Earth Day Recap, this Wednesday's Sustainability Show and Biking in May

This weekend, Green Redmond Partnership and Girl Scout groups met at Westside Park in recognition of Earth Day and to restore and maintain the forested area of the park. They invited me to come and talk about composting following each of the two work sessions.

In between my talks, I spoke to one of the Girl Scout leaders. She said she has been doing this event for a number of years now at this park. "It has really made a difference; there are less and less vines and blackberry bushes now," she said.

All the tools and gloves were provided by the partnership. Upon arrival, the volunteers were met by Guide Norah. She lead the volunteers into the forested wooded area.  Following the work session, they hiked back up the hill for refreshments and to check out a worm bin/composting booth we had set up. Here we talked about what options we have for composting on the Eastside, including the City's Food Scrap Program and individual worm bin composting options.

While only slightly amused by my "How to tell which end of a worm is which" type jokes, the kids were interested in seeing how a worm bin was assembled and checking out the wiggly red anglers themselves.

A couple girls shared what Forever Green themed monthly challenges they have been doing this last year in their troop groups. Nia shared her favorite one: "Nature Vision came out to our school, took us outside to the trail and taught us how to recognize some of the different bird sounds." Others talked of having made reusable gift bags and green cleaners. This month's challenge is growing green gardens. Two girls (and their agreeing dads) were happy to take the worm bins home and start their own worm bin composting.

In continuation of this composting green theme, my talk THIS WEDNESDAY will include information on Eastside composting. Also presented will be a humorous way at looking at some of the sustainability challenges we have today, how some of the options can be confusing and how some of the options are just a matter of being more efficient. Going green doesn't have to mean sacrificing something or having to buy the more expensive product. In fact, as with composting our food scraps, OUR community actually SAVES money. 

Check it out this WEDNESDAY the 25th, 7 p.m., at in Redmond! Come by for an enjoyable evening with a cup of tea and some good laughs to go around. Hope to see you there!

The jokes are all new since I used up all my worm jokes. Just tickle the worm in the middle and whichever end laughs will tell you which end of the worm is which. If you can't make it in person, they do live streaming from the Soul Food Tribe website.

Next month, the Girl Scout Forever Green Challenge is similar to other challenges around the area: transportation! Cascade Bicycle Club calls it "May is Bike Month." Cascade's website has information on how to "Join the Challenge today."