Volunteer Spotlight: ROAR Cares for the Land

For more than three decades, Recycling Our Area’s Resources, better known as ROAR, has given Copper Valley residents a way to reduce waste and help care for the lands and waters they call home. 

For ROAR Coordinator Ashley Hicks-Martin, recycling is about much more than keeping cans and paper out of a landfill. It is about taking responsibility for the land today so that future generations can continue relying on it tomorrow.

Hicks-Martin said ROAR is truly a community effort. There are no teams of paid employees sorting every bag that arrives at the recycling site. Local organizations sponsor individual months throughout the year, with volunteers visiting the site, checking recycling containers, preparing full loads and helping keep materials moving.

ROAR regularly accepts aluminum cans, office and mixed paper, newspaper and shredded paper. Plastics are collected during special events.

Hicks-Martin said one of ROAR’s biggest concerns is not a lack of community interest in recycling, but contamination caused when incorrect materials or regular garbage are placed with recyclables.

For example, aluminum beverage cans are accepted, but tin cans such as many vegetable, pet food and other cans opened with a can opener are not. Hicks said volunteers have encountered loads where the two types of cans were mixed together, requiring volunteers to spend additional time sorting them.

The consequences can be even greater when garbage contaminates a larger load.

Hicks-Martin said ROAR has had entire large sacks of recyclables thrown away because they contained too much contamination. 

ROAR's materials eventually have to be transported from Glennallen to the Valley for processing. Keeping that transportation available is one of the organization's concerns for the future.

ROAR has benefited for many years from a local driver who has transported its recycling at an affordable cost, Hicks-Martin said. As that driver gets closer to retirement, finding a sustainable replacement will be important. Commercial transportation can be significantly more expensive, creating another challenge for an organization that does not have a consistent source of operating revenue.

Despite those challenges, Hicks-Martin said ROAR has continued because people throughout the Copper Valley have repeatedly stepped forward to help.

The People Behind ROAR

Hicks-Martin especially wanted to recognize the volunteer board members who quietly put in countless hours behind the scenes to keep the organization functioning.

She recognized Derek Sinyon, ROAR board chair, for his leadership, vision and continued commitment to environmental stewardship. She also thanked the Native Village of Gakona for supporting his involvement and allowing him to dedicate time to ROAR's work. Sinyon has also helped organize youth environmental education opportunities in the region.

Hicks-Martin recognized Nigel Young, vice chair, for his years of service, dedication and role in helping guide the organization.

She also praised Sarah Daszkiewicz, treasurer, for her dedication not only to ROAR but to environmental education throughout the community. Hicks-Martin highlighted Daszkiewicz's work organizing the Environmental Fair and other opportunities that help children learn about recycling and caring for the environment. “Her heart is so into it,” said Hicks-Martin. 

Hicks-Martin also thanked the Copper River Native Association for supporting that work and for contributing resources and meeting space to ROAR.

Mary Hasson, secretary, was recognized for her organizational support, commitment and willingness to take on the important behind-the-scenes responsibility of documenting meetings and helping keep the board organized.

Hicks-Martin also recognized Sharon Daniel, a longtime ROAR director and transportation liaison who has helped coordinate transportation and recycling logistics and has been connected to the organization since its earliest years.

The board recently welcomed Devin Winishut as its newest member, bringing with him a connection to ROAR that is especially meaningful. His late brother, Eddie, previously served on the ROAR board and left behind a beautiful legacy of service, community involvement, and stewardship of Ahtna lands. After stepping into his brother’s former work with Gakona, Devin has continued to honor that legacy in his own way by joining the ROAR board. 

Hicks-Martins' own commitment to the organization is deeply personal.

She spoke about growing up in the region and watching her father dedicate more than 30 years to working as an Ahtna land manager. She remembers the importance he placed on taking care of the land and said his example continues to influence her after his passing.

For Hicks-Martin, that responsibility is also connected to being Ahtna and Upper Tanana Athabascan and to the understanding that healthy lands and waters provide the foods communities depend upon.

“In our culture, we really, really take care of the land,” Hicks-Martin said. “We take care of the waterways because that’s where our food comes from.”

She worries about changes she is seeing in fish and wildlife and what those changes could mean for future generations. Recycling alone cannot solve every environmental challenge facing the region, but Hicks-Martin believes everyday decisions about waste are one way residents can take responsibility for the place they live.

It is also why seeing garbage along roadsides or near waterways is particularly difficult for her.

Hicks-Martin recognized monthly sponsors and community partners including the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Copper River Native Association, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Kenny Lake Community League, Bureau of Land Management, Copper River EMS, Princess, Copper River Watershed Project, Copper Valley Electric Association, Copper Valley Telecom and WISE.

Hicks-Martin also expressed appreciation for the donated space that allows ROAR to maintain its recycling site in Glennallen.

As ROAR looks toward the future, the organization hopes to find additional volunteers, donors and sponsors, as well as a long-term solution for transporting recyclables.

But there is also something every person who uses ROAR can do immediately: learn what is accepted and recycle correctly. 

Community members interested in volunteering, sponsoring ROAR, making a donation or asking questions about proper recycling can contact the ROAR hotline at 907-822-6777