GreenCorps Member Helps Launch Robbinsdale’s First Organics Drop-Off Site

For Minnesota GreenCorps member, Gwen Casey, her experience serving Robbinsdale these past nine months has been a powerful learning experience.

“It’s been really valuable,” says Casey. “I think working with a city on the smaller end has given me a sense of how important it is to work with the community.”

The recent Carleton College grad with a degree in biology gained valuable insight into how local government works by serving in multiple city departments.

“I had the really wonderful opportunity to work with not just one, but three departments in the city,” says Casey. “With sustainability, water resources, and forestry, and so that gave me a really wide perspective on how city operations work.”

Her hands on experience included treating diseased ash trees, planting new trees, and testing water quality.

Minnesota GreenCorps member Gwen Casey measures a tree’s diameter.

“And then with the sustainability coordinator, I’ve been working on primarily the organics recycling programs, so that includes the city’s first organic drop-off site which opened this February,” says Casey.

Robbinsdale Sustainability Coordinator Kayla Kirtz says this is the third year the city has participated in the GreenCorps program.

She values the direct impact members bring to the community.

“We’ve just been able to advance our environmental and sustainability goals in ways that we couldn’t without the GreenCorps program,” says Kirtz.

After leaving her mark in Robbinsdale, Casey is heading to Richfield for a second GreenCorps service term.

She encourages others passionate about the environment to consider a similar path.

“Absolutely, I think especially for people just getting out of college, or just deciding to transfer into the environmental field, I think it’s definitely a time to get into environmental work,” says Casey.

Robbinsdale

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