WATSONVILLE—Regeneración-Pajaro Valley Climate Action was recently named a finalist for the ecoAmerica American Climate Leadership Awards.
The honor comes with an all-expenses paid trip for two to Washington D.C. to attend the American Climate Leadership Summit later this month. Additionally, Regeneración and the nine other finalists from around the country will be awarded $10,000, and will be in the running for grants of $50,000 and $25,000 that will go to the winner and runner-up, respectively.
“We’re kind of over-the-top excited about this,” said Regeneración Executive Director Nancy Faulstich. “It’s an incredible opportunity to be on this stage with all of these impressive organizations…Being in the same room as these other leaders from around the country is an award in itself. We have so much to learn from them.”
According to the American Climate Leadership Awards website, finalists “will have implemented a climate program that has made a significant difference in their sector in mobilizing public support and political will among constituents, getting them to take climate action with urgency.”
“I think we fit that description,” Faulstich said.
Regeneración’s community survey from 2018 shone a light on how climate change—especially warmer summer and fall weather—is disproportionately affecting the poorest of the poor in the Pajaro Valley. For that work, former Mayor Francisco “Paco” Estrada selected Regeneración to lead last year’s Spirit of Watsonville Fourth of July parade.
The organization followed up that survey with another that is currently underway. This time Regeneración is asking farmers in the Pajaro Valley how changing weather patterns are affecting their crops. They hope to form a more complete representation of the agriculture-rich region with this undertaking.
“It’s important to understand how (farmers) are dealing with the uncertainty that climate change brings,” Faulstich said. “That’s the strongest characteristic of climate change—uncertainty. The question we have to ask is, ‘how do we deal with that uncertainty?’ That’s something we need to determine together.”
Other finalists include state and national movements and organizers such as CALPIRG and the Future Coalition. The former is a group of roughly 238,000 students from 10 University of California campuses that ran and won a campaign for a system-wide commitment to use 100 percent renewable electricity by 2025. The latter coordinated the U.S. Youth Climate Strike Coalition, the group of nine national climate organizations that led the Fridays for the Future climate strikes in the U.S.
The American Climate Leadership Summit runs March 25-26. It will feature dozens of climate action advocates, including Chris Anderson, the owner and curator of TED, a nonprofit that conducts idea-based talks around the globe.
Regeneración was founded in 2016. Faulstich and a small group of volunteers worked out of her living room and garage during the nonprofit’s infancy. Over its first four years the organization has helped spread awareness about small everyday actions that residents can take to fight climate change, such as eating more plant-based and locally-grown foods and reducing car travel.
The meteoric rise has been a blur, Faulstich said.
“When you’re in it, on the ground and in the field, it can feel like forever, to get anything done,” Faulstich said. “Now, this kind of brings us to the national level…Obviously, we’re honored.”
