Meet Lauraine Woods, the woman who brought Project Porchlight to Burlington.
In March 2007she heard Executive Director Stuart Hickox talking about the campaign on CBC radio. "I was looking for a project because I want to do my part to support the environment," Lauraine says. So she logged on to our website and got in touch with Stuart. "He answered me within two minutes!" she recalls.
Stuart explained that Lauraine needed to engage her community, get them interested in Project Porchlight. And that's exactly what she did. She contacted MP Mike Wallace and got him on board. Then she set up a meeting at Burlington Hydro with none other than the organization's COO and VP, Engineering/Operations Gerry Smallegange. She also approached anyone and everyone she ran into and single-handedly recruited nearly 20 Project Porchlight volunteers in Burlington.
So how did she get up the nerve to talk to dignitaries and people she'd never met? "One of the good things about getting to be in your fifties is that you're not afraid of anything," Lauraine says. "I have this grey hair and it's made me powerful, it's made me fearless."
Thanks to that chutzpah, Lauraine made Burlington the first GTA site to receive Project Porchlight CFLs.
The campaign is now complete in her area, but don't think that means Lauraine has abandoned her commitment to the environment. Since bulb delivery wrapped up, she was selected for a position on the Burlington Sustainable Development Committee. And for that, Lauraine gives her thanks to Project Porchlight.
"I really want to thank Project Porchlight for waking me up to continuing this work, giving me the 'yes, you can do it!' kind of attitude," she says. "Now that Porchlight is over in Burlington, I'm not going to stop; I'm going to continue to be involved at the local level through the Sustainable Development Committee.
"But," she adds, "If Stuart comes up with another good idea, I'm game for that too."
