Ambler (PA) Mennonite Church’s “Green Team” (a task force for creation care) invited church members to gather on the church lawn on Saturday, April 10, to prepare Earth Day thank-you cards. We wrote to thank legislators who are working to protect this earthly sphere on which God has planted us along with His other creatures.
We recycled leftover cards from our “green” Valentine’s Day care packages. The cards were made by our artistically talented children and youth, who also created some new ones for the event. The front of each card contained a picture of planet Earth with the message, “Your actions mean the world to us … Happy Earth Day!” Each of the eight adults and five children who came, hand wrote a brief message of appreciation for a specific initiative taken by one of our nation’s leaders on the inside of one or more cards.
In a little over an hour, we had cards ready to be mailed to Washington, DC, for 24 members of Congress plus one for the President of the United States.
An exciting part of the project for me personally was researching what was happening in Congress and which legislators we could thank. Before I started, I thought I might have trouble finding enough lawmakers to thank, but instead, the problem was limiting the list to a number we could handle. I had no idea until I started this research how much environmental work Congress is doing! It is impressive, given our often-polarized government, how much of it is happening in bi-partisan committees, task forces, and working groups.