Community Organizer Spotlight: Erik Antokal
New Jersey Currents|Online, Summer 2009 - Update
The rain is coming down in sheets. Lightning streaks the sky. The roads are flooded and nearly impassable. Suddenly, there's a knock at your door. "Hi! I'm Erik! I'm a community organizer for NJEF!"
Congratulations! You've just met one of our brave summer canvassers.The New Jersey Environmental Federation (NJEF) employs a year-round staff of door-to-door canvassers to build membership in key legislative districts and gather hand-crafted letters to politicians. In the summer months, the staff more than doubles in size with an influx of college students. Erik Antokal, a rising sophomore at Tufts University, has been single-handedly responsible for educating hundreds of New Jersey residents on the health of the Barnegat Bay estuary and watershed and demanding a better funding plan for open space. The majority of his first three weeks were spent walking door to door in the pouring rain. We recently caught up with Erik to find out what makes a summer canvasser tick.
NJEF: Why did you decide to apply at New Jersey Environmental Federation (NJEF)?
Erik: As a community health major, this job fits nicely with my field of study. Plus, I needed a job! Before this job, I knew a lot about global and national environmental health issues, but I didn't know the details of NJ-specific problems and solutions.
NJEF: In your experience, how have people reacted to the campaigns you talk about at the door?
Erik: The Oyster Creek and Barnegat Bay campaign garnered an excited response from most people when they heard about the dangers posed to the local families. It was really inspiring to see the concern people showed for the safety and health of their fellow New Jerseyans.
NJEF: Why do you think the canvass is important to NJEF's campaigns?
Erik: Without the canvass, NJEF's work would be far less visible, and therefore, far less effective. By talking to real, individual people, the canvass wields New Jersey's population as its most powerful tool.
NJEF: Who is the most inspiring person you have contacted in the field?
Erik: One woman had a driveway that seemed like a mountain. I debated even canvassing it, but it turned out that she used to canvass for an organization in California. She wrote four letters, gave $60, and made me two sandwiches!
NJEF: What's one thing a supporter can do, other than contribute and write letters, to help a canvasser?
Erik: Show enthusiasm! Smile, joke, or perhaps offer some food. Give the canvasser an emotional boost to push him or her on to the next house.
Publication Date:
09/03/2009
In this issue of New Jersey Currents|online:
2008-9 Legislature Worst In New Jersey History?
November Elections for Assembly and Governor Key
At its current pace, the 2008-2009 New Jersey Legislature will go down as the worst environmentally in at least in modern history. Several major bills that rollback key protections have sailed through the legislature while the few positive bills that moved were comparatively less significant and even they had to be weakened to become viable.
Help Protect One of New Jersey's Most Valuable Ecosystems
The Barnegat Bay watershed and estuary is one of New Jersey's and the nation's most valued eco-treasures. The watershed, which covers most of Ocean County, is home to over 500,000 people year round, with double that number due to summer. The estuary covers 42 miles of shoreline from the Point Pleasant Canal to Little Egg Harbor Inlet and is protected from the open ocean by a system of barrier beaches and dunes. It is home to crabs, fish, birds, and other wildlife.
Community Organizer Spotlight: Erik Antokal
The rain is coming down in sheets. Lightning streaks the sky. The roads are flooded and nearly impassable. Suddenly, there's a knock at your door. "Hi! I'm Erik! I'm a community organizer for NJEF!" Congratulations! You've just met one of our brave summer canvassers.
Clean Energy Investment Provides Economic Boost, More Jobs in New Jersey
New studies demonstrate how New Jersey can create 48,000 jobs, especially for lower-income households
In June 2009, the New Jersey Environmental Federation, in coordination with the Garden State Alliance for a New Economy (GANE) and Laborers 55, co-released two complementary reports today that were prepared by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (PERI), Center for American Progress (CAP), Green For All, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which outline how investment in a clean-energy economy will produce significant economic and job creation benefits.
Kids growing up in Newark don't have it easy. Serious environmental pollution coupled with economic and safety stresses often give children no hope for a better future. Diesel exhaust levels alone cause a tripling of the cancer risk in comparison to suburban areas. Newark kids are also number 1 for asthma-related mortality rates with a doubling of rates within minority populations. What's sad is that many of these kids don't think they can do anything about it. But there is hope.
Making Connections: Water, Energy and Climate Change
Protecting water quality and quantity is one of the most important issues of our time. Currently, 1 billion people in the world (18 percent of the population) lack access to safe drinking water. By 2025, it is estimated that about two thirds of the world's population-about 5.5 billion people-will live in areas facing moderate to severe water stress. In New Jersey, unless we act now, we are on a path to run out of clean drinking water in 20-40 years (according to Joseph Maraziti, a former chairman of the New Jersey State Planning Commission).
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