The Central Ohio Greens formed a 501(c)3 charitable organization in 1991. We were a founding member of Greater Columbus Community Shares in 1993 and remain active members. COGEF sponsored several Earth Day celebrations and hope to do more in the future. Our information table is at every the Community Festival in June. We have held Chemical-Free New Year’s Eve parties and facilitated many a meeting between different groups who needed experienced peacemakers.

The Green Education Fund also makes grants to organizations that do environmental and social justice work in Central Ohio. Why do we give away money? Giving is not a trait come by easily in our brutally competitive society, so we understand that some people might be confused by such an admission. The COGEF understands that we can’t possibly do all the work that has to be done in repairing the damage being do to our world, so we have given grants to the Buckeye Forest Council, PEER (see pg. 25), the United Negro College Fund, and Simply Living. Many other organizations have also received grants but I simply can’t list them all, and our only regret was that some organizations should have gotten more money.

As individuals we have been a part of what I would call “memorable” moments in Columbus: shutting down the trash burning power plant; defeating Governor Voinovich’s effort to make Ohio a six-state nuclear dump site (with Citizen’s Protecting Ohio); and voting to defeat malls, arenas, stadiums and other big “development” projects that destroy whatever open space may be left in Columbus.

Greens have a passion about certain local issues. What do we want? Clean air, clean water (rivers, lakes, streams, tributaries) and unpolluted land (read: no toxic waste stored in barrels, left on some army base, which are now leaking any number of chemical pollutants into the soil). We don’t see ourselves as being “different,” we simply don’t want to get poisoned, and we feel that a majority of the people share our beliefs. That’s why we educate abd serve the central Ohio community.

To Contact the Central Ohio Green Education Fund: Deborah Halbert 263-3859; Gregory Gross 261-7534 or ggross@gcfn.org.

Green Ten Key Values

The Greens are a value-based social and political movement:

Ecological Wisdom – living within Earth’s limits.

Social Justice – fighting against poverty and injustice.

Grassroots Democracy – all citizens should have direct participation in key decisions.

Nonviolence – rejecting violence as a way of settling disputes.

Decentralization – restoring power and responsibility to local communities.

Community Economics – meeting everyone’s needs with democratic, local control.

Feminist Relationships – replacing competition and domination with cooperation and understanding.

Responsibility – personal lifestyles based on sufficiency and living lightly.

Future Focus – looking to the interests of the 7th generation.