In honor of their 25th anniversary, Changes Salon and Day Spa, Center for Well Being has organized the Deserves Changes contest (http://deserveschanges.com) in order to support, empower, and provide a platform for one deserving woman in our community.  The winner will receive over $10,000 in prizes designed to support the total woman, including a makeover from  Changes Salon & Day Spa, TriKaya life coaching, fitness makeover, style session, nutritional counseling, yoga and aikido membership, heart spa package, and more.

Each of the entrants have been nominated by someone who knows them well and appreciates the efforts they have made to make the world a better place.

Oakland Local is a big fan of Oakland resident Beth Terry, who has been selected as one of the 10 finalists in the Deserves Changes contest. To win, Beth needs as many votes from the public as possible to be selected as winner. Voting ends on January 25, so please don't wait.  Oakland Local encourages you to vote for Beth Terry at http://deserveschanges.com/vote and to support her through forwarding the message to your friends, family, and social networks. 

Why are we so hot on Beth?  Beth Terry is an terrific environmental activist and blogger at fakeplasticfish.com. She's worked tirelessly to educate people so we can end the plague of plastic pollution that is degrading our oceans, harming wildlife, and endangering our health.  In 2008, she took it upon herself to organize the Take Back the Filter campaign to urge Brita to take back and recycle their plastic water filter cartridges, a campaign that was recognized recently by the City of Oakland.

Currently, Beth aspires to write a book in order to reach many more people with this important message.  But she could use some help to complete her work.  Staying up late at night to promote her cause while working as an accountant for a Bay Area home care agency during the day, she confesses she has ignored her personal well-being in service to her mission.  The prizes offered by the Deserves Changes competition can only help her be a more effective and energetic communicator and community organizer through nurturing her body and spirit. (Translation: Every environmental rights activists enjoy spa treatments once in a while.)

Interestingly, it was  Gail Johnson from the company Glass Dharma (http://glassdharma.com),. which makes reusable glass drinking straws,who nominated Beth for this award. Gail said:

"I would like to nominate Beth Terry as someone who Deserves Changes in her life because she has acted as a change agent in the Bay Area but reaches worldwide in her influence with her blog, FakePlasticFish.com. Her beginning statement is: “Our oceans are filling up with plastic: plastic that harms wildlife and never biodegrades; plastic that enters the food chain and leaches toxic chemicals. This blog is a record of my journey to live with as little unnecessary plastic as possible. Won’t you join me? Fake plastic fish may be cute, but if we don’t solve our plastic problem, they could be the only kind we have left….”

At a time where many people feel overwhelmed and want to take the head in the sand approach to the environment, Beth has educated and offered many options for people to apply to their daily life such as using glass drinking straws instead of plastic.

Beth is a great researcher and writer. Some of her recent topics in her blog include: Reconciling Disneylands personal impact with environmental impact, Recycle vs. Refill: Conversations with HP, Cartridge World and Silo Ink and Notes on a Plastic-Free, Shopping-Free Holiday. Beth has created an amazing amount of material in the 3 years she has blogged, asking the hard questions and acknowledging that this is a process and that we are all in this together!

Beth is a contributing editor for BlogHer and has served on their Green Team in an advisory capacity for their conventions. She was also single-handedly responsible for creating the “Take Back the Filter” campaign for Brita water filters. She worked with Brita and Whole Foods Market in Oakland to develop a viable recycling program for Brita water filters. She was given an award for this work by the city of Oakland.

Beth is on the board of the Bay Area organization Green Sangha -Inspiring Awakened Action which is a spiritually based environmental activist group with a number of projects such as getting major magazines to switch to recycled paper. She is particularly interested in their Rethinking Plastics campaign . She not only is a masterful wordsmith, she knows how to weave photos and video clips into her stories in a way that informs, entertains and inspires others to make changes in their lives. Here a video clip she included last April after watching Oprah on Earth Day.

Beth would be very honored and excited to be picked as the winner of the Deserves Changes contest. She knows she could use assistance and coaching in her presentation, delivery and better ways to make an impact. Although she has accomplished a lot, she is ready to play an even bigger game!"

Okay, so if you've read down this far, let's repeat the message here: Oakland Local encourages you to vote for Beth Terry at http://deserveschanges.com/vote and to support her through forwarding the message to your friends, family, and social networks. (We just did.)

About Oakland Local editorial team

The Oakland Local editorial team is made up of Kwan Booth, Amy Gahran, Meg Spohn, Irene Florez, Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig, Susan Mernit and others. We use this handle for general-assignment reporting and local info.