Highlights from Earth Week in Charlottesville, Virginia

Of course the First Fridays After Five with Earthweek hosting was the beginning of a great week!

The Eco-Fair:
The stand out for me was the arrival of almost 30 kids, parents, neighbors and students who BIKED THREE MILES from where they live to the Eco-Fair event at Charlottesville High School, lead by all around cool urban farm guy Todd Niemeier from QCC (Quality Community Council- cvilleqcc.org).

A lot of amazing people stopped by the Betty booth: people all over sharing ideas with me or thanking me for the ones I shared. I was especially touched by two women residents of Garrett Square who tracked Betty down and asked for help in finding a way to recycle there - they live in the city, but the property is privately owned. We'll see what we can do!

I liked the visual/tactile educational booths - the city's sustainability committee had a pile of coal underneath both a CFL lightbulb compared to a regular candescent lightbulb so people could see the important difference in the amount of fossil fuels expended.

The excitement and energy and the solar-powered music was great as well.

Tuesday's highlight: playing DJ on 1061 for the Earth Day 3pm my corner playlist. That was a riot! Move over Tad, Betty wants back in the studio.

I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to attend the amazing movie line up at Gravity Lounge. My son gets off his bio-fuel-powered County school bus when those were aired.

Thursday's highlight: working on the farm
My two boys and I started our work share at Roundabout Farm with Megan Weary and her crew. We planted strawberries! (or I should more accurately say I planted strawberries for two hours, while the boys caked themselves in mud after helping for forty-five minutes). This was after they declared that this wasn't a real farm since they didn't see any cows or horses upon arriving. Nice. The neighbors' ducks and chickens placated them enough that they could commence to "work." We are looking forward to future yummy strawberries and other veggies from less than 5 miles from home. Exciting!

For me Musician/Songwriter/Poet Danny Schmidt coming to town on Friday night was just icing on the cake, though as far as I know he didn't bike here from Austin!

So much work goes into producing Earth Week: sponsors, volunteers, coordinators from all around. I had the pleasure of being a part of the steering committee and I as so impressed at the dedication and perseverance of everyone. Kudos for a great week!

BWB