On Monday, May 20 the Green Team ERG celebrated their 3rd Annual World Bee Day Celebration at Earth Day Park, located behind the 9th Ave garage on Ohio State University’s medical campus.
The Celebration included the unveiling of our 3rd recycled bench at the park, dedicated to Facilities, Operations, and Development (FOD) and Chadwick Arboretum. The development of this project would not have been possible without the continued support, hard work, dedication, and donations from these two departments.
We also recognized our Woman of the Year, Mary Leciejewski. Mary is our Associate Director of Sustainability and Zero Waste Manager for OSU. She was recently acknowledged by The Green Champions in a podcast where she discusses how she and her team are tackling the enormous task of creating a zero-waste system for a campus. Listen Here.
The event included refreshments and visits from local sustainability partners The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) who shared information about air quality and Columbus MetroParks who shared local honey and information about bees.
Read the acknowledgement speech and view more pictures below!
Good morning everyone and welcome to our 3rd Annual World Bee Celebration at Earth Day Park! We are so grateful to be here and have you all with us. We are here today to for sure celebrate World Bee Day, Earth Day Park and our amazing collaborators Chadwick Arboretum and FOD – (Sustainability, Landscape Services, FDC, Administration and Planning, and so many more… ) and of course to recognize our 2025 Woman of the Year.
As a lot of you know, Earth Day Park was an idea started by Michelle Pennington, our fearless Green Team ERG Chair who is the hardest working woman I know. Her vision began back in 2022 when we planted this beautiful Bur Oak [pictured above] for Earth Day with The Green Team ERG and Wexner Medical Center Leadership.
I have to share that I recently overheard the previous Director of Chadwick sharing that she believed that the first line of defense for health and wellness is nature—green spaces and time spent outdoors. The current Director lives and breathes that same belief.
As one of the speakers from FOD shared at Chadwick Arboretum’s Arbor Day event, the economic contribution of the trees on campus is relatively small compared to their true value as living, breathing parts of the ecosystem.
Unfortunately, in areas with poor air quality, green spaces are often the first to be compromised. With Earth Day Park, we aim to create a space of respite for faculty and staff, while also educating visitors about the vital role green spaces play in maintaining good air quality—and what’s at stake if they’re not protected.
One of the cool features of the Park we’d like to highlight include our newest bench made of recycled materials from the Wexner Medical Center and Campus contributions ( I know there is some recycled Plastic in there from Chadwick and the leadership of the Office of Health Equity too!). To build the bench, the Green Team collected #6 plastics (Solo cups, CD cases, clear plastic drinking cups) from Ohio State staff and worked with Marble Plastics to rework and build the bench from those materials. Each bench requires about 150 pounds of #6 plastics. The cost of our initial bench was covered by an Ohio State Energy Partners Wexner Medical Center Sustainability grant. The second was donated on behalf of the Radiology Department in loving memory of their previous director Jeannie Danker. There are plans for future benches to be added to the park, but the one we are dedicating here today is in honor of the collaborations with our incredible campus partners Chadwick Arboretum and FOD.
Joe Klatt of Marble Plastics was not able to be here today but shares the belief of our mission and we are so grateful for his vision in recycling these difficult plastics.
We would also like to recognize Cecil Okotah, who is serving in the role of Sustainability Program Manager for the Medical Center as well as project manager for our ERG team. We are also collaborating with the College of Medicine to add signage to the park and include the space for additional wellness opportunities. the Green Team is also partnered with the student organization SUSTAINS who also assists with the park maintenance.
WOMAN OF THE YEAR: Today, the Green Team is incredibly proud to recognize as our Green Team ERG 2025 Woman of the Year someone whose impact on sustainability at Ohio State is nothing short of extraordinary — Mary Leciejewski, our Associate Director for Sustainability.
Mary has been with the university for over eight years, leading our Zero Waste efforts and managing an amazing team in Recycling and Refuse Services. Thanks to her leadership, our campus waste diversion rate rose from 29% to over 40% — a huge leap in the right direction.
But Mary’s influence goes far beyond that. She serves on the boards and working groups of organizations like Keep Ohio Beautiful, the Big Ten & Friends Sustainability Group, and the Columbus Climate Action Plan. She’s also a Buckeye Wellness Innovator and co-chairs the Women in A&P Employee Resource Group.
Her passion and drive have helped secure over $1.5 million in grant funding for projects that brought composting to more than 100 new locations, replaced paper towels with energy-efficient dryers, and even added green space to our campus. Just recently, she helped fund not one—but two recycled plastic benches right here in this park.
Mary, your passion for sustainability, your collaborative spirit, and your tireless efforts have made a lasting impact on this campus and community. On behalf of the Green Team and everyone here today — Congratulations and thank you.
