Spreading the Love:
The Big Love Network Newsletter Spring 2025
Hello Beloved Community Member!
The Big Love Network is Akron’s network dedicated to fighting environmental racism and creating the ecosystem of environmental health equity. We are an evolving network facilitating neighbor-led/creative placemaking, sustainability, and health equity efforts throughout Akron as a means for social change.
Yes we used banned words… banned… words.. and we believe in them! And we believe in you! Please join us in finding joy amidst despair, rest amidst anxiety, reason amidst violence, and, most importantly, community amidst isolation.Growing Communities: Trees for Akron
The Big Love Network and our beloved community would like to invite you to participate in Growing Communities: Trees for Akron happening April 1, 2025 at Joy Park Community Center, 825 Fuller St. Akron, OH 44306. During this event The Big Love Network will be passing out free fruit bearing trees (varieties listed below), and some native and vegetable seeds.
The Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s Nature Includes You Traveling Photo Exhibit: This traveling photo exhibition and program series explores the rich relationships that people of color have with nature in Northeast Ohio, past and present. Nature is all around us: in our communities, gardens, parks, and yards. It nourishes and teaches us throughout our lives.
Nature Includes You – Cuyahoga Valley National Park (U.S. National Park Service
Keynote speaker; Devon Range, is a Community Forester with Western Reserve Land Conservancy. He will be speaking about his experiences and lessons learned on the Cleveland Tree Coalition. Please check out his bio: Devon Range (he/him) | Western Reserve Land Conservancy
The following panel discussion of hyper local experts will be talking about why expanding Akron’s tree canopy is important for the health and wellness of all Akronites. The panel consists of Devon Range (description above), Dr. Venkat Tondapu (Internal Medicine, Akron General Cleveland Clinic), Farme
r Rich (a local urban farmer), Imani Scruggs (4 H Educator with the OSU Summit County Extension), and Anika Luna Wild (a local urban farmer with Wild Soil Farm, sustainable landscape business co-owner with Wild Woman Designs and Consulting, and local artist). Panel discussion to be facilitated by Marc Tibbs of Akron CAN (Community Action Network).
Dinner is provided thanks to The Living Water Association!
We are welcoming local experts in tree care, tree canopy, gardening and farming to have a free table at the event. If your organization would like to sign up to have a table at this event please fill out the below form accessible via this link:
How can you help? You can help in 3 ways:
#1 Volunteer! Come help with door knocking, set up, volunteer at the event, or help tear down. Follow this link to sign up to volunteer! Volunteers will get a free Big Love Network t-shirt!
#2 Donate today and get a “Keep Akron Shady” Shirt, created by local artist Julie Farris! **Every $50 donation pays for your t-shirt and a tree to giveaway in low canopy areas of the city!*** Shirt order deadline set for Thursday, March 20, 2025 at 8am. All donations made by March 20 8am will get shirts on April 1 at Joy Park. All donations made between March 20-May 5, 2025 and will get their shirts at the Botanist Bitch Brunch, May 10 9am-2pm at the Big Love Cafe 1111 Carey Ave. Akron, OH 44314.
#3 Share the above event image with your networks!
If we run out of trees on April 1,2025, BLN will get the contact information of who is seeking what trees. BLN is hoping to hold a second Growing Communities tree giveaway in the fall of 2025 and to generally run a mutual aid relationship around tree canopy in Akron.
Trees available:
This program is primarily brought to you by: The Cuyahoga Valley National Park, The Conservancy for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, The Big Love Network, LEAD for Pollinators, Preserve the Valley, Save White Pond, The Portage Trail Group of The Sierra Club, Living Water Association, and The Greater Akron Audubon Society. Perennials 4 Pollinators:
Big Love Network and Riverside Native Perennials are working together to help BLN with their many worthwhile projects in the Akron area while at the same time bringing native perennials to our local pollinators. When you visit Riverside’s perennial website you’ll see over a hundred species of plants that are suitable for our area. On the left side of the “shop” page you can apply filters to fine tune your plant buying options to better fit your landscape. At checkout please use the promo code “BLN” and select “fundraisers only” as the delivery option. We will bring the plants up to Akron for distribution on May 10 between 9AM and 12AM.
Thank you in advance for supporting Big Love Network and our local pollinators!
Summit County Progressives Forum
Join Big Love and Summit County’s progressive organizations for this forum as we figure out how we are going to survive the collapse of our democracy. No one of us has all the answers. It is only together that we will craft the solutions to protect our region of refuge.
East Akron Healing Concert:
East Akron residents, especially in Chesapeake and Rosemary apartments, never received assistance outside of a 3 hour evacuation during the chemical explosion at SMB in September 2024. The Big Love Network responded by providing and raising mutual aid funds and door knocking immediately following the fire.
At the Healing Concert, Big Love, People Over Polymers, and Buckeye Environmental Network will have direct service providers, healing practitioners, food, and music in the parking lot for those directly affected. Organizing around this and multiple other environmental injustices in East Akron continues daily for Big Love. If you are interested in getting involved please contact us at bigloveakron@gmail.com.
Big Love is on Patreon!
Patreon is a wonderful site that allows people to support and invest in creatives and organizations at a monthly level. In exchange for that monthly support, there are levels of fun gifts and opportunities for the supporters.
As most funding is stopped from the federal level, and as state governments cease their funding streams, local giving of money and energy is going to be critical for keeping our environment and community alive.
Patreon is an easy way to get involved!
We have levels for whatever your budget might be! AND this can be utilized by individuals or businesses! So, if your business wants to sponsor us, this is a lovely way to do that.
Did I mention that donations to Big Love are all tax-deductible?
Support Levels:
Grassroots level is $10/mo, and you get added to the newsletter and get a cool Big Love pin.
Canopy level is $25/mo, and you get the above plus free or discounted entry to Big Love events and workshops.
Tree level is $50/mo, and you get the above plus free music downloads.
Understory level is $100/mo, and you get the above plus One monthly use of the Big Love Office for an event.
Roots level is $1000/mo, and you get the above plus one monthly dinner at the Big Love Office.
Pass it on, share the link.
Here is the link: patreon.com/BigLoveNetworkLove Your Mama Week:
Words from Zach:
Spring is an important time in our world. We look around us and see the lifeless winter of our democracy, and like the spring blooms, a new path forward can emerge even from the coldest, bleakest winters.
What brings the new growth forward? Warmth and sunshine and some rain.
What will bring a movement for compassion and community forward? Warmth, sunshine, and watering where organizations are already doing the work of organizing and community.
Warmth is compassion. Warmth is being the change we want to see. History is full of examples of groups becoming monsters to fight monsters. The monster rearing its ugly head today has one major flaw – like Smaug from the Hobbit. The strength of fascism is in everyone being afraid and then disconnecting from their broader communities to look after only themselves. And the vulnerability of fascism is people coming together and building stronger connections. Doing so in a spirit of joyful, playful resilience.
Sunshine is our joy. Our love. Our passion. Our art. Our voice. Our dance. Our creativity. Fascism thrives on fear. The opposite of fear is joy. Our actions can be oppressed, but our spirit, our heart, hope, and Love can only be limited if we choose it to be so.
This is very likely going to be a dark and difficult time. That must be acknowledged. And, we can do what humanity has done best our whole existence – collaborate and innovate. We are an amazing species at using our collective strength and wisdom to come up with powerful adaptations, while also using our incredible aptitude for creativity to innovate new solutions.
May we tap into that genetic powerhouse, and may we be green shoots bringing flowers out of this long, dark winter.
Cliff’s Notes: We only get what we’re organized to take. Get involved in community organizations. Use your energy and money to support your local community. Lean into and share as loud as ever, your passion, creativity, and humanity.
Thank you so very sincerely for all of the beloved work in this world that you do!
The Big Love Network 