VT SWEEP, in partnership with New Hampshire Environmental Educators (NHEE) and The Wellborn Hub, hosted the New England Environmental Education Alliance’s (NEEEA) Annual Conference this past November at the Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, Vermont. While the weather was slightly dismal with rain and dense fog, the atmosphere at the conference was anything but dismal or foggy! With over 250 attendees from across all six affiliate states, the three-day event was filled with positive energy and connections. Everything about the conference exemplified the theme of Coming Together to Share Our Collective Work of Building Environmentally Resilient and Just Communities.

We kicked things off with the Wellborn Hub Leadership Conference on the first day, which helped set the tone for the rest of the conference. Cheryl Charles, founding Executive Director of the Nature Based Leadership Institute at Antioch University New England and the Co-Founder, President and CEO Emerita of the Children & Nature Network, gave an inspiring keynote speech, ‘Ecology of Hope’. The rest of the day was filled great discussions, networking, and learning for all.

Over the next two days, you could feel the energy and excitement build as new connections were made, old friends were reunited, and everyone shared the collective learning and inspiration that were sparked by the many workshops and presentations. Marianne Krasny, Director of the Civic Ecology Lab at Cornell University, gave an exciting keynote on Urban Environmental Education and the work of the Civic Ecology Lab. We were thrilled to have Judy Braus, Executive Director of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), give a lively, witty, and upbeat second keynote address at dinner. I was inspired by both of these speakers, and by the conversations and excitement they ignited throughout the rest of the conference.

At every NEEEA conference, awards are given to honor outstanding environmental educators and programs from the New England region in three categories: Non-formal Environmental Educator, Formal Environmental Educator, and Maria Pirie Environmental Education Program Award. Edmund Smith from Two Rivers Magnet Middle School in East Hartford, Connecticut, and Tara Jo Holmberg, a professor at Northwestern Connecticut Community College, were awarded the Formal Educator Award. The award for Non-formal Educator was presented to Dr. Laurence “Larry” Davis, Director of Nature Programs and Teaching at Camp Pemigewassett (“Pemi”) in Wentworth, New Hampshire. The Maria Pirie Environmental Education Program Award was given to two very different, but equally outstanding, organizations for their passion and dedication to engaging youth in environmental education: Amoskeag Fishways of Manchester, New Hampshire, and Environmental Living and Learning for Maine Students (ELLMS) Collaborative of Maine.

A Lifetime Achievement Award was also awarded at this year’s conference to honor Coleen O’Connell. Coleen has dedicated her life to environmental education and inspires others to lead the charge. She recently retired from Lesley University, where she taught for over 20 years. She is currently on the VT SWEEP Board and the NEEEA Board as the Vermont representative. We are fortunate to have Coleen’s participation in VT SWEEP, where she continues to dedicate herself to advancing the field of environmental education and serving as an excellent role model to many.

The Coming Together theme played out over the whole process of putting this conference together, and celebrated the collaborative efforts of the partnership for planning the conference. I had the pleasure of getting to know and working with some amazing educators and leaders in the environmental education field in our region. As we move forward, I hope the collaborative spirit that was sparked at the conference continues and flourishes as we progress into the future together.

Editor’s note: For almost 2 years, SWEEP has focused on planning and executing the 2018 NEEEA Conference. With a successful conference behind us, we will spend time in 2019 reflecting on our past and our present to chart a path into our future. To that end, two veteran SWEEP leaders, Barry King and Lisa Purcell, have offered us the following history. We invite you, our members, to join the conversation about SWEEP’s next chapter.

It has always been about connecting, sharing information and supporting each other. In 1973, when SWEEP started, the handful of environmental educators and programs in Vermont were dispersed throughout the state and didn’t really know what each other was doing. Sally Laughlin of VINS (Vermont Institute of Natural Science) and Ty Minton at the Putney School spearheaded a gathering of people that included Tom Hudspeth of The University of Vermont, Abbott Fenn of Keewaydin, Duncan Campbell of Merck Forest, Jean Davies of Camp Betsy Cox, and Doug Sherry of the Montpelier Environmental Education Program. SWEEP was formed at that first meeting. Sharing and camaraderie was SWEEP’s sole purpose for years and, back then, physically gathering and talking was the only way to connect as a group. We’d take a quick tour of the host site, then spend the next hour or so updating the others on our work. When someone needed information about a topic or problem, others chimed in to help. Our programs were fairly small and most had a specific niche; there was no sense of competition. We were all feeling our way in the new field of environmental education and wanted each other to succeed. This collegiality fostered valuable growth of the individuals and programs and, eventually, of SWEEP itself.

After being loosely organized for about 15 years (organized enough, however, to host two NEEEA conferences!), in 1987 SWEEP’s members decided to write by-laws, establish memberships, charge dues, start a newsletter, and print a directory of members/programs for teachers. Over the next decade, in addition to meetings, newsletters and the NEEEA conference rotation, SWEEP held multiple Vermont conferences including The Governor’s Conference on Environmental Education, plus many topic-specific salons and retreats. In 1998, SWEEP decided to take on a bigger project: convincing the VT State Board of Education to add two standards to Vermont’s Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities. Through various partnerships, grants, statewide outreach and two years of effort, the two new standards, “Sustainability” and “Understanding Place,” were approved. An additional standard, “Natural Resources and Agriculture” followed in 2006.

In 2009, SWEEP embarked on another ambitious initiative, an 18-month project to create an Environmental Literacy Plan (ELP). With an appreciative inquiry focus, the planning process included community-based dialogues in each of Vermont’s 14 counties. The minutes and county highlights comprise the Vermont Roadmap to Environmental Literacy. Harnessing this energy, SWEEP partnered with Promise of Place for the 2010 NEEEA conference. Preliminary work then began on a K-12 ELP to support the Next Generation Science Standards, which Vermont adopted in 2013. The next year, SWEEP participated in a NEEEA capacity building project and received an EPA grant to increase environmental awareness and knowledge. Vermont’s sub-grants supported curriculum development, a succession of phenology field trips, and a statewide teacher professional development series.

In 2016, SWEEP organized and hosted the statewide Cultivating Climate Resilience Summit with funding secured by NEEEA from U.S. EPA. The Vermont State climatologist and UVM professor, Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux, gave a lively keynote address about her climate research and her educational programs with students and teachers around the state. 2016 was also the year that SWEEP made the strategic decision to become a 50(c)3 organization, and in 2017 we revised our bylaws to provide clearer guidance for organizational operations.
In the fall of 2018, SWEEP, NHEE (New Hampshire Environmental Education), and the Wellborn Hub hosted the NEEEA Conference. The theme, “Coming Together”, reflected SWEEP’s commitment to bringing together environmental educators in a common vision of shared work – the same philosophy SWEEP has had since its beginning.