Thank you to everyone who attended our meeting last night and thank you to Church of the Covenant for hosting. We had so many great contributions from everyone. It was inspiring.

It was inspiring to welcome new co-sponsors like Boston City Council President Andrea Campbell and Quincy Asian Resources Inc. Please see a complete list in the “About Us” section of our website. Below are some general thoughts that came out of the meeting. Formal notes will be available soon.

Earth Day 2020 Boston will be a week of action on climate. The April 18th event will kick-off a week of activities. Other organizations are spearheading a climate strike, voter engagement and direct action. We will support these actions. For the kick-off event, we are considering blocks of four speakers at a time, followed by music. Each speaker will have 3-5 minutes. We will prioritize speakers in each section who are from the communities that we are highlighting – frontline communities, youth, and faith communities. So many parts of the Boston area are vulnerable to sea level rise and/or extreme heat, but the most vulnerable are also low income residents in Boston, Quincy, Chelsea, Revere, East Cambridge and Somerville. Some of the data is available at Climate Ready Boston. We will continue to reach out to people who live and work with these communities.

In addition to highlighting the people who are being impacted by climate change, we will need to help people understand the continuing risk of the first man-made mass extinction of plant and animal species. We hope that the New England Aquarium, Museum of Science and other community organizations will help in this effort. If you have contacts at these institutions, please put us in touch.

We will also be launching a fundraising drive in January. We need to raise $17,000 to pay for staging, equipment and security. There is a subcommittee forming to help out with this. If you have expertise or interest, please let me know.

Our next in-person meeting will be January 22 at 5:30 pm. Please mark your calendars.

If you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, or Kwanzaa, I wish you happy and healthy celebrations. I am looking forward to working with you in the New Year!