Linda Elderkin

• Website: www.elderkinforclaremont.org
• E-mail: elderkin4council@aol.com
• Phone: (909) 626-0389

I very much appreciate the opportunity to write to you and to share my deep commitment to wilderness, nature and natural open space. By heritage, inclination, and personal choice this is a central theme in the life of our family. The blue and green colors of my City Council campaign reflect the mountains, lakes, skies, and evergreens of my native Colorado. We have lived in Claremont for over 30 years. I have walked many times in the Wilderness Park. I have spent quiet solitary moments in Johnson’s Pasture. I have taken refuge often in the Botanic Gardens right here in the heart of Claremont. In all of these I have enjoyed photographing creatures and the changing plants and trees from season to season. Our family has grown up here with all these wonderful open spaces for us to share together and we are grateful for the difference it has made to each of us.

Our family has also benefited so much from the Field Station over the years. School field trips to explore science in a classroom in nature have provided interesting learning experiences for them. Badge work in that same natural environment has advanced their experiences in Scouts. This is a valuable partnership with our youth and an asset for our community.

And of course, in our beautiful city, I daily enjoy our trees, parks, and visual open spaces. I am firmly committed to the care and protection of those trees and parks. Indeed one of my top priorities for our Claremont, stated from the first day of the campaign reads simply: Protect and enhance our trees, parks, and open space. This is a day-to-day, year-to-year, long-term commitment to a local sustainable natural environment. Sustainability should be the lens through which all of our city decisions are made. Achieving our long term visions for this community depends on our vigilance in examining each choice for its potential to best shape a sustainable city.

I value your participation in all parts of the journey we are taking into our future. Claremont is a unique community where volunteer time and energy are major parts of all the many good things in our city. Working together, as we did through two elections to save Johnson’s Pasture, will be essential. I believe that the intentional, energetic commitment to valuing and respecting one another and our natural spaces stands at the center of our possibilities for growth. I hope you will join me in the addressing these challenges to come and supporting my candidacy for the Claremont City Council.