We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Diane Buhler a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Diane thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
I left my Wall Street life in New York City after 9/11 to heal. I helped with the relief efforts, but it didn’t ease my grief. In 2004, I moved to be near the ocean, My Happy Place. As I beachcombed, I found trash which gets dumped ashore by the Gulf Stream that jets close to the beach here. It’s important to collect the trash so it doesn’t wash back out to sea to harm the marine life.
I’ve been diving for 28 years. I can remember seeing a huge pelagic at depth and as I swam closer, it was actually a large plastic bag. Heartbroken!
To be a part of the solution for a healthier ocean, I started Friends of Palm Beach with a wing and a prayer in 2013. A mutual friend’s oceanfront home allowed beach access, parking and a staging area for volunteers. I gained non-profit status in 2014, with my husband being my first donor. Some Palm Beachers started helping to protect the turtles, locals allow us to use their dumpsters for non-recyclable trash, and now more realize our mission is also to help people. With donations, I looped in my other passion to help the homeless. We hire a small weekday crew and recruit from The Lord’s Place and VitaNova into our transitional work program.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I left New York City after 9/11 to heal. I had spent months helping with the relief efforts, but it didn’t ease my grief. In 2004, I moved to be near the ocean. I have been diving West Palm waters for 30 years, it is my peaceful place. As I beachcombed, I found trash which gets dumped ashore by the Gulf Stream that jets close to the beach here. For me, its important to collect the trash so it doesn’t wash back out to sea to harm the marine life.
To be a part of the solution for a healthier ocean, I started Friends of Palm Beach with a wing and a prayer in 2013. A mutual friend’s oceanfront home allowed beach access, parking and a staging area for volunteers. Friends of Palm Beach gained non-profit status in 2014, with my husband being my first donor. Some Palm Beachers started helping to protect the beach and turtles, locals allow use of their dumpsters and now more realize our mission is also to help people. With donations, I looped in my other passion to help the homeless. We hire a small weekday crew from The Lord’s Place and VitaNova into their transitional work program.
Since 2013, my group has removed over 240,000 pounds of incoming trash. We pick up about 75-100 pounds a day, roughly 470 pounds per week off Palm Beach’s shoreline. We also collaborate with local middle schoolers to create their own Washed Ashore sculptures being hosted around the community to raise awareness on single use plastics and the plight of the ocean. We host monthly clean ups to educate the community on the impacts humans have on our natural resources and how to change habits to help protect our one and only planet!
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Persistence and honesty. I have found that persistence is the one trait that has served me well in many of my careers. My persistence to not backdown on what I wanted and what I know to be true and right. My values are grounded in doing the right thing and I do not waiver. As a Wall Street trading assistant, I wanted more. Very few women were trading on our floor in 1987, I gained a Junior spot by never backing down on what I wanted, in a male dominated world where backbone is necessary. Headhunter for Wall Street firms, again, persistence was needed to get in the door of these firms as an unknown commodity so to speak but I kept on it as I wanted it and I knew the markets and the people.
Even beach cleaning has its barriers. A wealthy Town that doesn’t want to know the extent of the medical waste or trash that we collect off its shores and staff that draws a fine line with private beach property. I have been fined, berated, ‘dressed down’ by staff yet I know what we do is important and necessary so I have been persistent in my goal of cleaning the beach for a healthy environment for all and keeping my people working.
Honesty in all my interactions, whether people wanted to hear it or not. never comes back to bite you. It may sting some at first but when anyone looks back on words I have used or issues I have brought to attention, they can trust the truth in my words.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
As much as persistence and honesty is a tried and true value that I live by, there comes a time when “playing politics” is necessary. Not dumbing down or lying but softening a message that people certainly need to hear so I can get to my goal. So, I had to unlearn my strength in telling the truth and speak into the listening of those I needed and wanted help from. Soften the blow so to speak versus go in guns blazing, which is how I can get when I am incensed by the impact humans have directly on our natural environment and they turn a blind eye. I left an industry tainted by untruths, mistruths and ego to find myself having to deal within a government framework that has lots of red tape and long standing ideals. I was new on the scene, just wanting to clean and clean well. This, in a world that liked things the way they had always been and in the state of Florida that puts development over nature time and time again. Complacency and analysis paralysis is rampant. I am a doer, a solutionist, and I fully understand that time is of the essence if we are to protect and keep healthy the amazing planet we have. But, faced with “its worked this way for years” or “we know this contractor and trust them for years” and knowing full well the damage being done by this attitude, I had to play nice in the sand box and persist for months and years on requests I made to better our world, THEIR world ;).
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.friendsofpalmbeach.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/friendsofpb/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/549111961807495
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq_2uYuq420
Image Credits
Friends of Palm Beach