Vickie Goodwin

Vickie Goodwin and Husband SissyIt’s not surprising that Vickie Goodwin has wound up working for decades to protect Wyoming’s air, land and rivers. “When we camped out as kids, my mother’s rule was to leave it better than you found it. We picked up other people’s trash, learned to do no harm…. I’ve always been interested in taking care of the land around me.”

But what is surprising is one place that Vickie learned her organizing skills: selling Tupperware. “Selling Tupperware brought me out of my shell and taught me the most important thing: to ask.”

One day a friend sent an organizer from the Powder River Basin Resource Council to visit Vickie. She read the materials the organizer left with her, and quickly figured out she was interested. She became a member and when the organizer position opened in 1989, she applied for and got the job. As she met more people interested in protecting natural resources, she knew she had found her place.

In Vickie’s years working for the Powder River Basin Resource Council she became an expert at organizing groups to protect Wyoming communities from a variety of small and large industrial enterprises threatening their rural environment. Among the issues she worked on were new factory farms and large-scale cattle feedlots. These huge operations can have devastating effects on air and water quality. In some cases, small communities have wound up encircled by rings of foul odors, unable to even enjoy a summer picnic.

Vickie had her first contact with Social Justice Fund (then ATR) as a grant recipient in 1993. She experienced first-hand the importance of Social Justice Fund Northwest as a regional funder:

“Sometimes it seems like nobody cares about what’s going on in Wyoming, even in our region. We are small and considered a ‘red’ state. It’s very difficult to get funding. However, as with many of the groups SJF funds, a small investment can reap major rewards”

Vickie got involved as a member and then joined the Social Justice Fund board in 2005. Through Social Justice Fund, Vickie has become a grantmaker, serving on the 3-Year and Basic Grants Committees. One of her favorite parts of being a member is participating in site visits for other groups. Vickie recently participated in a site visit for another Wyoming grantee, the Wind River Alliance.

“As we drove into their office in Ethete, we stopped and looked at a chemical plant spewing out pollution, which blows over the Wind River Reservation. I was thinking, ‘here we are in this beautiful state that I love, and here’s a factory pouring poison onto people’s homes.’ Then I met the people working together from the Shoshone and Arapaho tribes to protect the watershed, to address the problems the community faces. I know our funding is making a difference.”

Vickie has retired from the staff of the Powder River Basin Resource Council to spend more time with her family, including her husband, Sissy, who she credits with teaching her the value of speaking up, and her granddaughters, Brittany and Skye, who remind her why it all matters.

In addition to her duties as a Social Justice Fund board member, she’s also writing a murder mystery. The sleuth in the mystery is a community organizer, and the mystery, is set, of course, in Wyoming.