You're Invited to a Community Picnic!!!

Green Drinks' Picnic

Tuesday, July 28th 6 PM - 9 PM

Jericho Park

Eastern pond picnic area

ABOUT GREEN DRINKS INTERNATIONAL

Every month people who work in the environmental field meet up at informal sessions known as Green Drinks.

At such events, invariably there is a lively mixture of people from non-government organizations (NGOs), academia, government and businesses. Come along and you'll be made welcome. Just say "Are you green?" and they will look after you and introduce you to whoever is there. It's a great way of catching up with people you know and also for making new contacts. Everyone invites someone else along, so there's always a different crowd, making Green Drinks an organic, self-organizing network.

These events are very simple and unstructured, but many people have found employment, made friends, developed new ideas, done deals, and had moments of serendipity. It's a force for the good and it would be great to help it spread to other cities. Contact your local node to get the latest info about coming along.

Green Drinks website

ABOUT THE PICNIC

This is a BYOE (Bring Your Own Everything) event. There will be no cooking or washing facilities at the site, so please plan for a basic cold food picnic. The theme of this mission, should you choose to accept it, is local and sustainable food, so bring something appropriate if you can; enough to share if you're willing... and, hey, there might be a contest. Details forthcoming.

Basics to bring:

• Yourself and any interested friends or family.

• Your own food, drink, and necessary dining implements: plates, cutlery, etc.

• Willingness to pick up all of your refuse when you leave.Other items they'd love someone to bring:• Games or sports equipment (volleyball & net, badminton, bocce, etc).

• A BBQ that you are willing to share – please get in touch with Green Drinks if you can bring this for sure.• Non-amplified musical instruments and your singing voice.What not to bring:• Glass drink containers.

• Alcohol – parks officers don't want to see that.

• Amplified music or public address systems.• Advertising.

• Electricity.

• Structures, fences, poles, tents, stages, etc.

These are Vancouver Parks restrictions so please see their website for further details.How to get to the Green Drinks picnic site:They'll be in the same place as previous years, which is not far from where the back of the main stage at the Folk Festival will have been the week before. See the Vancouver Parks website for details & map of "Jericho Pond".Here are the transit options:

• Bus 4 – get off 1 or 2 stops west of Alma along 4th Ave.

• Buses 7, 44, or 84 – get off at Alma & 4th and walk a few minutes westward.

• Buses 9, 17 or 99 B-line – get off at Alma & Broadway and walk north to 4th and then west to Jericho.

Potluck Dinner at Kits Community House

July 8th, 2009 6:00-8:00pm - ALL AGES - EVERYONE WELCOME

Bring a vegetarian dish to share, enjoy a casual atmosphere & get to know your neighbours!

July Potluck Topic:

What is FAIR TRADE?

Learn more about people from around the world & the difference you make as a responsible consumer.

Presentation & discussion with staff and volunteers from Fair Trade Gift Store "Ten Thousand Villages".

BIG BANG!

BIG BANG!!
CIRCLING THE EARTH WITH DRUMMING ON WORLD FAIR TRADE DAY 09 MAY 09

Fair Trade Day this year was a great success!
http://www.worldfairtradeday09.org/

Chalk for Change

On Saturday May 16th there was much fun and cookies to be had as creative youngsters raising money to go to camp this summer chalked a mural of the Ten Thousand Villages logo on our sidewalk .

With the support of this program, last year these kids were able to raise enough money to subsidize a number of youth. Businesses, parents, customers and local kids all got inovled to support this fun, unique and colourful initiative.

Embracing the essence of reaching out to help the economically disadvantaged we were able to help youngsters in our community to go to summer camp. It just feels good to help others help themselves! It's a win-win situation for everyone.

Canadian Fair Traders Receive Recognition

One of the most important ways to change the world is to lead by example. This is what we are doing by partnering with organizations like Cocoa Camino who produce the cocoa in La Siembra products.

This picture is a photo of the visit to Ottawa paid by Cocoa Camino workers who were celebrating the award that was given to the c0-operative.

In April La Siembra, a co-operative in Ottawa-Gatineau won the WorldBlu "Worldwide Award for the Most Democratic Workplaces".

WorldBlu Founder and CEO Traci Fenton notes that "organizations that practice democracy in the workplace are creating the businesses of the future and will ultimately build a more sustainable and democratic world".

I am so happy to know that I am a part of this relationship even though I live across the country and I have never met these people. I know that the volunteers in our store in Vancouver are helping to make a difference in the lives of these people by enabling them to access our neighbourhood. It's really great to know that we are all connected!

Check out the Worldblu website:
http://www.worldblu.com/worldblu-list?company=nixonmcinnes

Check out the Cocoa Camino's homepage:
http://www.cocoacamino.com/

Mennonite Central Committee Annual Fair

Several volunteers at the store located on West Broadway were really excited about the MCC annual fair last Sept. in Abbotsford.

Here, volunteer Betty Bartel is standing with Olga Nickel, manager of Langley store who had a large TTVillages "store" set up at the 2 day event.

How Do We Reduce Our Own Footprints?

Hi all – I had an idea and I’m looking for feedback.

Since it is a new fiscal year and we are all committed to keeping to budget and reducing our environmental footprint, I propose that we develop a “footprint budget”.

Expenses for utilities, supplies – paper especially – printer toner, printer rolls etc. could have budget targets for the year. We can take our 2009 budget for these categories and set a reduction goal, which can be measured through monitoring costs savings for different categories. This would be an effective way for everyone to be aware of what they use and save money at the same time.

One example that we have started at West Vancouver, is cutting down paper usage by emailing product information to customers instead of printing it off at the point of sale. We have had success doing this already. This one small change in behavior saves paper, puts the customer onto our email list, allows the customer to save the information on his/her computer, and allows us to begin a dialog about the ways people can begin to save resources in the spirit which fair trade promotes.

We could start this officially April 1st to begin with our Reason 3 – Fair trade protects the environment. I am working on a plan and guide and would be happy to share ideas with anyone who is interested. Let’s do more than more than throw our cardboard into the recycling bin and change a few light bulbs.

Let’s really challenge ourselves to go beyond just talking and start doing.