Artist Deborah Aschheim has created a series of 19 portraits of community members who have a connection to the Walnut Creek Wetland Park. The artworks depict the faces and narratives of people who love the park, work at the center, or have contributed to the creation or ongoing story of the park. You can view the portraits at the the wetland center during park hours.
George C. Jones, Jr.
George C. Jones, Jr., the Executive Director of Partners for Environmental Justice, grew up in Biltmore Hills and is a longtime member of St. Ambrose Episcopal Church. He is working to honor Dr. Norman Camp’s vision for WCWP while he leads PEJ into the next era of environmental stewardship and restoration.
I am the Executive Director of Partners for Environmental Justice. I've been in a nonprofit management for over 10 years.
I grew up in Biltmore Hills. My parents built our house at 2008 Gilliam Lane, it was their first home. My father was the assistant principal at Carnage Middle School. The area behind the Wetland Center was like a backyard for me. I had an appreciation for outdoors growing up. I also experienced flood area activities.
I've been baptized, married and confirmed in St. Ambrose Episcopal Church.
Norman and Betty Camp were members of St. Ambrose. In the early 1990s, church and community leaders came together to say to the City of Raleigh, we've got to do something about the dumping, the degradation of the creek bed. We don't have enough investment in this community to protect people's lives and livelihoods.
Partners for Environmental Justice was formed out of three churches: Trinity Episcopal Church in Fuquay-Varina, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cary, and St. Ambrose. St. Ambrose supported Dr. Camp’s leadership and his priority of educating the community about the importance of the habitat and wetland protection of Walnut Creek.
Trust issues between the city and residents go back to the building of the first Black subdivisions in Raleigh. They designated the first neighborhoods for African Americans in a floodplain area. In the early 20th century, the area along Walnut Creek was a junkyard full of trucks and vehicles. Walnut Creek has high nutrients and chemical toxins that come off the streets and flow into the creek beds, and those contaminate the wetlands.
When Norman Camp visualized the Center, it was an opportunity to put a flag in the air and say, we live here, we care about our community, we’re not going anywhere. We want Walnut Creek to be a part of the solution to build a better model.
Some of the solutions we’re promoting in community partnerships are individual scale solutions, like using cisterns at your home that filter water for gardening or removing impervious surfaces like asphalt driveways and replacing them with porous surfaces. Some solutions require investment from the city or even federal government.
Raleigh is one of the fastest growing communities in the country. Targeted economic development really can only expand south and southeast of downtown into historically Black neighborhoods, adjacent to the Walnut Creek Watershed. I think equitable development would be making sure that any displacement is done in a way that's environmentally and economically beneficial to the residents living in the community.
The benefit of having the WCWP here, as an example of infrastructure improvement, is to address the degradation of the streams and creeks, the dumping and debris in the watershed, and the history of raw sewage and contamination to water quality, particularly affecting minority communities. It becomes a working experiment and demonstration of what can and should be done in helping to address the problem.
Reverend Robert Jemonde Taylor
The Reverend Robert Jemonde Taylor is the eleventh rector of St. Ambrose Episcopal Church. His commitment to environmental justice and racial equality, and his personal connection to the land, deeply inform his ministry of resurrection and transformation, and his civic involvement.
Coming here to St. Ambrose helped me make a greater connection between the land and humanity.
I grew up on farmland in Franklin County, NC, which is only an hour north of Raleigh. This is the land that my father's side of the family has lived on since at least 1790: 75 years as enslaved Africans, and then in 1865, at the end of slavery, my ancestor approached his former enslaver to purchase 15 acres of land. He and his descendants accumulated more and more land, growing the farm to its current state. In my family, the land is personified. The land is a living family member.
St. Ambrose Episcopal Church is in the floodplain. We have a great probability of flooding.
In 1956, the City of Raleigh designated this area as one of two planned communities for Black people to live during segregation. Black people could only live in certain designated areas during segregation. This 39 acre community beside Walnut Creek in the wetland is Rochester Heights. The problem is the City dumped raw sewage into Walnut Creek for 70 years, from 1887 to 1956. The same year the city stopped dumping sewage, it zoned the area as an intentional Black community. I often say, “The City dumped raw sewage, garbage, and then they dumped Black people.”
Zoning this as a place for Black people to live was an example of environmental racism, and the proximity to Walnut Creek wetlands makes it flood prone. There are several homes along Bailey Drive where houses were washed off the foundation from flooding. This flooding is still a challenge today.
One of the chief challenges we face related to flooding is the development upstream. Rochester Heights and St. Ambrose sit at the end of a 46 square mile watershed. All the building and development in Cary, where Walnut Creek begins, and the development is Raleigh that paves over wooded and grass areas means more rain water runoff flowing to Walnut Creek. Development hardscapes lead to flooding headaches.
In the late 80s, Interstate 40 bisected the Black community, separating Rochester Heights from Biltmore Hills. This led to increased respiratory and noise pollution for the residents. We worked with an NC State University sound engineer who measured the noise level in Rochester Heights, and it's higher than other communities in Raleigh. Not only has water been an issue, but air quality and noise pollution as well.
Our newest effort is called the Healing Garden which uses therapeutic horticulture to help address the mental and emotional health needs of the Black community. Participating in the plant life cycle, the digging, planting, weeding, pruning, and harvesting, helps people process any emotional challenges that they're experiencing, including loss and grief.
This is about the liberation of Black people and the liberation of the environment. That is our purpose here. Watch Rev. Taylor tell his story.
Harold Mallette
Harold Mallette grew up in Biltmore Hills, moving to Waters Drive shortly after the neighborhood was developed. His concern for environmental justice grew out of his parents’ friendship with Dr. Norman and Betty Camp.
I’ve been a mental health, family counselor, and then a substance abuse counselor. Now I do juvenile justice counseling. There’s always been an ethos of service in my family.
I am the son of David and Mary Mallette. My parents were educators out of Robeson County, and then Wilmington. We moved here from Wilmington when I was seven, in 1967. My father and Dr. Norman Camp were friends, along with Carolyn Winters with the environmental people. They help to initiate concern about the Wetland Park.
First of all, nobody was calling it “wetland,” it was sewage. It ended where State Street comes down to Bunche Drive, at a big pipe, and sewage and water ran through that. As kids we played in little platoons of concrete. We would go out in those little platoons and ride up and down the water.
Q: Was it unhealthy, though?
H: Definitely.
We did not know how unhealthy it was. It was a part of play growing up. As we became teens, we became more and more aware that this is really sewage. Most of the time it didn’t smell bad. It looked weird. Green, Brown. But the water, because of the elevation, would often come in and flush that all out so it looked like regular water. The adults began to talk about it. As the water began to come regularly, it threatened to flood the church.
We belonged to St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Wilmington, it was the first African American Episcopal Church in North Carolina. We came to St. Ambrose in 1967 or 68. I went to Fuller Elementary. This whole neighborhood was 3 or 4 four years old. It was something to really be proud of, it still is.
I had never seen a neighborhood specifically developed and planned for African American homeowners. In some neighborhoods, there may be 10 or 20 houses owned by African Americans. But there were at least 100 houses in Biltmore Hills and Rochester Heights. It was something to behold. It was a real, thriving community at that time. There was a grocery store, 2 gas stations, a cleaner.
Most of the homeowners were veterans who had lived in different parts of Raleigh, and they finally gotten to where they could utilize the GI Bill to get financing. That's how this neighborhood developed.
Desiree Bolling
Desiree Bolling is a member of St. Ambrose Congregation and an advocate for those who don’t have a voice, with a focus on health. She served under four North Carolina Governors on boards for Developmental Disabilities and Autism and advocates for people who are blind or have low vision.
I moved to Raleigh when I was about 50. I knew my purpose was to be an advocate in the community. I started getting involved with “Project DIRECT” (Diabetes Intervention Reaching and Educating Communities Together, a program of the Federal Center for Disease Control) which continued as the nonprofit “Strengthening the Black Family”. I was involved in raising awareness of health priorities and chronic diseases that particularly affect the Black community.
My focus is health. I served under four North Carolina Governors on boards for Developmental Disabilities and Autism. I advocate for those who don't have a voice.
I also advocate for people who are blind and with low vision. I decided to be a voice and a mentor, and speak out, and the only way I could do it, I had to start with myself. People are not educated about these disabilities, so I use myself as a model. As a child, I was diagnosed with childhood glaucoma. A lot of people lose their vision now due to diabetes. They have a really, really, really hard time adjusting.
At the health center, I do a vision education day. If a patient calls and says, I can’t take my blood sugar, I encourage them to use the tools they have, like large print outs, getting a blood pressure monitor, trying to help people change their eating habits and their lifestyle.
I live in Southeast Raleigh not too far from St. Ambrose. I went with a friend to St. Ambrose and it was the first time I really felt, this is the right place. Father Taylor sees my independence and he knows I will try to work things out before I will ask for help.
At St. Ambrose, I am really proud and excited about the Labyrinth. I hear the birds, I can still hear a little bit of traffic, but I just tune into nature. Even though I can’t see, I hear and see and feel. It’s a kind of sight. The Labyrinth gives you spiritual direction, you’re close to nature but you’re close to God, you can feel His presence and shut everything out around you.
You can get this from nature too. At Walnut Creek, sitting outside with just a little wind, I could really appreciate hearing people engaged around me and the beauty of it.
Julia Kay Daniels
Julia Kay Daniels lives in the Rochester Heights home she was raised in, and that she raised her children in. She has fond memories of growing up playing in these woods, but she also remembers Walnut Creek flooding neighbors’ homes.
I was born and raised right here in Rochester Heights, on Calloway Drive. My mother was at home, and my father raised five of us through the United States Postal Service. Growing up in this neighborhood was fun. I had a blast. It was fun. I went to school in this neighborhood. I went to W. H. Fuller Elementary School, Carnage Middle School and Broughton High School.
I am kin to Ralph Campbell, Bill Campbell. My father's father was a doctor in Wilmington, John Walcott Kay, but he passed when my father was three and my grandmother, Willie Otey Kay, had to raise the kids. She did the wedding gowns for all of Raleigh and beyond, for all kinds of people, governors’ wives, people all across North Carolina. With her hands, she raised all five of her kids on a sewing machine.
We had a blast in this neighborhood. We played till the streetlights came on, made our own skateboards, played in the woods. Where the highway is, was our playground.
My home did not get flooded, but a lot of neighbors down on Charles Street flooded behind me. I was awake and saw Walnut Creek, the little branch, come up out of the banks and up Calloway into my yard about three or four inches. I had to call a neighbor and say, a tree landed on your house. Everybody else around me was asleep, my husband, my children, the neighbors, it seemed like I was the only one up in the neighborhood watching.
Some people had canoes to get people out of their homes. The water came up and entered into the house. Some homes were deemed by FEMA to be in a floodplain and they were torn down. That was sad to see because they were neighbors. It was sad to lose people that have been in the neighborhood since the neighborhood existed, who had to move somewhere else.
My particular home is not considered in the floodplain, I'm right on the boundary, but you wonder, is this going to happen again? You lay awake and you think, Lord, when it storms, is that creek going to feed back up and be worse this time? It's scary, but I will not leave this area. I was born and raised here in my family’s house. I am living in the house I was raised in. My kids were raised in, my grandkids are coming up in it. Watch Julia tell her story.
Josie Wright and her mother, Rosie
Josie Wright and her mother, Rosie, live in Clayton and are members of St. Ambrose Congregation. They are very in tune to how important the wetlands are, not only for their church community, but for everybody around us.
We live in Clayton and are members of St. Ambrose going on a couple of years. We were new to the area, looking for a church home. We visited and never left. The biggest thing we like is the community. Everyone’s so kind, so welcoming. They've taken us in and it’s been great.
Q: Josie, what do you like about coming to church here?
J: I get to spend time with my church friends.
We are very in tune to how important the wetlands are not only for ourselves and our church community, but for everybody around us.
Josie: I don't like it when people litter. It's not kind. It's not helping.
Stacie Hagwood
Stacie Hagwood was Director of WCWP from 2015-2022, carrying forward Dr. Norman and Betty Camps’ vision for the park and education center. After retiring, Stacie returned as a part time employee, doing “all the things I really like to do, including helping connect kids with nature.”
Walnut Creek Wetland Park initially opened in 2009 as the Walnut Creek Wetland Center. A community effort to honor Dr. Norman Camp and his wife Betty, led to the Raleigh City Council changing the name of the building to the Norman and Betty Camp Education Center in 2018.
My original career was as a law enforcement officer with the City of Raleigh, starting in 1985, but in the 1990s, I made the decision to stay home with my kids. I began to reinvent myself as an environmental educator around 2010. I worked for the Museum of Natural Sciences for six years, and I went back to graduate school. I started as Director of the Park in November of 2015. It was the first full-time job I'd had 17 years.
I had watched it be built because my kids went to school across the street at Carnage Elementary, but I didn't fully know the story of how the park had come to be until I met Dr. Norman Camp and his wife, Betty, and fell in love with them as people, and with the story of the park. Because truly, without the story, and how it came to be, it's just a place. And it's so important that we continue to share the story, because it is an environmental justice story. It is not just about a bunch of people at St. Ambrose who came together and said we should have park here. This is about making lemonade out of the lemons that have been handed to this community over decades and decades.
Dr. Camp’s dream was that there would be a place for children who live in this community to be able to learn about nature without having to get on a bus to go someplace. He wanted children to be comfortable learning about things that he did as a child, that consequently came naturally to him. He was passionate about kids having a hands-on experience and developing their scientific minds through exploration. We've been able to expand, and Partners for Environmental Justice has been instrumental in helping to push the vision that Dr. Camp had forward.
Since retiring in December of 2022, I have come back as a part-time employee. Now I get to do the things that I really like to do, which is helping to connect kids with nature and spending time outdoors, removing invasive plants, picking up trash, planting, flowers, weeding, those are the things that actually feed me. I get to do all the fun stuff without all the administrative responsibilities. Watch Stacie tell her story.
Ross Andrews
Ross Andrews, the first Director of Walnut Creek Wetlands Park, was an environmental scientist, an educator, and lover of nature. He worked closely with Dr. Norman Camp, Betty Camp and Partners for Environmental Justice on the campaign to establish the park at Walnut Creek Wetlands, and co-founded the Neighborhood Ecology Corps with Randy Senzig in order to encourage neighborhood youth to be involved with the environment.
A native of Charlottesville, Virginia, Ross grew up loving nature as he participated in Boy Scout backpacking trips in the Blue Ridge mountains and canoeing. He spent time under the giant oaks and poplar trees as an undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill where he wrote poetry that was eventually published in a volume titled, “Wild Peace”. By trade, he was an environmental scientist, but at his heart, he was an educator and lover of nature.
Ross was a mentor to youth, and loved creating outdoor learning environments so they could develop personal connections with nature. He co-founded the Neighborhood Ecology Corps with Randy Senzig in order to encourage neighborhood youth to be involved with the environment. To this end, he worked with school systems, state parks and the Triangle Land Conservancy to get kids outside, including engaging students in community service-learning projects in the Walnut Creek Wetlands through Partners for Environmental Justice (PEJ).
As a close colleague of Dr. Norman Camp, Ross organized restoration tree planting, sometimes navigating his canoe deep into the creek to plant saplings. He participated in the early creek clean ups as well, and planned environmental education programs for community members.
Ross was the Executive Director of the Center for Human-Earth Restoration (C-HER), a non-profit he co-founded based in part on a belief that “if people expand their connection to the Earth, they will find deeper joy in time outdoors and, in turn, will protect the Earth and live with it wisely.”
Ross died unexpectedly in 2013 at age 39. The Ross Andrews Trail at Walnut Creek Wetlands Park is named in his honor.
The Camp Family
Norman and Betty Camp and their son, Norman IV, shared a passion for the environment, education and social justice. Dr. Norman and his wife, Betty played a key role in galvanizing the community to support the construction of Raleigh’s Walnut Creek Wetland Center and its nature education programs, the wetland gardens and other initiatives to alleviate flooding in Biltmore Hills and Rochester Heights.
Dr. Norman Camp, III, was an educator, environmentalist, political activist and community advocate. Born in East Raleigh, he grew up exploring the Walnut Creek area and graduated from Shaw University with a degree in Chemistry. His Ph.D. in Science Education prepared him well as he taught in public school systems, served as professor and academic dean at several colleges as well as being a Vice Chancellor. His educational mission led him into governmental service in the NC Department of Health and Human Services.
Mrs. Betty Camp, as well as Dr. Camp, were among the co-founders of the Autism Society of North Carolina, formed in 1970 by parents who wanted better lives for their children with autism. The Camp’s advocacy and leadership made better treatment and education accessible to autistic children across the state.
The Camp family, including their son, Norman IV, led and participated in the earliest Walnut Creek cleanups, rallying volunteers to walk the creek and clean up debris. They were joined by Trinity Episcopal Church in Fuquay-Varina and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cary. Dr Camp, in conjunction with St Ambrose Episcopal Church, founded Partners for Environmental Justice, a grassroots organization in Southeast Raleigh that preserved Walnut Creek Wetlands for the benefit of the historically Black neighborhood surrounding it.
Dr. Camp chaired PEJ and served on boards including Audubon North Carolina. He and Betty played a key role in galvanizing support for the construction of Raleigh’s Walnut Creek Wetland Center and its nature education programs, wetland gardens, and other initiatives to alleviate flooding in Rochester Heights and Biltmore Hills.
On September 22, 2018, shortly after Dr. Camp’s passing, the Walnut Creek Wetland Center was renamed the Norman & Betty Camp Education Center at Walnut Creek Wetland Park.
Ivanna Solis Gutierrez
Ivanna Solis Gutierrez lives near Walnut Creek Wetlands Park and is in Year Two of the Neighborhood Ecology Corps (NEC). The Neighborhood Ecology Corps (NEC) is a program for middle and high school students focused on building environmentally literate citizens with a holistic view of their communities through hands-on experiences. Ivanna is hoping to pursue life as a marine biologist.
I am in Year 2 of the Neighborhood Ecology Corps (NEC) and live about 30 minutes from Walnut Creek Wetland Park. In addition to my work with NEC, I have done service in libraries and courts.
My favorite thing to learn about in NEC is aquatic systems.
Since joining NEC, I have been more observant about nature and the Raleigh environment.
I would like to pursue life as a marine biologist.
Lina Edwards
Lina Edwards lives near Walnut Creek Wetlands Park and is in Year Three of the Neighborhood Ecology Corps (NEC). In the NEC, participants develop friendships, gain comfort in the outdoors, participate in service-learning projects, and deepen their understanding of the relationship between their community, ecology, and environmental justice. Lina is considering a career related to ecology.
I first heard about the NEC Program from my mother. I have done NEC for 3 years. I live near Walnut Creek Wetland Park and have volunteered in my community.
In NEC, I’ve learned about different animals and plants, like the marbled salamander, which is my favorite out of all the animals we looked at. I also love the trips we go on, they are so much fun. This program has shown me how we as a community are hurting the environment, but there are things we can do to help out the environment.
NEC is a place where I can learn about nature and actually do fun activities outside in the wild. Some of my favorite moments were when we went hiking on a mountain, removed invasives at a preserve, and took kayaking lessons. My least favorite part is dealing with the bugs, mostly the wasps. I made good friends coming to this club, with all the fun adventures we went on.
I would maybe work in a field related to ecology because it’s an interesting topic.
Glendia Bryson-Jacobs
Glendia Bryson-Jacobs (here with her grandson, Cayden Saunders) has been participating in Walnut Creek cleanups since the park was founded. She and her three children have a lifelong connection with the Wetland Center through membership in Top Ladies of Distinction & Teens of America, a WCWP community partner.
I live in Kingwood Forest, which is close to St. Ambrose Episcopal Church of which I have been a member for over 30 years. I have participated in the Big Sweep clean-ups as avmember of Top Ladies of Distinction. I was present at the groundbreaking for the Walnut Creek Wetland Center, along with Top Teens of America, the youth component of TopvLadies. We have partnered with Walnut Creek Wetland Center in education, service and clearingvinvasive foliage. I have three children who were all members of Top Teens, and we were close to the Camp family.
Top Teens and Top Ladies were part of the very first Privet Pull, quite a few years ago. That's where privet hedges, which are invasive, are actually pulled up before they get too mature. There were sections of the wetlands that were just overrun with them. The Teens went in one Saturday with other community helpers and began to pull them out. It wasvhard to do. Someone said to one of our small in stature members, ‘You can't do that.’ She fitted and leaned on the tree pullers and popped the sapling up out of the ground. Then she said, ‘Now, who can't do this?’
Growing up in the mountains of Western North Carolina, we were always outside, working in and growing our own gardens. We believed in our own sustainability out of necessity. We ate the foods we grew, we shared, prepared and preserved. When I came to Raleigh, that was something I didn't have a chance to do, at first.
When I married, we lived in Kingwood Forest, then we moved out of the city, so we could have a garden. My children were raised eating what we grew, shared, prepared, and preserved. However, after over thirty years we returned to our first neighborhood. We still have a garden outside of the city and we harvest seasonally to support our pantry.
Walnut Creek Wetland Park and Education Center provides the opportunity for the community to learn about the importance of respecting and preserving our resources. I've always felt like it's important that we take care of the earth because the earth takes care of us. Watch Glendia tell her story.
Karyn C. Thomas
Karyn C. Thomas, a member of St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, is a native resident of the historic South Park Community, growing up during her youth in Biltmore Hills. Now retired, she worked as the Production Services Manager in the Communications Department for the City of Raleigh, where she was responsible for the operation of the city's Public, Education, and Government Access Channels.
I grew up in this neighborhood and community. Most people who are familiar with this historical community know that it is in a wetland, and there is an issue with flooding.
Over the years, I have been involved with the Wetlands Park. Helping with cleanup, I didn't always do the heavy lifting, I supported in other ways like food set up and making sure that volunteers are signed in and that they had all the tools they needed.
In my former job in the Communications Department of the City of Raleigh, I was the Production Services Manager for the City's cable franchises operation for Public, Education, and Government Access Television. My department was engaged in every aspect of the City of Raleigh’s media and communication needs for the purpose of connecting its citizens to various city-related initiatives and projects such as the Wetlands Center.
One of the most important Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources initiatives was the work that Dr. and Mrs. Camp and the Partners for Environmental Justice (PEJ) did in association and collaboration with North Carolina State University to establish the Wetland Center, and all the work around the annual cleanups. In 2018, the City of Raleigh Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources Department named the Wetlands Center in honor of Dr. Norman Camp III and his wife Betty Camp.
Another important theme is St. Ambrose Church’s partnership in that collaboration. I think when we think about St. Ambrose’s relationship with the wetlands, and it is an ongoing relationship, environmental justice is very important to our community. St. Ambrose continues to be instrumental in educating citizens about environmental justice and the impact environmental racism has had on the Rochester Heights - Biltmore Hills community. Preserving not just the natural habitat of the wetlands, but also educating citizens about the impact of flooding, and how we can mitigate these issues, is critically important for the preservation of our communities. Watch Karyn tell her story.
Cypriane Jacobs
Cypriane Jacobs lives near Walnut Creek with her son Cayden. She has participated in creek cleanups and trash pickup along the park trails.
I live in this neighborhood, 5 minutes away. I'm 25. I used to be in a service organization called Top Teens of America. We did partnerships with Walnut Creek Wetlands Center. We did trash pickup along the trails, and our service organization did projects alongside them for the community.
Q What was rewarding about it?
C: Just knowing that by picking up the trash, I'm helping out my community to be a better place for people to live and enjoy themselves. We pulled out a tire, couches, a lot of trash. Tires and car parts.
I noticed sometimes at our church, the creek might overflow. And then alongside the streets, people sometimes will dump their furniture. I don't like it.
Q: What do you want to say to the people that are dumping that stuff?
C: STOP! It’s hurting the animals and it is killing our environment! Watch Cypriane tell her story.
Adrienne Chalmers
Adrienne Chalmers experienced flooding as part of growing up in Biltmore hills. She went on to work for Wake County Public Schools and is now the After School Director at Lee Brothers Martial Arts.
I grew up in an apartment in Biltmore Hills with my mother, who was a single mother, and my sister Karyn. I have been a member of St. Ambrose since I was about ten years old. My mom was a Baptist. My aunt played the piano organ at St. Ambrose and I started attending church with her. My mom was active in the church. She was president of ECW, Episcopal Church Women. She was the first Black Chancellor's Assistant at NC State, and the first Black secretary on NC State's campus. She was Employee of the Year before retiring from NC State in 1987.
I went to Fuller Elementary and when I got older, I attended Carnage Junior High. We had to walk down Garner Road to get to Carnage. When Garner Road flooded, we had to cut through the woods and run down a hill through people's backyards. One property at the bottom of the hill had a large German Shepherd, and you had to bounce off their chain link fence just right to avoid the dog. You had to develop some skills to get through there.
I am a retired Wake County Public School employee. I was an assistant, and then I moved to Longview School, which is an alternative school for students who have been displaced from public school. I was on the crisis team, I would watch over children who had been sent out of class, counsel them and try to get them to go back and be successful. It was very challenging, but I enjoyed the time that I spent there.
I retired from there after 14 years. I currently work at Lee Brothers Martial Arts, where I'm the after school director. Martial arts is not just for fun or beating up people. Martial arts helps kids learn to focus and concentrate, it teaches them a routine and self-control. They learn how to meditate and to focus their bodies as well as their minds. You can use it to defend yourself in a time when you need to defend yourself. That falls under self-control.
Back in the day, I was very athletic, I actually took martial art myself. I made it to the belt just below Black Belt. Did you think I was just a little old lady piddling around?
Corie Griebel
Corie Griebel is a Master’s Student at NC State studying Natural Resources. Corie works part time at WCWP, teaching programs that help kids connect with nature.
I currently work at Walnut Creek Wetland Park in Southeast Raleigh. I'm also a Master’s student at North Carolina State University studying Natural Resources with a focus on Policy and Administration. I first visited the wetland park when I was in freshman year of my undergrad at NC State and fell in love with the park. I fell in love with its mission and its history, especially its roots in environmental justice. I made it my goal to work here. I wasn't offered a position the first time I applied, but I was so passionate that I applied again and on my second try I was offered a position.
I’ve been working here for almost three years and absolutely love it. At the park, I love to teach nature programs. I do a lot of birthday parties and have developed my own programs like Dendrology for Kids. Dendrology is the study of trees, and kids will go out and we do a little booklet, and they pick a tree to learn all about. They'll study one specific tree in the park, look at its leaves, look at its bark and understand all of the things that make that tree special.
We have a lot of kids in the community that participate, also just kids from all over Raleigh. Anybody who visits the park can come and participate in these programs. It's really special to me to be able to teach children and help them connect with nature. I think it's really important to build a sustainable future. Watch Corie tell her story.
Amin Davis and his mom Catherine
Amin Davis is an Environmental Scientist for the NC Division of Water Resources, Board Member of Partners for Environmental Justice & Friend of the Walnut Creek Community. He has volunteered with PEJ since 2001 in various capacities ranging from stream cleanups, interim Board Chair and Walnut Creek Urban Waters Partnership lead.
I am an Environmental Scientist for the NC Division of Water Resources and a board member of Partners for Environmental Justice (PEJ).
I grew up near New Haven, CT. I've always loved streams, rivers and wetlands. As a kid, I explored in the stream behind my neighbor's house. My love of the natural world came alive through looking for snakes, frogs and critters. My mom was an educator and provided me with opportunities that nurtured my love for the environment.
I studied Marine and Environmental Science at Hampton University, an HBCU in Virginia. My senior year, I took class in environmental justice, which I had never heard of before. I learned the history of how communities of color, not just locally but nationally and globally, have been subjected to environmental injustices—like Rochester Heights was.
I moved to North Carolina in 1995 to obtain a Master’s degree in Zoology at NC State. One of my professors told me about environmental justice issues in Rochester Heights, connected me with a former Shaw University biology professor. My research project turned into a biological assessment of the upper Walnut Creek Watershed.
The worst flooding in Rochester Heights from Walnut Creek occurred after Hurricane Fran in 1996. The apartment complex down the street from the Wetland Park had floodwater to the front doors. There have been water rescues upstream along Walnut Creek as recently as October 2021.
In 2001, I got reconnected to this area through Ross Andrews, who was a board member of PEJ and first director of WCWP. Ross got me involved with PEJ cleanups, youth environmental education and introduced me to PEJ’s longtime chairman, Dr. Norman Camp. One of my greatest honors was when Dr. Camp asked me to be a Board member in 2017.
PEJ had a goal of trying to improve conditions in SE Raleigh through outreach, education and doing restoration projects to benefit communities not just environmentally but economically and spiritually. When flooding is reduced, affected communities benefit economically from reduced cleanup and maintenance costs. There are also public health benefits, as green infrastructure can help maintain healthy air and water quality.
Elaine Peebles-Brown
Elaine Peebles-Brown lives in the first house built in Rochester Heights. She is an advocate for excellence in health care for the Southeast Raleigh Community and served for 18 years on the Advanced Community Health Center board, chairing the board for 4 years.
Rochester Heights, where I live, was a brand-new subdivision built in the late 1950s. It was on the outer edge of Raleigh, at the time not even within the City of Raleigh.
I was only eight years old when building began. I learned that it was the first African American subdivision in Raleigh, and I was proud because my dad and his company had been a part of it, doing the masonry work on all the homes. In Rochester Heights, they did the brick work you see on all these streets that are named after famous African American people.
We were the first ones to move in. He finished our home, and after we moved into our home, people would drive through the neighborhood and marvel in astonishment. It was a first, so there was a lot of excitement, and a lot of pride.
All the houses are different. On Calloway Drive, all the houses have least three bedrooms, and most of them have basements. The owners were hard working, young black families, mostly in their 30s. They were two income families, where the mom and the dad both worked very hard. In some instances, parents worked more than one job to achieve the goal of home ownership.
So, it was a first and it was really an accomplishment. It was something that, community-wide, people were proud of. Many of the young families were moving in and having their first babies at the same time.
Until very recently, Garner Road was often flooded and you couldn’t get through. My aunt (my dad’s sister) and my uncle lived at the corner of Garner Road and Bailey Drive. My uncle was one of the master brick masons who built their house and worked on the surrounding houses. They actually had to abandon their home because they were flooded out completely. Despite their strong desire to stay in Rochester Heights, they had to relocate to another neighborhood in Raleigh. It was very, very painful for them to leave the home and community they had helped build.
When Walnut Creek Park opened, I was so happy that we had a wonderful meeting place, and we could have wedding receptions and parties right here in our own community, representing our neighborhood
Sarah Brim
Sarah Brim is a graduate of North Carolina State University, working as a park attendant and environmental educator. To achieve environmental justice, she helps build/rebuild relationships between nature and historically marginalized communities.
I work at Walnut Creek Wetland Center, I am a park attendant. We keep the park clean. We inform the community about environmental engagement and environmental justice, giving a little history about the park, trying to get people to grow and love the nature that they live in. As well as cleaning up invasives, or caring for animals. It's super cool! This is year two for me.
I think my favorite part is the community engagement, especially being in a minority area, seeing Black and Brown people come to learn more, because you don't see that often. There's often a disconnect between the natural world and these communities, and I think it's really cool that Walnut Creek can bring that to them.
I attended North Carolina State University with a BA in Biological Sciences and a minor in Africana Studies. I hope to work in environmental justice. I love environmental education and am trying to build and rebuild that relationship for people, especially people that look like me, because you don't see that often. I think education can be very powerful in terms of advocating for environmental justice, so that's what I hope to do.
