Beth Bailey
Beth Bailey is the third of nine children, a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother. She was deeply rooted in a large family and grew up with the concepts of not wasting anything, not using more than you needed, and shared responsibility for the whole. Her years of education and training as a scientist and a nurse gave her an inclination toward investigation and data.
Taking a class in sustainability leadership with Josh Spodek led to her discovery that air travel accounted for over 10 times her “share” of carbon output and was instrumental in her commitment to consciously explore choices in greater alignment with her values. She became a board member of Circle Game Inc, a private-non-profit organization with the mission to improve one’s quality of life by connecting with one’s own values of living more sustainably.
Having moved to Merida, Mexico and fallen in love with the life and culture there, she decided that one thing she could do to care for her adopted home was to pick up trash from the streets on a regular basis. The I Love Modesto project, a volunteer project from her prior home in California, and another class with Josh Spodek on initiative were inspirations for the project. She started spending Sunday mornings walking from her home to the main Paseo with a cart and a sign that said “I ❤ Merida, and you?” Over time, others joined in the weekly clean-ups and they occasionally extended to other locations such as beaches and sports stadiums. Her vision is to raise awareness of “loving where we live” by caring for our home cities not just by not throwing trash on the street, but by not creating it in the first place; to build community that is invested in caring for each other and for our beautiful planetary home.
858: Beth Bailey, the great-grandmother influencer leading the cleaning of Mérida, Mexico
As a great-grandmother, Beth probably wouldn’t describe herself as an influencer, but what else do you call it when videos of her go viral and prompt people to follow her?
Longtime podcast listeners may remember episode 754: (Aunt) Trish Ellis and (Niece) Evelyn Wallace, part 1: Not Even Cancer Holds Her Back. We mentioned Beth, Evelyn’s mom and Trish’s sister. All three of them took the workshop. Beth and Evelyn also took my leadership and initiative courses that I offered to workshop alumni.
Beth’s initiative project was to pick up litter daily, but not just pick it up. She was inspired by an initiative she’d seen to restore pride in a community. For example, I pick up litter, but I just do it to clean where I walk. Her goal was bigger: to restore and inspire pride in where she lives, Mérida, Mexico. She planned things like a sign to invite favorable attention, what to wear, when to go out, how to talk to people.
She’s been picking up litter since. Then last month, at an alumni online lunch, she shared that someone secretly recorded her, posted the video, and by then the video had been seen over 1 million times. Plus, attention was leading to people joining her movement, opportunity to work with government, and more. I posted about it on my blog: Secret video of Beth picking up litter goes viral in Mexico.
I invited her to share here. Listen for what happens when you persist.