The Ohio Environmental Council (TheOEC.org) received a wonderful grant from the Joyce Foundation of Chicago. The Joyce Foundation was built on the resources of an Iowa family and has been located for the last 60 years in Chicago, The Joyce Foundation is proud to support the hard work, innovation, and community spirit of people in the Great Lakes region. The region faces the challenges that are epitomized in the “Rust Belt” label. But it is also home to America’s largest freshwater resource, its most fertile farmland, an energetic and diverse population, dozens of Fortune 500 companies along with thousands of smaller enterprises, and a cultural heritage ranging from Motown and the Cleveland Symphony to Frank Lloyd Wright and Oprah Winfrey. The Joyce Foundation seeks to ensure the continuing vitality of the Great Lakes. They provided OEC with funds to produce a video telling the story of two rural northwest towns, being Van Wert and Pauling, which were being left behind by the 21st century economy. Especially devastating was the fact that young people were leaving their homesteads, as they saw no future in the communities which they were raised in. These two towns, in the heart of Ohio’s agricultural economy are located, as it turns out, on the flattest and windiest land in the Midwest and this factoid made them ripe to develop wind energy programs. These communities are now home to hundreds of wind turbines that are generating not only clean, renewable energy but are also generating a host of economic benefits for local businesses, school districts and farmers. Puffin West’s grant will help promote the video so that as many people as possible and will be able to see this life changing tale and, indeed, they will be moved by the community spirit that made it so! The video focuses on the lives this project has changed. It is an amazing uplifting story that shines a light on the positive impact and potential that wind turbines can have in Ohio. It will also shown at the OEC Gala in November.
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