Trinity UMC in Southport, NC Awarded "Ocean Friendly Establishments" Award

​Trinity UMC in Southport, NC is the first church awarded with the “Ocean Friendly Establishments” award in Pender, New Hanover and Brunswick Counties, North Carolina. The Creation Care Ministry Team of Trinity took on the goal of educating the congregation of Trinity UMC and the communities of Southport, St. James, Boiling Spring Lakes and Leland, NC to a greater understanding of the waste we are putting in the Atlantic Ocean that is at our front door. The project initially started in the kitchen area, led by Dr. Rebecca Felton, who undertook the task of guiding us through the process of removing plastic and Stryofoam from the church’s kitchen. We then extended it to the entire building with recycling bins throughout, ways tomake classrooms plastic free, etc. The children and youth participated in “The Crayon Project”.  We created a document for those outside of our church that use it for meeting space to coordinate with us on this endeavor as well. We have been educating our congregation through our Facebook page, meetings, classes, speakers and articles which have helped people change their habits and make them more aware of caring for God’s creation.  We studied the book, “Climate Justice” and met with Rev. Pat Watkins to be certified in the NC Conference with the “Green Church Initiative”. We recently held an Earth Keepers training for the NC Conference and 34 new Earth Keepers were commissioned. The “Ocean Friendly Establishments” is a local chapter, part of the “International Plastic Ocean Project.” The local chapter started with educating restaurants to, “Skip the Straw” and have since added ways for restaurants to lower their carbon footprint. The local chapter decided to open this opportunity of being awarded to other establishments that were also working on reducing the waste to the ocean. After discussion of the criteria, our Creation Care Ministry Team made the decision to apply for this recognition. We were awarded the highest level of a 5-star award. 

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