“Earth Day” was celebrated in Grandin Village on Saturday April 17th after it was officially proclaimed by the Mayor and the proclamation was read. The street was lined with cars; the village was bustling. There were lectures by experts on various topics, and folks who happened to be in the area may have heard young Hailey Desper, age eleven, profoundly spout her well-thought out theories on animals and insects. For those who didn’t have a chance to stop by and enjoy the activities or visit the booths, here’s a sample of how all of us can make a difference.
• If you would like to participate by “saving money, saving time, and saving the world” then check out ridesolutions.org. They offer an easy way to save money without changing your daily routine, while easing traffic congestion and improving air quality in the region. Use the calculator on their website to determine the cost of your current transportation lifestyle and find out how to register to win an IPOD Touch. According to this organization, many of us spend 20% of our income driving, often spending more to drive than we do on food. They can also be reached at 342-9393.
• Do you have any idea what area you affect when you put chemical fertilizer on your lawn? Check out vasos.org to discover the wide reaching impact of activity in the upper Roanoke River watershed area. According to Maureen Castern of The Roanoke River Roundtable, (upperroanokeriver.org), “we’re all sitting in the same bathtub.” Now that’s a sobering thought!
• If you are unfamiliar with the concepts of “vermiculture,” Rosalie Kelp is the person to talk to. If more people understood the role of “the bugs we cannot see” in the life of our soil and our bodies, maybe everyone would be composting in their kitchen. She suggests a visit to cornell.edu to begin to educate yourself on composting both inside and outside of your home.
• Roanoke also has a very active branch of the Weston A. Price Foundation. Check out westonaprice.org to learn how to change your body and its health by changing what you eat. You may contact the local chapter volunteer coordinator, Judy Harrington at [email protected]. You might be surprised to learn what the research says about the way this generation has been taught to eat. You only have to look at the effects of obesity and chronic disease to wonder if you might be doing all the wrong things.
But Roanoke is doing many of the right things – and everyone who made it to the Village last Saturday got a wonderful view of how we can all make a difference in our future!
By Christine Slade [email protected]
