This year the annual Harvard Community Conference (HC2) will be held in Volunteers Hall at the library Saturday, March 2, from 2 to 4 p.m., with a snow day of March 16. The topic will be one that is very much on the minds of people everywhere—climate change.
Student organizer Michele Buni, a Bromfield junior, brings both passion and organizational skills to the event. She has lined up a range of speakers from age 11 to 95, in person and on tape, with time for questions and refreshments. In talking about climate outreach, Buni acknowledged how hard it is to get people to change, but first, she said, they have to listen.
HC2 was begun in 2018 by a Bromfield School student as a senior project, and the intention was to foster broader understandings of one another by bringing diverse members of the community together to share views on a specific topic. That first year it was identity, and subsequent topics have included change, giving back, and hope. Arm in Arm, a town organization committed to supporting diversity and inclusion, has sponsored the conference, and one of its founders, Ellen Sachs Leicher, has mentored the student leaders since the conference’s inception. This year the Harvard Climate Initiative Committee, of which Sachs Leicher is the chair, is co-sponsoring the event.
In a recent conversation, Buni said she has been inspired by Sachs Leicher’s work with different town organizations. Home-schooled until eighth grade, Buni joined the Bromfield Green Team, a club working to make the schools and community more environmentally friendly. She has also worked with Sachs Leicher on Earth Day activities and helped with the climate committee’s initiatives, such as the campaign to incentivize people to be more energy-conscious by placing a green flag in the yard of those who have taken actions in at least two different areas from those listed on the committee’s website, Harvard Energize.
Buni learned about the Climate Stories Project, and she took a free online course, the Climate Ambassador Program. Buni said there were people from all over the world who wanted to talk about climate. “It was very cool.” It was this training in getting people to tell their personal stories connected to climate change that gave her the idea for the format of the HC2. She has planned a varied program, and she said her home-schooling years have given her experience in independent learning, finding resources, and organizing.
Local presenters
Five Harvard residents will be presenting. Melissa Marteney, who worked for 21 years at the Department of Conservation and Recreation, will talk about her observations of the effects of climate change in different aspects of recreational activities, conservation efforts, and beach operations. Bromfield senior Ellie Maglothin will talk about the intersection of climate change and social justice. Adam Meier is the director of Housing Partnership Network’s Green & Healthy Communities Initiative and works across a network of leading affordable housing nonprofits to build and support healthy, vibrant, and sustainable communities for all. Charlotte Vallaeys is an expert in all things organic at General Mills, one of the largest producers of certified organic packaged foods.
A well-known member of the community, Paul Willard ran the Willard Farm and grew vegetables and summertime produce for the past several decades. No one would debate the superiority of his corn. For 27 years, Willard served on the Conservation Commission. Ayer resident Marion Stoddart is a renowned activist, community leader, and founder of the Nashua River Watershed Association. She will tell the story of the rescue and recovery of the Nashua River in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Buni has been working with four fifth-graders who will be presenting their own opinions on the issues of animal rights, warming oceans, and the effect of climate change on honeybees.
In addition to the presenters, artwork by students at Hildreth Elementary School and Bromfield will be on display in the long hallway outside Volunteers Hall, as well as some by adults. Of note are Sachs Leicher’s temperature quilts, which colorfully depict temperature data from Harvard in 1993 and 2023. Community groups will be set up with information and handouts.
