Free reusable bag

I thought this would be a cool thing to pass on. It is a great way to get a free bag and also learn a little something...
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If you're savvy about conservation, try taking this quiz — get 9 out of 10 questions right, and they will send you a free reusable shopping tote! http://www.ebfarm.com/AboutUs/Environment/ConservationQuiz.aspx

FREE Events at Whole Foods Fair Lakes

We have received information about some up-coming FREE events at Whole Foods Fair Lakes that we thought might interest you.

Saturday, April 12th: Earth Day Festival, 12:00–3:00 p.m.

Whole Foods Market means green! Fair Lakes is hosting an earth lover's festival in the store featuring a steel drummer, instructions on making your own reusable bags, great giveaways and great "green" demos! Also, we'll be giving away reusable bags from 1–2pm and our Whole Body department is hosting a (gently) used clothing drive. Bring in 5 items or more and receive a free bodycare gift!EcoStewards Alliance will be in the house raffling off an eco–tour and giving a demonstration of their worm bin, plus we'll show you how to make your garden grow in a a very green way – using brewed compost "tea" which is a great way to get the best out of your garden – pesticide free!

Thursday, April 17th: Canning Workshop, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

The season's best is upon us, and to celebrate we're bringing in a local husband and wife team, Scott and Lisa, to show us how to capture the season by canning our fruits and veggies to preserve them year round! Learn how to take your garden's freshest and turn it in to winter's supply. This class is free, so please sign up at our customer service booth.

Wednesday, April 23rd: Kid's Club Puppet Show!, 3:00 p.m.

EcoStewards Alliance is teaming up with Gleemania to bring us a show called "Listening to Global Warnings" to teach children (and adults alike!) about global warming and the easiest ways to understand it. This puppet show is interactive, so the audience members get to become part of it. It should be a great time, and we could learn a lot from it too! Each child in attendance will get a little tree to take home and plant in honor of earth day.

Whole Foods has lots of great events posted on their calendar each month. We may pass on a few from time to time, but please check it out yourself. It would be great to show up as a group to any of these events. Please email us if you are interested in going together. See you soon!

April Meeting: Organic, All Natural, Free Range...Oh My! How to decipher food labels so you can choose what to eat.

We had 16 adults and 5 children attend the meeting on Tuesday, April 1st. It was a beautiful day (70+ degrees), so we were so glad that that many people decided to sit inside with us despite the draw of the lovely outdoor temps.
We discussed many food labelling buzz words and talked about how we all make food choices for our family. Full notes and resources will be posted on the local Yahoo email loop, but here are a few resources you many find helpful.

• Environmental Working Group's guide to pesticide concentrations in food.
• Local Harvest: find CSAs (and other places to get fresh and or local food) near you

We hope to see you May 6th for our next meeting!

Volunteer list

Several people at the open house asked me to post the volunteer list here. Ask and you shall receive! It is now posted on the bottom of this blog site (scroll down to view). Please let us know if you can help our chapter!

Successful Open House!

WOOOHOOO! I just got home from the Open House and it was a smashing success! We had over 50 adults (moms, dads, and grandparents) and at least 20 kids in attendance. We met in a library conference room and only had 1/2 the room (big enough for 50). The library staff actually came and counted and we thought they were going to kick us out for exceeding fire code! I guess we are going to need the entire conference room from now on...

It was great to see people are so excited about the new community we are making! It was so nice to see that all the publicity work that we did actually paid off. We had people write how they heard about us on the sign in sheet. Although I have not yet compiled it, just on a quick look several came because of our articles in the paper and flyers that we posted all over the place. Hooray! It was wonderful to see the diversity in the group as well. We had parents and kids of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, etc.

I came home to 10 emails already...I guess this is just the beginning!

A few picture on Picasa.

Fairfax Connection

Another paper, The Fairfax Connection, in the group called The Connection Newspapers ran our story this week. The article is identical to the one in The Centre View, except for they printed it with a new title. You can view the article online. Horray for great press coverage!

Centre View article

We are in the local paper, The Centre View, today. (One of the group called The Connection Newspapers). We are on the front page! You can also read the article online.
We are so thankful for all of the wonderful press we have been able to get for the new group!