members e-news - Happy Earth Day!

[kathie@cleannorth.org]

Members e-newsletter

Projects news:

1.  Bring Out Your Dead!  The famous computer recycling event named 
after a famous Monty Python joke, is back again.  It will be held at 
the Station Mall again, this time in the old Bi-Way location, on 
Saturday April 20th from 10 am to 4 pm.  It’s our Earth Day event this 
year.  We still need volunteers for sales, and for moving equipment.  
Email kathie@cleannorth.org to help, or just wait for Debbie’s phone 
call.  We also need one special volunteer who will be in charge of 
volunteers - signing people in and out, knowing where people are 
assigned, and getting crews from one task to help with another as 
needed on the day.  

2.  Speaking of Earth Day, what are _you_ going to do?  Post it on our 
website to inspire others!  As an example, the Coffee Break committee 
at work is planning a Global Village theme - we’re collecting items for 
a charity garage sale, and drinking Fair Trade coffee from Bridgehead.  
How about your family, workplace, church doing something for Earth 
Day?  It’s a great time to: tune up your bike, plant a tree, pick up 
litter, start a compost, buy a dandelion digger, learn a vegetarian 
recipe, buy organic, ...  And let everyone know!  Big or small, all 
Earth Day projects will inspire others to do something similar!  Go to 
www.cleannorth.org and click “Submit a Story.”

3.  Book Recycling is going to happen!  Thanks to Clean North’s Doris 
Welz and to Steve Bodnar at R.M. Moore school, we’re planning a summer 
event to recycle old textbooks and other books - so your ancient 
encyclopedia, your college textbooks, and those ratty trade paperbacks 
can go to Montreal!  We found a recycler who wants this stuff, and 
we’ll sort the reuseable books out before we send them, so you don’t 
have to worry - bring us anything unwanted.  Watch for more details in 
future editions of this e-news.

4.  Rainbarrels are here, in time for spring.  Peter McLarty worked all 
winter on a design and source for the parts, and if you check out the 
one in the front window at our office, I think you’ll agree he has a 
winner there.  It’s $50 (just half the price of the one in the Lee 
Valley catalog). You can sign up for one on the list in the office, or 
email petmcla@soonet.ca  and he’ll put you on the list.  You can also 
offer to help - Peter will be delivering and installing these for our 
clients and he would enjoy a partner in this project.

5.  Jack Donald is working on our Vehicle Emission Clinic for this 
summer.  We did this a few years ago, where Environment Canada came and 
set up in the Canadian Tire parking lot, to test your tailpipe and make 
recommendations.  One of our members finally found out what was wrong 
with his car (that repeated visits to the shop hadn’t diagnosed) and 
got it fixed - saving him lots of gas money.  Well, they’re coming 
back, on July 11th and 12th.  We’ll need lots of volunteers to help 
with taking down information from drivers, waving people into position, 
etc.  Debbie or Jack will call near the end of June.

6.  The Ontario Sustainable Energy Association wants to come here and 
do a daylong workshop on sustainable energy options.  This would give 
us the information we need to set up sustainable energy cooperatives, 
make green energy choices in the new deregulated market, and other 
info.  They want to come this summer.  We’ve signed up, but we don’t 
have a lead person to work on this, and all our key people so far are 
swamped with the other good projects we’ve got underway.  Anyone out 
there interested?  If not, we’ll cancel our participation.  Email 
kathie@cleannorth.org  if this is something you might like to follow up.

7.  Envirothon, the high school environmental science competition, is 
happening May 3 and 4 at Camp Wakonda.  Clean North is participating by 
offering some education and a test about Invasive Exotic species - 
specifically plants.  Peter McLarty is our lead person on this, but he 
could use a hand.  Want to help?  It should be wonderful weather by 
then!  Email petmcla@soonet.ca.  We also have been asked to find 
someone who can help the students with their oral presentations - an 
important part of the Envirothon competition.  Email 
kathie@cleannorth.org if you want to help with that.

8.  Tree Planting with Rome’s!  The last week of April, first week of 
May, there’s concerts by the folk music group, Tamarack, at Rome’s.  
They are doing a tree presentation for school kids.  We’ve been asked 
to help - and to do a tree planting afterwards.  Want to help?  Email 
kathie@cleannorth.org and I’ll put you in touch with Michelle Loubert, 
who is our main person on this just now. 

Office News

Carpeting!  Yes, carpeting!  After all these years with threadbare 
carpeting (Duct tape Forever!) in the office, we’re getting some 
new/used carpeting that’s in great shape!  Don McGorman was in the 
right place at the right time with his eyes open, and spotted a room-
size carpet sale at the Holiday Inn.  So it’s institutional carpet 
(sturdy!) that’s already been used (no de-gassing!) and is still in 
great shape.  We’re doing installations over the next several weeks.  
We need people for this coming Saturday to help put our library back 
after the front piece of carpet is installed.  Please help!  The more 
we have the quicker it will go, and we can all get back to our Saturday 
activities.

Lights!  In the (formerly) gloomy basement.  Thanks to Don and to his 
electrician friend Terry, we now have good lighting in the basement.  
You won’t bang your head on the lights when you help with storing our 
stuff or getting it out again for our projects.  And you will be able 
to see, too!  Now if we can get some more big flat patio stones to 
cover the puddles, we can use that space efficiently.  Watch for a 
cleaning out work party this summer.

Printer!  Thanks to Tim, Dan, and Jim, we have a Laserjet 4 now, which 
is fast, reliable, and will be much less of a challenge for Dan to 
maintain at a distance.  It’s network ready, you see.  I have no idea 
what I just said, only that our volunteer system administrator is very 
happy.  And that makes me happy.

Library improvements - thanks to Kathy Marshall, Jay Gostlin, and Chris 
Kertesz, we’re getting the last of the backlog of library materials 
catalogued and shelved.  Soon you will find our video collection when 
you go to the library search page on the website.  By summer it will be 
completed.

Office help - do you like to help people find information?  Do you have 
about two hours a week that you can commit to a regular schedule?  If 
so, you’re perfect!  (Well, perfect for us!)  We need office help, that 
means people who will come in and answer the phone, return phone calls 
from the messages on the machine, and help people with their 
questions.  Right now, most questions are about the city’s Household 
Special Waste depot and our computer recycling event.  But we get 
occasional questions about composting, chemical-free gardening, and 
where to dispose of an old fridge.  It’s all in the Answer Book, so you 
don’t have to worry.  But we need you!  Email kathie@cleannorth.org if 
you can help. 

Fundraising:

Our A&P tapes brought in a whopping $54. this year, almost enough to 
pay the PUC bill.  We’re signed up again, so keep saving tapes if you 
shop there, and get your relatives to give you theirs, too.  Thanks to 
Jack for taking the tapes in and signing us up again, to Kathy M. and 
Debbie for adding all those numbers on the calculator.  And to all of 
you for dropping off tapes.  

The rainbarrels are a fundraiser for us, and the computer swap, which 
we’ve already covered.

Our Garage Sale will be on June 8th, in the usual location - the grey 
shed behind the Water Tower Inn.  Got any closets to clean out this 
spring?  Save your stuff and bring it to us during the weekday evenings 
leading up to the sale, ok?  Thanks!  


Volunteer Opportunities (Recap):

Computer Recycling April 19th and 20th - Debbie will call
Emission Clinic in July - Debbie or Jack will call
Textbook Recycling in July
Rainbarrels - email Peter
Sustainable energy workshop organizer - email Kathie
Envirothon - email Peter
Tree Planting with Rome’s - email Kathie
Office help - email Kathie


have a great spring!  And, of course, Happy Earth Day to you!

K

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