadership Development and Organizing

Clean Air members, supporters and friends,

In the Delavan-Grider community, we are making the impossible possible. Ten years ago it felt impossible to dream of a neighborhood where residents could safely drink their own water or plant gardens in their backyard. It felt impossible to think that the State of New York would hear our calls for justice, accountability and action at the former American Axle site in our backyards. It felt completely ridiculous to imagine a world where our elected officials would put their necks out to support our community’s health, dignity and joy. And yet, we persisted, and we are making the impossible possible.

Our American Axle Steering Committee knows that another world is possible because we show up to build it each and every day. In 2021, each of us have taken risks to have our voices heard and have tried new things to build the power that we need to live in a world where our health and joy matter more than the status-quo.

Our team didn’t give up when the NYSDEC denied us a seat at the table in the form of an American Axle Community Advisory Group. We leaned on one another and held onto the burning truth that we deserve to be heard, seen and respected…and we won. When we won a CAG for American Axle, we didn’t stop there.  In 2021 we built Clean Air’s first “Lunch and Learn” Facebook Live program that shared our team’s knowledge, wisdom and experiences with the broader community. We continued to build deep trust and relationships with people living in Delavan-Grider and former workers at the American Axle plant. We put our dreams into action; we imagined more.

Our team will continue our work into 2022 and beyond to ensure that all of our friends, family and neighbors live in a healthy, dignified and just community. We want our babies to play in their backyards, we want to plant gardens with healthy food and flowers, and we want to drink our water without fear. When you support our work, you are joining with us in building the world that we all deserve.

This holiday season, we hope you will join me in making a gift to Clean Air and commit to supporting smart, effective organizing. Join us so we can all imagine, and win, more. 

Thank you!

Ms. Della, Ms. Shirley, Ms. Shelda, Ms. Blue, Sydney Brown, Niasha Hamilton, Emily Terrana and Chris Murawski

P.S. For more information about Clean Air’s campaigns, check out their website: (https://www.cacwny.org/) or like them on Facebook (www.facebook.com/cleanairwny).

Dear Clean Air Members, Supporters and Friends,

In our community, we are sick and tired of being sick and tired. For us, the quality of life in our neighborhood isn’t just about stopping trucks from barreling down the street, it is about our community’s legacy for our children and grandchildren. In Seneca-Babcock, we put in the work to make our community safe and healthy. We imagined more. 

When we first started organizing, it felt impossible to stop the silica dust and diesel trucks coming to and from the Battaglia Concrete Crushing facility on Peabody Street. It felt impossible that a judge would listen to regular people over big money and political connections to bring us justice. It felt impossible to get our lives back, but little by little, we are. But we aren’t done yet. 

In 2021, our team had some big wins and huge setbacks. We’ll be honest, we got thrown under the bus this year by agencies and institutions that should have been on our side, but we aren’t going to let them stop our fight.  We are still fighting for the harm that was done to us by years of neglect and abuse from big money to be healed. We are still fighting for the land that we maintain to be rightfully transferred to our Land Trust. We are still fighting for the burnt out building behind our homes and the acres and acres of toxic soil to be cleaned up and replanted. We want justice for our community and we are going to keep building the world we all deserve despite it all. 

We need you to support our fundraising work so that we can keep fighting, keep dreaming and keep building. In 2022, our team will keep fighting for justice for our neighborhood and look out to the larger City of Buffalo and Erie County for ways that we can make sure that all communities are healthy and safe. We know that what happened to us is horrible, but it is not unique. When you support our work, you are supporting our vision and our leadership to get us all closer to the world we need.

This holiday season, we hope you will join us in making a gift to Clean Air and commit to supporting smart, effective organizing? Join us so we can all imagine, and win, more. 

Thank you!

In solidarity,

The Diane’s Land Campaign Team:

Diane Lemanski, Lemanski, Jackie & Norm Weaver, Jack

Wagner, Ed & Jean Loucks, Leonard Lemanski, Jarrett Steffan, Linnea Brett and Emily Terrana

P.S. For more information about Clean Air’s campaigns, check out our website: (https://www.cacwny.org/) or like us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/cleanairwny).

P.S. Please consider making a sustaining gift of $5, $10, or $20 a month to ensure Clean Air is always ready to take on the challenges ahead. Thank You!

Another world is possible. 

In her poem “ V’ahavta”, author, poet, organizer and artist Aurora Levins Morales invites us to imagine a new world. So much more than a visioning exercise, she invites us into the practice of collective imagination that we need to sustain and enliven our work for health, justice and liberation. Boldly, Aurora proclaims that yes, another world is possible and yes, it is our duty to build beyond what we can see now to bring about what we all need to thrive. At Clean Air, our staff, members and supporters work dutifully and boldly to build a world where our environment promotes health and equity and where systems place communities at the forefront of  decision making.

In a year full of uncertainty as our team navigated transitions and our community navigated through an ongoing, global pandemic, one thing was certain: we never stopped working  towards a new world. Our staff, members and supporters have carried our rage, grief and longing and transformed it into action; we imagined more. 

Fifteen years ago, it felt impossible to imagine the three smokestacks at Tonawanda Coke topple down, but they did. Five years ago it felt impossible, foolish, to imagine that children on Peabody street wouldn’t breath in silica dust while playing in their backyards, but now they can sleep knowing that no one will ever operate a crusher behind their homes again. Three years ago it felt impossible that workers could pursue justice from one of the richest men on earth, but now workers are connecting and building with one another and healing from trauma. One year ago it felt impossible to imagine the State would acknowledge the ongoing impact of environmental racism in the Delavan-Grider community, and now residents have built a body to hold the state and developers accountable to our health and justice. 

Aurora asks us to imagine winning and then imagine more. We need and deserve healthy, thriving, vibrant communities. And we know that requires transformation: of ourselves and our communities, and of the systems profiting off our sickness, suffering, and deaths. 

We’re looking ahead to 2022 with excitement and hope, because we know another world is possible. We’re raising $75,000 so that we can continue to show up, live out our values, and build a bold vision for the world we all deserve. 

Your support for our work in 2022 and beyond will directly impact our ability to imagine and create more for our communities. Please join us this season by renewing your commitment to our movement and helping us to reach our goal of $75,000. 

In solidarity and determination,

Chris, Emily, Bridge, and Linnea

P.S. Please consider making a sustaining gift of $5, $10, or $20 a month to ensure Clean Air is always ready to take on the challenges ahead. Thank You!

Dear Clean Air Members and Supporters,

It is with great pleasure and excitement that I write to you to introduce myself as the new Executive Director for Clean Air! I am honored and humbled by the opportunity to uphold the legacy of strong and bold leadership by our past Executive Directors Erin and Rebecca. Their work, along with the teams they led, have built so much at this small but mighty home for those fighting for justice. Home is exactly what it feels like to me in my first week on board. I also want to acknowledge the incredible work of the staff, directors, and member leaders who have stepped up to not only weather a year of uncertainty and transition, but have driven the organization forward and gained significant wins.

I was born in Niagara Falls, NY and come from a family with strong working class roots. My grandfather was a World War II veteran with a grade school level education and was able to land a job as a welder at what was then Hooker Chemical Company after the war. Through his hard work and the unpaid work of my wonderful grandmother, they were able to put 5 kids through college and move the next generation of my family into the middle class. The resources that benefited my family and many others came at a terrible price to the land and people’s health from the toxic legacy of a fossil fuel based extractive economy. As I grow in my understanding of the issues we face, I have also realized that these opportunities were not available to everyone and the harm from pollution has disproportionately affected the working class and communities of color. Undoing the legacy of pollution and injustice is the core reason I am driven to do this work.

I have spent the last decade of my career at Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, and the last six years as Director of Community Engagement, where I have worked and crossed paths with many of you. I was lucky to collaborate with lots of amazing people and have left a lasting legacy, having helped build a strong team and robust programing to inspire current and future generations of water protectors. During this time I have gained experience in nonprofit management, fundraising, and staff supervision and mentorship. I worked hard to lead Waterkeepers efforts to become a more equitable, just, and diverse organization as I believe the Environmental Movement must include anti-racism if we are to truly achieve our missions.

As many of us in the field have come to grips with, passion for our lands and waters and educating individuals on issues is not enough. We have to continually provide opportunities to work on root causes of inequities in intersectional ways. Embracing this, I have been energized through work with Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Buffalo to organize other white people to show up and take action to achieve racial justice. I am very excited to continue this work as it ties closely with our fiscal sponsorship of Black Love Resists in the Rust, which SURJ works in solidarity with. I am also proud to have been a founding Board Member of the Friends of Broderick Park in 2020 with our mission to tell the story of the history of the Underground Railroad in Buffalo to trace this legacy to the present day.

I have gained inspiration from working with fellow members in the past few years on the American Axle, Tonawanda Coke, and Huntley Campaigns through my role at Waterkeeper, and am proud of the work done to unite both organizations to work together more. From this direct work and throughout the interview process, what continually called to me is the power of member led and centered campaigns and the lifting of member voices in organizational decision making. I will passionately uphold this core value as we move forward.

As we are all aware, the past five years have been tumultuous, with our movement seeing tremendous gains in the fight for racial and environmental justice followed by stark reminders of how far we need to go to achieve the world we all know is possible. I am attracted to Clean Air because we have always been an independent voice seeking to work on the root causes of issues. It is essential that we continue to build our grassroots fundraising to do the work our members need to gain justice in their communities. I am diving right into this work with all of you as we launch, Another World Is Possible, our 2021 Appeal tomorrow on Giving Tuesday. We have a big goal of raising $75,000 in grassroots donations by year end but I know we can do it together!

Look for continuing communications in the coming weeks for ways to connect and participate with us, and I look forward to seeing you digitally or safely in person soon!

In Solidarity,

Chris Murawski

Executive Director

Clean Air Coalition of WNY

chris@cacwny.org

We are incredibly excited to share with our members, supporters, and community that Chris Murawksi has joined our team as our Executive Director! 

Chris brings over 10 years of experience leading and building strong teams, mentoring new generations of leaders, fundraising, and coalition building. His environmental science experience and passion for environmental justice will complement and support our Organizing Team to drive our member-led campaign work forward.

As an active member of both Clean Air and Showing Up for Racial Justice’s Buffalo chapter, Chris has been working towards creating a more just, healthy community for Western New York. Over the past year as both a Clean Air member and the Director of Community Engagement at Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, Chris has participated in our member-led campaign teams for Tonawanda Coke and American Axle, pushing for transparency and resident-knowledge to be at the forefront of remediation. Chris’ experience and leadership is an asset that will help continue to grow Clean Air in our fight for the world we know we deserve. 

We are looking forward to introducing you to Chris with all his passion and energy over the coming week!

With great excitement for our next chapter,

Joel Bernosky, George Boger, Sydney Brown, and Jenn Carman
Clean Air’s Board of Directors