Reporting from BWB on Earth Day

Earth Day 2009 from Betty's Point of View:

9:30am: After grabbing some of Gerry's (Albemarle Baking Company) cookies to pass out to recyclers, I dropped off some green recipes for the BWB booth at the Paramount theater (thanks to my volunteer, Ivana). Nice job Ryan Jacoby and everyone at Habitat AND all the great presenters in the Greenmatters Workshop Series for making such a positive impact in our community. What an educational two years!

10am: I was so happy to pass out reusable bags and Betty stickers at the Recycling Facility from 10-noon today. Thank you everyone who came out. Including two bicyclers! I ended up with a cool vase for flowers - a lady I met who just moved out from California was about to recycle a funky wine bottle

11am: We talked reducing driving and turning off lights and engines down at the McIntire Recycling Facility today with our live broadcast with 1061 the Corner. Bruce, the Recycling Manager and Brad, station manager, and I chose some cool Earth-themed songs: Jack Johnson, Joni Mitchell, OMD (Electricity). I was ready to commandeer the air waves with John Denver (Rocky Mountain High) and Marvin Gaye (Mercy Mercy -ecology) and Michael Jackson (can you feel it?) and more, but that wil have to wait until I can get a spot on My Corner Playlist again. (Maybe on Mother's Day- go mom activists of the world!)

12noon: Time to head over to UVA, where Lindsay Daniels and Sonny Beale and the Sustainability Committee over there have made dramatic changes in favor of reducing, reusing, recycling and helping students live lighter on the planet. Stay tuned to hear more about Chuck it for Charity, coming up in May (during student move out). I was pretty appalled by the items they found in the dumpster: perfectly good socks, a straw basket, a shelf unit, two apples, the list goes on. And the dumpster (which came from the dorms) was only half full. Opportunities to educate and facilitate abound. :-)

2pm: Mother Nature is speaking load and clear. Please listen, she is saying. Warm, sunny, and then cold and rainy, even reports of hail and in the mountain possible snow. This is what "climate change" means.

3pm: Able to recharge through meditation before the school bus came home.

5pm: Greenmatters Workshop Reception. Thanks Revolutionary Soup for the yummy dinner! I enjoyed talking with Doug Lowe of Artisan and Laura Smith a conservationist/realtor, Jeff Sties, local architect and my board member Charles Hendricks, who is now in Harrisonburg. Good stuff going on!

6pm: The kids and I wish happy birthday to Toan at Cville Coffee and, since it's took cold for playing at the newly renovated Riverview Park, decide to take old t-shirts and some cool iron-ons I found at a used book store in Richmond and make some Earth Day t-shirts! My five-year-old is holding one up there.

8pm: We are exhausted. Bedtime arrives for me and my two boys.

I hope you found a way to personally connect with the Earth today as well as tap all that our community is doing, working together to help make Cville the greener, healthier sustainable city we all want!!

Best,
BWB