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Happening Now.
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Meet Don Ackerman
Don Ackerman is a legend in Ottawa County, OK and you haven’t known it. What he did has cost EPA millions of dollars and will cost even more in the decades to come. Those dollars all spent to protect our children from lead poisoning. The lead was found in school yards, parks and residential front and backyards, all being dug up and removed and replaced with clean lead-free soil. Don put this action into motion. We will be forever grateful and will continue to tell this story

Rebecca Jim
Apr 294 min read
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What Could Have Been
Random. I attended the Wild and Scenic Film Festival this weekend that was held at the Circle
Cinema in Tulsa, OK. After hauling bags packed with LEAD Agency schmuck in from the rain I
quickly began laying information out on the last available table. Handouts, flyers, a box of PINS,
newsletters and the print we are selling chances on for Gary & Kimie Calcagno who lost their
home in Stillwater to the fire recently. The first person to stop as I was laying things out looked

Rebecca Jim
Apr 213 min read
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Leaders Standing for Justice
All these years later, we are still waiting for it, for the cleanup you all deserve. The environment waits. The water waits...

Rebecca Jim
Apr 83 min read
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I deferred
The image in my head is of the me standing up midst and among the rows of Waterkeepers and yelling the words that 20 years ago Earl...

Rebecca Jim
May 4, 20234 min read
2 comments


I Come Back
Many years ago, my dad experienced a moment that occurred one afternoon in downtown Vinita. Two old Cherokee men were walking toward each...

Rebecca Jim
Mar 26, 20233 min read
1 comment


Light of the Moon
Over the last few months, I have continued to listen to your stories and have been touched by the generosity you have shown not only to...

Rebecca Jim
Mar 21, 20233 min read
0 comments


Start with Trees
LEAD’s Community Garden went to sleep for the most part during the Pandemic. We didn’t gather volunteers, no Garden Parties, not a weekly...

Rebecca Jim
Mar 4, 20233 min read
0 comments


Lowdown at the Coleman
The takeaway for me was, run as fast as you can, dance every dance, do what you will, but do it NOW. The days may be numbered to...

Rebecca Jim
Feb 24, 20233 min read
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You Have a Right
2/12/2023 Channeling my thoughts with you, from my heart to yours. I am angry that YOU have been disrespected. People who made decisions...

Rebecca Jim
Feb 12, 20233 min read
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Not a Party Girl
I don’t get invited to many parties. The best thing that ever happened to me was being a ROPES course instructor. Why? The games. And the...

Rebecca Jim
Feb 12, 20234 min read
0 comments


Big Chicken Got Cooked
It took 13 years for the judge in Tulsa to make his decisions about the way Big Chicken junked the Illinois River Watershed. But the decisio

Rebecca Jim
Jan 29, 20233 min read
0 comments


More Than Shade
There is power in trees. They can heat us in the winter they can cool us in the summer. They can lift our spirits, they can transport us...

Rebecca Jim
Jan 19, 20233 min read
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We All Dream
Life's most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others? Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream. I had one too. His...

Rebecca Jim
Jan 19, 20233 min read
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Checking My List
The season lies about us and remaining on my list are those closest to me. The dear and most cherished, the remarkable cogs that turn...

Rebecca Jim
Dec 26, 20221 min read
0 comments


No Body's Story
"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” ― Charles Dickens Dickens' A Christmas Carol is read on Christmas...

Rebecca Jim
Dec 26, 20223 min read
0 comments


Off Duty
Jennifer Little, the gift LEAD Agency got for Christmas arrived early enough to capture the seasons of joy and the stark reality of our...

Rebecca Jim
Dec 11, 20224 min read
0 comments


It's Hard
I knew it would be hard. The questions on the Flood Survey need to be answered but the heartache and disgust of what past floods have...

Rebecca Jim
Nov 26, 20223 min read
0 comments


Survey Your Moment
What is LEAD Agency doing right now? We are deeply into surveys. The word survey can be both a noun and a verb, since a survey can be a...

Rebecca Jim
Nov 21, 20223 min read
0 comments


A Night Out
Red Dirt and Brownfields was not a place but a time. A Geography professor, a filmmaker, an author, a photographer and an activist met...

Rebecca Jim
Nov 21, 20223 min read
0 comments
Who Done It?
"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ― Maya Angelou This town has...

Rebecca Jim
Nov 21, 20224 min read
0 comments


Black and Orange
What right do a group of fellows have to violate the Clean Water Act and dam up a natural flowing stream? No right. It is against the...

Rebecca Jim
Oct 31, 20223 min read
0 comments
The Bridge
"Action is the bridge between thoughts and reality" ~ Richie Norton I'd like there to be a future. Of course there will be a future,...

Rebecca Jim
Oct 31, 20223 min read
0 comments


Wednesday Morning
Together we have thought and pondered. We have tuned up our voices. And practiced believing our lives matter. There have been alignments...

Rebecca Jim
Oct 16, 20224 min read
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