beth ingalls

History

Member for

1 year 8 weeks

Personal Information

Full Name

Beth Ingalls

Bio

I was born on October 30, 1962, which was just two days after Kennedy and Khrushchev came to enough of an agreement about recently discovered Soviet missile installations in Cuba, to avert a potential nuclear war. My earliest political memory was going door to door with my Mother in Columbus, Ohio campaigning for the Republican ticket. Even in 1968 at the age of 6, I didn’t feel comfortable walking the clean suburban sidewalks and knocking on doors in support of candidates who were all lined up neatly under Nixon. But the walking and knocking taught me about Democracy and the absolute necessity of being involved.

I will never forget the sheer exhilaration and awe that overcame me as I stepped off of a greyhound bus in Boulder, Colorado one late summer evening at sunset in 1981. The air, the altitude, the feeling of being bathed in a warm purple and orange glow of light…it was all so new to me. The only thing that kept my gaze from being completely locked onto the cathedral-like mass of rocks rising above the town were the warm glances and quiet hellos that were coming from almost everyone I passed on the street. After living in New Jersey for nine of my formative years and narrowly avoiding several outright muggings and attacks during my frequent forays into NYC, I was completely unaccustomed to people who didn’t know each other greeting one another on the street. I learned more walking one block on the Hill in Boulder about society and environment than I had learned in my whole life. I finally felt at home.

My years in Boulder got me a degree in Religious Studies, a lifelong dedication to recycling and waste management issues through volunteering with Eco-Cycle, an addictive habit of following the Grateful Dead around and a radical spirit that I try to keep alive. On Graduation Day, in cap and gown, I held the “V” that helped to spell out “Divest Now”. My Mother, who was sitting in the cavernous arena watching the ceremony, didn’t realize that I was part of the tiny group causing a major ruckus. Finally, when the University President threatened us from the podium with arrest if we didn’t sit down and the security guards got nearer, we relented. Anti-apartheid fervor was strong in 1985. The day Nelson Mandela walked out of jail after 25 years of incarceration in 1990, I watched on TV with my three year old twin boys and wept.

Truckee has been my home for the last twelve years. The road that led me here was long and circuitous. I was born in Rhode Island and lived in Ohio (twice), Indiana, Illinois, New Jersey (three times) , Florida (twice), Colorado, New Mexico, Bolinas, California and finally, the Commonwealth of Virginia, before landing here in 1995. I know enough about people and geography and politics and place to know that what we have here is absolutely unique. I was elected to the Truckee Town Council in 2002 and served as Mayor in 2006. I own a freelance consultancy service specializing in marketing, publicity, new media services, general freelance and grant writing, press and media relations and development for businesses and non profit organizations. I’m a member of the Tahoe Truckee Earth Day Committee, Chair of the Annual Truckee Day town-wide Street clean up event, a partner with Sierra College’s new Institute for Sustainability, and the Founder of the Truckee Climate Action Network. More than any title I hold, business I operate or committee I participate with however, I am the mother of three boys. I want to Save the Sierra for them.