Three environmental efforts honored by Presbyterians for Earth Care

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Presbyterians for Earth Care recognized two individuals and one congregation for their exceptional environmental achievements at the organization’s virtual Annual Gathering on Sunday.

Dan Dieterich of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, received the William Gibson Eco-Justice Award for his long history of being an Earth steward and inspiration at Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church and beyond. Trinity Presbyterian Church in Hendersonville, Nort Carolina, was presented with the Restoring Creation Award for demonstrating sustainable practices (installing solar panels and reusing 50-year-old brick pavers) and encouraging continuing Earth care practices in the congregation. Gabrielle Parrulli, a young entrepreneur from Albuquerque, New Mexico, was given PEC’s Emerging Earth Care Leader Award for showing exceptional promise as a future leader.

William Gibson Eco-Justice Award Winner: Dan Dieterich

Dan Dieterich, an environmental activist with a long and steady dedication to Earth care, focuses on confronting the climate crisis. A member of Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Dan is an ordained deacon and elder and a retired English professor from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He has offered sermons on environmental topics and made community climate presentations. His words inspire the understanding of humankind’s sacred relationship with God’s Creation. 

In 2001, Dietrich founded Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church’s Green Team, which is now the church’s largest committee. The church became a PC(USA) Earth Care Congregation in 2010. He and other Green Team members tend five raised-bed gardens on church property and deliver the produce from those beds to local food pantries. The Green Team also purchases and plants trees in local school forests and engages in other environmental actions. Dan and his spouse, Diane, are leaders of the Green Team, organizing many educational events, including movies, speakers and panels.

A member of many environmental nonprofits, Dietrich has a long history of being a good steward of the Earth by leading Central Wisconsin’s native plant group. He has a leadership role in the Central Wisconsin Citizens Climate Lobby as well as serving as CCL’s Wisconsin co-coordinator.

Restoring Creation Award Winner: Trinity Presbyterian Church, Hendersonville, North Carolina

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Trinity Presbyterian Church in Hendersonville, North Carolina, has been heavily involved in sustainability and environmental awareness since 2018, when three members researched solar panels for the church. By May 2019, the first 85 panels were installed. Five months later, more panels were installed, for a total of 129. With additional improvements in energy efficiency, the panels now provide 90% of the church’s energy needs. Committee members have led classes at other churches and prepared a detailed handbook about their solar process to share. 

Every year since 2017, Trinity has celebrated the Season of Creation on Sundays from September 1 to October 4. The celebration includes special worship services, nature-based liturgical art, four stations of Creation in the woods behind the church, tree planting and an annual picnic. 

The Earth Caring Ministry was commissioned in 2021, and the church became an Earth Care Congregation in 2023. In addition to solar energy, Trinity engages in other sustainable practices such as reusing 50-year old pavers for a walking path and providing education through classes, in the church’s newsletter and blog, and at a “Sustain Ability Begins at Home” table set up every Sunday in the Narthex of the church.

Emerging Earth Care Leader Award Winner: Gabrielle Parrulli

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Gabrielle Parrulli believes that God put us on the Earth to care for it and not to damage it. She says it is time to clean up our act and clean up the Earth.

Four years ago, while a junior in high school, Parrulli opened the first version of her refillery out of an Airstream trailer. She says that refilleries are one of the most honest types of stores. Most of them are independent and female-owned, offering their customers accessible, affordable and available products.

Parrulli speaks to church, civic, and school groups to tell them how to best care for the Earth and the importance of eliminating plastics — especially single-use plastics — and using environmentally safe products for cleaning and personal use.

Now Parrulli has a refillery store, called Fillin’ Funky. All products are eco-friendly, and there is no plastic. Customers take their own containers and fill them with eco-friendly products like detergent, dish soap, shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen and more. Fillin’ Funky is plastic and waste-free, and Parrulli hopes it will help encourage residents to clean up and green the environmental landscape in Albuquerque and New Mexico.