Featured Chapter: CCL Delaware

Delaware is a small state represented by two Democratic senators — Sen. Chris Coons and newly inaugurated Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester — and just one representative in the House, Rep. Sarah McBride. CCL volunteers in Delaware coordinate through a single statewide chapter under the leadership of State Coordinator Beth Chajes and Group Co-Leader Phil Smith.

Because Delaware's relatively small size puts constituents close to their lawmakers' offices and local activities, "the political environment is magical," Beth says. "We're likely to see our members of Congress at church, at the supermarket, or at local fairs in the park."

In the past year, the Delaware Statewide Chapter held tabling and presentation outreach at locations ranging from the University of Delaware's Coast Day festival to the annual Delaware Youth Environmental Summit for high school students, and at local breweries. They also got their hands dirty as part of Delaware Governor John Carney's initiative to plant "A Tree for Every Delawarean" (roughly one million trees, that is).

In the fall, the chapter enthusiastically embraced postcarding to turn out environmental voters, with about 35 active volunteers up and down the state working together, often over pizza or coffee and donuts, to write 2,000 postcards through the Environmental Voter Project and Washington state's No on 2117 campaign. Even in a small state, travel distances necessitate that chapter meetings are held via Zoom, so postcarding parties were a fun way for Delaware CCLers to interact in person as well as spur voter turnout.

Keep up the great work, CCL Delaware!