The founder and leader of The SWFL Clean Water Movement, headquar- tered in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, persisted even when many business owners considered him a nuisance, driving off tourists. As infestations of blue-green algae
blooms have reached emergency levels, Heim’s ongoing grassroots campaign to increase awareness of water quality issues that’s backed by social media recently brought him to Washington, D.C., to make his case before Congress. The nonprofit’s 18,000 members have succeeded in bringing national atten- tion to the thick muck now plaguing both Florida coasts. They’re working to alter nutrient-laden discharges from Lake Okeechobee that send agricul- tural toxins and rain overflow down the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers and out into vital estuaries. Scott Bunn’s
Seneca Treehouse Project, launched in 2010, grew from his building background in a family of entre- preneurs to encom- pass design/build ser- vices and education in eco-housing and ethical living. Bunn’s original Seneca, South Carolina, homestead and acreage includes apprentice learning programs teaching practical skills in cultivating permaculture, growing food, building structures, working with tools and living in an intentional community. “For the next six years, our goal
Scott Bunn
Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.
~Margaret Mead
is to annually train 50 people that will train 50 more people. Continuing this exponential growth pattern means the potential for 312 million more people living more compatibly and lightly upon the Earth. We’ve already estab- lished collaborations with six other cit- ies around the U.S. that can potentially duplicate our efforts,” says Bunn.
Providing Healthcare options
Martie Whittiken, of Plano, Texas, a board-certified clinical nutritionist and host of the Healthy by Nature nation- ally syndicated radio show, uses her talents to advocate for health freedom in America. Educating listeners for 19
natural awakenings October 2016 31
We are a community of possibilities, not a
community of problems.
Community exists for the sake of belonging, and takes its identity from the gifts, generosity and accountability of
its citizens. We currently have all the resources required to create an alternative future.
~Peter Block, Community: The Structure of Belonging
years, she served as president of the National Nutritional Foods Association during crucial phases of the 1992 to 1994 fight to successfully pass the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act to preserve con-
sumer choices. The author of
The Probiotic Cure also helped found the Texas Health Freedom Coalition to protect citizens’ rights to choose alternative medical treatment in her state. Whittiken says, “My work is a labor of love. I have no interest in becoming famous or well known unless it contributes to getting the job done.” On a 2006 medi-
Martie Whittiken
cal mission to Haiti, Gigi Pomerantz, a licensed nurse prac- titioner at the Aurora Sinai Medical Center, in Milwaukee, discovered the impact of a lack of clean water and sanitation as her four-person team treated 1,400 patients for worms, stomach problems, diarrhea and poor appetite. Two years later, she founded Youthaiti, where she serves as executive director.
Gigi Pomerantz
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