members e-news

[Kathie Brosemer <kathie@cleannorth.org>]

Hello!  Welcome Spring!  Lots of good news this time...

1.  Canoe Auction
2.  Calendar changes
     Work party at Peter's
     Barbecue at Peter's
     Computer recycling
     Green Garden Tour
3.  Bat House project
4.  Newsletter is online now

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1.  Canoe Auction

Our NovaCraft canoe is available for sale.  At least one member of CN is 
interested in purchasing it, but suggested that we do an auction so no one 
is accused of insider dealing.  So we're doing that - and it's online, on 
our very own website!  Go visit www.cleannorth.org and you can read all 
about it.  And maybe put in a bid, too...

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2.  Calendar Changes

The work party scheduled for Sunday at Peter's house, at 1 pm, to build 
rainbarrels, is still on.  So far only three people have offered to help, 
so we're still looking for a couple of pairs of hands.  Email 
petmcla@soonet.ca if you're keen to build a rainbarrel or five.  We have 
enough materials to build 36 of them, and expect demand to heat up if the 
temperatures ever do... as of now we have five of them on reserve.  You 
could also reserve yours, by calling the CN office and leaving a message, 
or by emailing info@cleannorth.org.

The barbecue scheduled for Sunday, however, has been postponed.  Peter says 
it's a mite chilly in his neck of the woods, still, and he'd rather we wait 
a couple of weeks.  We also had not received very many rsvp's on this - 
perhaps it's that "chilly" thing.  I'll issue another invitation in the 
next version of this email newsletter.

The Bring Out Your Dead computer recycling event is postponed until late 
June, due to lack of progress on finding a suitable location.  Our good 
friends at the Station Mall who had been so helpful for the last three 
events, have rented the large store spaces now (fortunately for them, not 
so for us!).  We're on the hunt, but in the meantime, the May 3 date we'd 
been working toward is not going to happen.  Keep your old junk in the 
basement for a little while longer, ok?  Thanks!

The Green Garden Tour is now scheduled for July 19th.  If you would like to 
offer your garden for the tour, please let us know.  It doesn't have to be 
super-impressive, some of our most popular sites in past Tours have been 
works-in-progress, showing people what a chemical-free garden looks like on 
the way to becoming a work of art.  Call the office at 945-1573 if you 
would consider doing this.  We'd love to have you!

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3.  Bat House Project

This is a big surprise for us!  A CN member came forward with a grant 
program he'd heard about, through the head office of Canadian Tire.  A 
relative of his works at the local store, and put in a proposal for us - 
about bat houses.  And it was approved!  In short, we're going to build 
fifty bat houses, and sell them to city residents, to try to reduce the 
mosquito population, organically (a single bat eats 3000 mozzies a night!).

We'll sell them rather than give them away, for two reasons:  to increase 
the likelihood the buyer will actually put the house up, and to create a 
revolving fund we can use to continue the project beyond the start-up 
grant.

We're planning on two work parties - the first one to cut up wood in 
advance, and the second one (the public event) to put the bat houses 
together and sell them.

Party #1 will be on Saturday morning, May 10.  If you can help move wood 
around or operate a saw, please email info@cleannorth.org and we'll put you 
on that list.

Party #2 will be on Friday evening, May 16th, in the grassy area along the 
McNabb Street side of the Canadian Tire parking lot.  We need volunteers to 
help put up our shade tents, sell bat houses, and watch over the youth 
volunteers we'll have putting bat houses together.  You can have fun with 
the Batman theme if you want!

We also need a few good people to do a special task at home:  sew up 50 
quick-and-dirty cloth bags we can stuff bat houses into.  We have the 
fabric, left over from the Fabric and Yarn Swap, we need people to cut it 
into 1/2 yard pieces, sew up the sides, and attach straps.  Really simple 
stuff, not a fancy bag.  Have a machine?  Please phone the office or email 
info@cleannorth.org to offer some help.  If 5 people offer, each only has 
to do 10 bags.

(yes, you can get on the list to buy a bat house.  email or phone.)

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4.  Online newsletter

If you go to our website, to this link, 
http://cleannorth.org/help/newsletter.html, you'll find our last issue of 
the paper newsletter.  We've put it up here, and it's searchable!  Not that 
it matters now, with only one issue, but in a few more months, when you're 
wondering "now where did I see that article about...", you'll be able to 
find it.

Remember that we really love to get your material for the newsletter. 
Email your stories, poems, limericks, quotes, enviro-jokes, etc. to 
ed@cleannorth.org (ed is editor).  Deadline for the next issue is June 1.

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Have a great spring, and I'll be inviting you to that barbecue again pretty 
soon.

Kathie