Past LENA Projects
Our aim is to encourage sustainability and environmental awareness through diverse community-based projects. We have hosted small-scale projects such as community meetings and collaborated with large-scale projects such as Prompt for the Planet. Check out some of our past projects below, and please feel free to contact us if you have an idea for a community project!
The Butterfly Effect Experience (B.E.E.)
In the summer of 2023, we partnered with Oaknoll to create an intergenerational summer experience centered on Monarchs and other pollinators. During this field study, learners/explorers followed the life span of the monarch butterfly and explored optimal food and ecosystems which support healthy monarch populations, and compared local micro-habitats. In addition, we invited our community to join in learning about, caring for, and protecting our pollinators through multiple community events.
*The butterfly effect is a termed used by physicists to describe the tendency for small changes to have unpredictable, possibly exponential, effects.
Eco-Station at The Diversity Market
The Eco Station program is a collaboration between Antelope Lending Library, The LENA Project, South District Neighborhood Association, and City of Iowa City that provides a free platform for eco-minded organizations to connect with the broader community during the Diversity Market in the Iowa City South District.
The Market will be held this summer from 3-7 pm from Saturday, July 8th-August 19th.
Iowa City Repair Cafe
We worked with a group of Iowa City neighbors committed to reducing waste and building skills.
Repair Cafés are free meeting places for repairing things together. You’ll find tools and volunteer repairers to help you make any repairs you need on clothes, furniture, electrical appliances, bicycles, crockery, appliances, toys, et cetera.
Iowa City welcomed its first repair café on May 6, 2023. Since its beginning, a group of volunteers have maintained the Repair Cafe and have held several Repair events. The events are free and open to the entire greater Iowa City area.
Repair volunteers are on hand to fix items ranging from bicycles and electronics to clothing and stuffed animals. Learn more about IC Repair here
The Intersectional Environmentalist Book Talk/Q&A with Leah Thomas
Leah Thomas, celebrated environmentalist based in Santa Barbara, CA, coined the term Intersectional Environmentalist. She founded and launched Intersectional Environmentalist in 2020, a resource hub and platform that aims to advocate for environmental justice, provide educational resources surrounding intersectional environmentalism, and promote inclusivity and accessibility within environmental education and movements.
LENA hosted Leah for a virtual Q&A and reading from her new book, The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet Afterwards, Lena hosted a Community Climate Conversation to discuss how to bring these key concepts to our own community.
The IC Holiday Toy Redistribution Project
The IC Toy Redistribution Project was began in 2020 and continued in 2022. We aimed to redistribute wealth in our community via high-quality used toys. We collected approximately 1000 toys each year and provided a safe way for families to claim them for free. We are proud that this project brought joy to families who were struggling during difficult times as well as kept toys in circulation rather than heading to the landfill.
The IC Toy Redistribution Project was presented in 2022 by CCAN, The LENA Project, local social justice advocate Anne Ventullo, and is financially sponsored by Michelle Balhan and Velvet Lotus Tattoo
LENA Kids Club/Outreach
In Summer 2021 we got together in-person once again for LENA Kids Club and Outreach. We held six free Kids Club/Outreach events, providing local children an opportunity to experience nature, learn about the environment and discover small ways in which they can help Planet Earth.
IC No Plastic Bags Project
In 2020 The Lena Project, in collaboration with Millennials for Climate Action and The 100 Grannies planned a re-usable bag distribution project. We handed out 100s of re-usable shopping bags to HyVee customers, reducing the use of single-use plastic bags. Many of the re-useable shopping bags were created by The 100 Grannies using leftover upholstery fabric destined for the landfill. Other bags were donated by various local groups. Plans were made to continue this project throughout the spring and summer at several local grocery stores. The project was paused due to Covid-19.
Community Climate Conversations
In 2019, The Lena Project hosted its first Community Climate Conversation. A small group of city leaders, University of Iowa student leaders, small business owners, and community members met to discuss the issues surrounding the climate crisis and local challenges and solutions. Our Community Climate Conversations (CCC) were put on hold due to Covid. We held our second CCC was help in April 2022 to discuss Intersectional Environmentalism and how to bring environmental justice to our community.
The Strawless Initiative
In 2018 a group of preschool children at Preucil Preschool set out to help the ocean and her creatures. They learned that sea animals were digesting plastic straws and getting sick, so they aimed to reduce plastic straw use in Iowa City (having also learned that all drains and rivers lead to the ocean). They convinced 10 local restaurants to change their practices of handing out plastic straws (but to have them available if requested). Soon after, many others followed their lead. The children talked to people at the Iowa City farmers market and to local news media, asking people to consider re-usable straws when possible. And finally, they spoke with the 2018 Mayor of Iowa City, Jim Throgmorton. He was supportive of their initiative and proclaimed July 18, 2018 Straw-Less Day in Iowa City.