By Brandolon Barnett     

The senior source has been around for over 50 years, helping to make life easier for DFW seniors through services ranging from detecting Medicare fraud to providing advice and aid on finding work and dealing with crises. An organization with 54 employees (all of them women!), the non-profit recently moved into a renovated structure on Harry Hines near Downtown Dallas that is one of the only LEED Silver buildings built and inhabited by a non-profit in Texas.

The floors are cork, a lot of the walls are recycled fiber, and the energy management technology is the latest and best available for companies and groups seeking to control their usage. A few years ago, in keeping with this desire to conduct its work sustainably, the Senior Source began a volunteer group now known as the Boomer Green Corps. Green Source sat down with Boomer Green Corps director Julie Krawczyk to talk about the history of the Boomer Green Corps, a recent spurt of growth, and the organization’s commitment to helping Dallas be a more green place to live through volunteer efforts.

Can you talk a bit about the history of the Boomer Green Corps?

Our green corps was founded a few years ago thanks to support from a generous foundation. We’re in the 3rd year of the program and I’ve been hired to turn it around and help the program to grow. In the past few months we’ve grown the program by leaps and bounds. We’ve negotiated a lot of new partnerships including with nsync exotics. In that period we’ve also partnered with the cities of Plano and Dallas, as well as with the Texas Trees Foundation and others. We have made connections with a lot of groups, and have especially engaged volunteers in community gardens, with a desire to support their work. Master gardener who volunteers to go around. A lot has changed in the months since I've taken over.

How many volunteer have gone through the Green Corps during your tenure? What is the typical volunteer like?

We have 54 active volunteers and we're growing, hoping that volunteers see the long term benefit. We're recruiting heavily for new volunteers and trying to call people to action on environmental issues. One example is an event we’re hosting in Coppell with Anna Clarke on Monday, March 26^th.

Our typical volunteer is diverse. That makes it hard to describe the typical and that's what I like about it. Many of them have specific passions, like renewable energy or gardening, or helping us to connect with individuals or groups. The main thing is all of them have some connection to the earth. My observation is that many of them want to give back. Most of them are highly educated and/or in the corporate world and may have contributed to environmental degradation if indirectly so they're just trying to give back.

What are some of the projects and partnerships you’ve negotiated in the past few months?

We’ve now partnered with the Trinity River Audobon Center, where our volunteers do things like clearing trails and more. We’ve arranged for our volunteers to help with tree lantings with Texas Trees, and we’re working with the City of Plano on the ‘Learn2Live Green Event’. For that event we’re bringing volunteers to assist with setup and we’ll be educating attendees on different opportunities.

What are some of the Boomer Green Corps greatest accomplishments in its short history?

We ran a CFL light bulb switch out program in boomer homes in conjunction with other groups. For me personally I think the volunteers remaining active and becoming the driving force behind our expansion and partnerships is a big accomplishment. In four months we've gone from maybe 1 or 2 to over 20 partnerships. We still need new volunteers but we've got so many opportunities. We're supporting our communities and we're here to stay.

Julie Krawczyk is the head of the Boomer Green Corps at the Senior Source.  Brandolon Barnett is the Editor of Green Source DFW. He has worked as Assistant Producer for THINK at KERA in Dallas, among other positions. With an MA in International Studies, his focus and passion is non-profit advocacy both domestically and abroad. To share comments or story ideas email - brandolon@greensourcedfw.org