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Tucked away in a renovated mill building placed strategically in downtown Lowell, hides a woman who not only is a saving grace in the world of sustainability, but is also a driving force in the community.
Julie Villareal, program manager at UMASS Lowell's Center for Family, Work, and Community, is deeply involved with numerous projects which promote awareness in understanding issues involving the environment. One of the most talked about projects she participates in is called "The Wormcycler." The "WormCycler," a vermicomposting project, is now located in a greenhouse on South Campus at UMASS Lowell and is used as an outdoor educational facility. The stars of this project are slender Red Wriggler worms, which are used to make composting for the university. They are fed food waste from ARAMARK and according to Villareal, "They can eat their weight everyday and expel it. What they expel is very high quality compost." One would think that these worms must be enormous considering the amount they consume, but Villareal claims that this isn't the case. "People are actually very amazed when they see them because they are very small. I take them everywhere to show people - I have 3 bins in my basement and breed the worms there." Aside from the popular Red Wiggler project, Villareal also finds time to inspire children to open their eyes to their surroundings. "We started working with Gear Up, which is a project that works out of this center, and they actually work with the high school," states Villareal. "Their aim is to gear up students to go to college." Through Gear Up, Environmental Exploration, an after school program designed by Villareal and David Turcott, was born. It allows students to have hands on experience. "What we're doing is having various speakers come every week. They talk about environmental issues, and then they talk about their profession. Next week we have someone talking about green buildings. Do you know what a green building is? Is it painted green, or what goes into it? Then we'll talk about careers if you go into something similar." Surprisingly, that's not all. Villareal has also sunk her teeth into a sundry of different projects. She hosts her own radio show, Environmental Corner on WUML 91.5 FM. Furthermore, she works closely on a project called: Beyond your Body. "We are looking at teens and all the cosmetics they use, trying to get them to be aware of toxins that are in these products," explains Villareal. Additionally, there's also the Healthy Homes project, which Villareal feels is one of the most important. "It's to educate people in urban developments about toxins. Cleaning products that they use in their house may be toxic to them, especially if you have a child with asthma. We talk a lot about that and educate them on indoor air quality, to make things healthier for them in their homes." Through all of these projects, Villareal feels it will inform the public of realistic dangers in the environment. "I feel it's very important to have programs educating the public. I really feel that's such an important area to bring working into. In the future, I feel I'd still like to continue that if we can keep getting funding." With the immense workload Villareal bears, you'd think she would want to take a break and stay idle for a few moments. "I never have any free time! I take work home on the weekends to put together a radio show, call my students to remind them about upcoming projects, and read up on new grants that are coming out. It's a 70 hr per week job - I'm always busy," jokes Villareal. But in her mind, it's all worth it at the end of the day. And with a shrug, she simply smiles. It's clearly evident that nothing, not even toxins, are going to slow her down. |