Janice is a retired high school teacher (literature, writing, drama). She believes individuals need to effect changes in the world and being on the RCR board is an important part of that for her. Without a group of concerned activist citizens there would be no recycling in the Bitterroot Valley. She is proud to be a part of solving the recycle vs. landfill problem.

Katie moved to the Bitterroot about 4 years ago from Oregon and before that England. She grew up reusing, sorting, composting, and recycling, knowing that whatever we throw out has to go somewhere, preferably not a landfill. She has been volunteering with RCR for about 3 years. She would like to help find more ways for local residents to recycle what they cannot reuse.

Jim is originally from Minnesota. He finished out his career as a public school science teacher in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. He and his wife Pam retired and moved to the Bitterroot in 2016. Hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, skiing, and trips to visit kids and grandkids are some of the things that bring him special enjoyment . He appreciates the positive impact recycling has on the environment and is proud to be part of the dedicated team of volunteers that bring glass recycling to Ravalli County.

I began my involvement with RCR shortly after moving to the Valley in 2014. In such a beautiful place with limited infrastructure for dealing with waste it was obvious that community volunteers were essential to keep our area beautiful.

I also volunteered at the Animal Shelter and at the former Simple Yoga Co-op. I enjoy composing and performing parodies to popular songs that the Board allows me to perform at annual meetings.

Pam is a retired microbiologist. She has always been a strong advocate of the three “R’s”:

Reduce

Reuse

Recycle

Betsy has lived in the Bitterroot for 37 years. She started recycling in the 70s when her mom started saving cans and bottles, and many years later, she was happy to use Ravalli Services and Ravalli Recycling. She volunteers in the yard, and while she wishes we could recycle more materials, she understands the difficulties and limitations of a volunteer organization and believes that every little bit helps.

I first started recycling in the 70s, when the movement took off. If I do not do something about my trash, how can I expect someone else to do it?

I moved to the Bitterroot Valley in 1990 and I started volunteering with RCR about 13 years ago. In addition to serving on the RCR board I have also served on the following boards: Bitterroot Ecological Awareness Resources (aka BEAR), Friends of the Bitterroot (aka FOB), and Simple Yoga.

I've lived in the Root full time for 20 years and got started with RCR in 2011. Recycling has been important to me for most of my life. I got first involved in it in 1970 when I assisted my earth science teacher with a community recycling effort in the small upstate NY town I grew up in. In those days, we collected glass, tin cans and newspapers.

During my Forest Service career, I headed up the recycling program in a large (65 person) district office for mostly paper products in OR. I worked on a Forest team that started fire camp recycling on local wildfires and was expanded nationally.

While working here on the Bitterroot National Forest, I continued coordinating fire camp recycling and worked on a forest wide committee to promote recycling in the individual districts.

When I retired in 2009, it was a natural drive in me to continue to support community based recycling in the valley. The majority of my time with RCR was spent as operations manager until we ceased our main recycling effort in 2019.

I continue with RCR's glass recycling drives and also do weekly collections of returnable beer bottles to Bayern Brewery as well as pick up aluminum cans from the breweries in town and various residences.

Robert Thomas, a member of the Board of Ravalli Recycling, is asked by the Board to be their contact with the local school system. He was for many years a college piano professor at Miami University of Ohio, but since moving to the Bitterroot Valley in 2012 he has had many other kinds of activities, including driving occasionally for the Veterans' Administration, and having several functions at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Hamilton.

He has been involved in Ravalli County recycling matters since 2014, and thinks constantly about recycling and using materials that can easily either be recycled or can be replaced with materials that can be recycled.