members e-news draft for comments

[Kathie Brosemer <kathie@cleannorth.org>]

Members E-Newsletter - May 2002

DRAFT - check it for errors and omissions, please!  Thanks!  I'd like to 
get this out within a day or three.  - K

Calendar

May 22 - Pesticide Action Committee meeting
May 25 - Horticulture Society plant sale
June 5 - next Clean North meeting, 7:30 at the office
June 8 - the Giant Garage Sale
July 5,6,7 - Hit the Books Recycling event
July 11,12 - Vehicle Emissions Clinic
July 13 - Green Garden Tour
July 14 to September 6  - have a lazy summer!

First of all, if you are a person with a reason to have a Clean North 
office key, you need a new one.  As of May 14th we've changed the lock on 
the front door.  So if you haven't gotten a new one May 14th or later, you 
need to turn yours in and get one.  Email kathie@cleannorth.org to make 
arrangements.

Next, we had a fantastic computer recycling event for Earth Day!  If you 
missed the report on www.cleannorth.org, go and check it out!  Lots of 
great volunteers made the work light, and the public response was amazing. 
Enormous thanks to the Station Mall, who were incredible hosts.  And thanks 
to all of you who came out and helped for a few hours or longer.  You made 
it wonderful!

We have a busy spring ahead of us.  Many activities, including three major 
ones clustered in the first/second weeks of July.  We'll be needing 
volunteers, just at the time when so many people are away.  If you're 
planning to be in town during the Book Recycling, the Garden Tour, or the 
Vehicle Emission Clinic, please set aside some time to help!  Thanks!

The Pesticide Action Committee is being revived.  All interested in working 
towards a bylaw regulating the cosmetic use of pesticides, please meet at 
the Clean North office at 7:30 pm on Wednesday the 22nd of May.  There's 
real momentum on this issue right now, let's catch the wave!

The Horticulture Society plant sale is taking place on May 25th.  Watch 
local media for time/place info.  Our beautiful rainbarrels will be on sale 
there, too!  But you can reserve yours in advance by emailing Peter, at 
petmcla@soonet.ca.  He's designed a real winner there, you can see one in 
the office window.  Rumour has it he'll have some bright royal blue ones, 
too, before long.  They are $50 from us, $65 from Vernes Hardware.  Thanks 
to St. Mary's Paper for help with this project.

All members are welcome at Clean North meetings, you know!  We do have lots 
of fun (Suzanne could make a good living doing standup comedy!).  Meetings 
are at 7:30 pm at the Clean North office, someone comes early and makes 
tea, and we usually finish by 10 (9:30 if we're really disciplined about 
it!).  Decisions are made by consensus of everyone who comes, so we could 
use your wisdom and your two cent's worth of opinions.

Volunteer opportunities et cetera:

Garage Sale - items will be accepted at the big grey shed behind the Water 
Tower Inn, during the evenings of June 5,6, and 7.  Jack would like a few 
volunteers to help sort and price things on the Friday evening, and lots of 
people to help sell on Saturday the 8th.  Email donaldmj@soonet.ca, or 
phone Jack at 942-1761 to offer help.

Hit the Books!  A new event, first time for us.  We'll be collecting 
unwanted books for recycling, shipping them off to Montreal to be ground up 
and turned into new paper.  The school boards throw out tonnes 
(literally!), as do the Friends of the Library and several other 
institutions.  They have asked us before about what to do with books that 
can't be reused any longer, and this spring we posted it on the web and 
found an answer.  Love that internet!

So, July 5,6,7 are the dates.  We're still looking for a location, so we're 
not announcing this to the general public just yet.  But we figure we'll 
need lots of hands, so we're letting you know!  If you're in town, we would 
sure appreciate a few hours of your time during that event.

Vehicle Emissions Clinic - we did this one a few years ago with Environment 
Canada.  They liked us so much they're coming back!  We'll be at Canadian 
Tire, in the parking lot, with tents, a generator, some fancy test 
equipment, and a free t-shirt for you for helping out!  We need six 
volunteers throughout the two day event, which means we need about 
twenty-four different people to volunteer.  When we have a schedule made 
up, Debbie will call you.  But mark your calendar now, okay?

Green Garden Tour - are you an organic gardener?  Is your lawn or flower or 
vegetable garden a work-in-progress towards bloomin' beauty?  We'll be 
doing our alternative tour, showing off organic gardens in the Society 
Garden Tour season.  Lah de dah!  I must stress that our tour participants 
love to see works in progress, so your garden doesn't have to be perfect 
and complete to be on the tour.  It's fun to see what other people are 
trying to do, and learn from the pitfalls and triumphs they've experienced. 


The tour will be from 10 am to 2 pm on July 13th.  We're starting at the 
Allard Street Community Gardens, where ticket holders will see composters, 
rainbarrels, companion planting, and other good things. We're planning on a 
real festival atmosphere there, with booths, freebies, and lots of fun! 
They then take their own vehicles (or their bikes - we'll have bike tour 
maps too!), to see your gardens.  Garden tour gardeners can come to the 
Allard Street gardens early, to see what we have in store there, before the 
tour officially begins (and to get first crack at those freebies!).

Sign up your garden by phoning the Clean North office at 945-1573 or by 
email: info@cleannorth.org.
Buy a $5 tour ticket at the Clean North office (phone first), or at the 
Horticultural Society's plant sale, or at Clean North's garage sale.

Also looking for nominations for our Green Glove Pesticide Free Garden 
Award, part of the City Beautification Awards.  Watch for more details as 
we get into summer.

Office projects help:

Carpet - we're working on a plan to get the last pieces of "new" carpeting 
laid in the front office.  If you have any carpet skills, we could use you! 
Our last volunteer who knew what he was doing, got a job out of town! 
Email Don at mcgormd@hotmail.com if you can help.

We also still need some of those big (18 inch square) patio stones.  Our 
basement is wet, you see, so if we use it for storage of all that stuff we 
need for events, etc. we have to walk through the muck (squelch, squish)! 
I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to walk _above_ the muck, and keep 
my feet dry!  Patio stones do the trick.  If you have any old unwanted ones 
taking up space in your shed or garage, think of us!  And email 
info@cleannorth.org and tell us!  Thanks!