Barbara Bleiweis

I am a 62-year-old baby boomer who some describe as “energetic for my age.” I sense that as a good thing, because I feel like four 15 year olds, still testing my limits, still growing up and plotting for the next challenge that will come my way. My life, which began in pre-statehood Hawaii, has been a pinball game of ricochets, with every move banking off an obstacle that redirects me. As an Army brat, I attended ten different public schools and lived in Taiwan for some of those years. I remember the day JFK was assassinated, when the Vietnam War began, The Beatles’ first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon, the first Earth Day, Watergate and Michael Jackson’s moon walk. I remember when Chicken McNuggets hit the market and when hand-held calculators cost $200.

I married my best friend in 1984, and we have two incredible, independent thinking kids who live productive and purpose-driven lives. In 2004, I lost my best friend to cancer, another of life’s ricochets, and ultimately moved to Charlotte, N.C., where I live in a house with three cats, where my son parks his baseball gear in the garage, and my daughter, when she visits, helps me set up Google home devices. Charlotte is home and the new beginning for my life of public service, filled with challenges to save our planet by conserving our natural resources and serving the public good.