Local Leader Spotlight

This local leader has dedicated over 50 years to environmental activism

Virginia Smith has dedicated over 50 years to environmental activism. A grandmother, teacher, former farmer, and passionate bird lover, she has long been a champion for the environment. From inviting Greenpeace to table at her craft fair in the early 1970s, to turning her farm into a migratory bird sanctuary, to donating matching funds to Sierra Club BC, Virginia has spent her life standing up for healthy lands and water.

Read on to learn more about Virginia Smith and how she became involved with this work. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did you first get involved in environmental work?

In the early 1970s, I was organizing a craft fair in Kitsilano and while I was walking around the neighbourhood, I saw the Greenpeace office. This is the first time I had ever come across environmental activism and considered the impact people had on the natural world. I was so inspired by my conversation with one of the founders that I invited him to table at the craft fair to help raise awareness of Greenpeace’s campaigns. I became one of their first monthly donors!

From then on, I kept deepening my involvement with environmental work. As a farmer, I petitioned to put an end to GMO seeds and handed out bumper stickers. I attended the Clayoquot Sound protests in 1993 with my son where he was arrested. In the late 1990s, I started a website called Environmental Consumer Options to make it easier for people to make smarter environmental decisions and stay up to date with environmental news. I’ve supported environmental campaigns all over the world, from snow leopards in Tibet to migratory songbirds in B.C.

What inspired you to support Sierra Club BC?

It was when I started donating to Sierra Legal Defense, because that’s the first opportunity I saw to put pressure on the government. Sierra Legal Defense later became Ecojustice and I sort of lost sight of Sierra Club BC for a little while just because I was working full time on my farm and things like that. A few years ago, I had a meeting with the Executive Director of Ecojustice and asked him if he had any suggestions for other groups to support and he suggested Sierra Club BC and Georgia Straight Alliance.

What would you tell people that want to take action?

Find your priority interest – are you interested in climate change? Are you interested in the birds, fish or other animals in your area? – and then find the organization that matches your interest to help find more information and educate yourself in the process.

Secondly, if you have the ability, join local groups in your region to get your feet on the ground and do something active. Have conversations with people in your community about environmental issues, take them on a walk and encourage them to take small steps that make a difference.

And if you can’t do any of those things because you’re like me and I was running a farm, I was a single mom, if you’ve even got a little bit of funding, you can watch for matching donations. That really gives you a sense of accomplishment when you realize $5 is $10 when it’s matched.

What do you hope to accomplish with your philanthropy and supporting environmental groups like Sierra Club BC?

By working against climate change, you’re not just helping Sierra Club BC, you’re not just helping you and your neighbour, you’re helping everyone in the world. When you’re faced with something as big as climate change, there’s nothing worse than a feeling of helplessness in the face of what you fear most. But if you realize that you’re not helpless, even by doing all these little things we’ve been talking about, you can have quite a big influence and that spreads everywhere.

Most people say “well what can I do about climate change” – well you can do a lot. Just start with what you’ve got.