-: My name is Markie Miller,
I am an organizer with Toledoans For Safe Water,
and we're the grassroots group that's
behind the Lake Erie Bill of Rights effort here in Toledo.
Started out just as an organizer,
helping to put the language together
and I helped collect signatures.
Over two years I think I collected 800 signatures
and we all did varying amounts.
And I became sort of the spokesperson for the group
and I get to talk to media,
I do interviews all the time,
I give presentations, write press statements,
and just try to help organize the group and keep us moving.
My full time job is grant writing for a legal non-profit,
and so I am up in the morning doing research,
doing writing,
and then fielding phone calls and emails that come in
about our organizing and trying to set up times
to meet with people, to network with people,
watching what's going on, getting developments about,
well this brief just came in, this ruling just came in,
what are we gonna do?
And then it's shift gears, change hats,
try and get a press statement together,
try and organize when we're going to give this out,
is there an action that we need to follow up with?
And usually it's conference calls all night
with different networks that are statewide,
that are nationwide,
talking to reporters from all over the world
and just trying to get the word out as much as we can
and talk to people who are interested in us.
And a lot of our work is outreach and networking,
trying to talk to other communities
who are facing some kind of immediate threat
to their water source or to their environment,
and working with them to say this is what we did,
this is what you can do.
And helping them, and trying to give them some guidance
in what they can do as well.
We've been invited to different states to go and talk,
we were invited to talk to the United Nations
for Earth Day this year.
So the door has really been opened up.