Environmental Awareness
Most Eggscellent!
Spring. I don’t know about you, unless it’s weeds, don’t you just love seeing those fragile little green sprouts popping up out of the earth?
The incredible, versatile egg.
Speaking of fragile, did you know that you can use eggshells as seed pots? Here’s how.
- Crack the shells open, remove the egg, then rinse the shells.
- Pick the bottom of the shell with a thumbtack and make a hole for drainage.
- Fill the half shell with potting soil.
- Plant and tend your seeds as recommended on the back of seed package.
- Place them back in the egg-carton for support until ready to plant in the garden.
When it’s time to transplant them, gently crush the sides and bottom of the shell to let the root of your seedling grow into the earth. It’s biodegradable so you just plant the whole thing and the shell will easily compost. The eggshell contains soil-happy minerals and works as a fertilizer, too.
Egg salad to green salad – all from one egg. That’s most eggscellent!
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See more of what “Just Bea” and gang have got going on at www.facebook.com/JustBeaCartoon
Green Up Your Gown.
When I dropped my wedding gown for donation at The Brides Project, it was bittersweet. That, and thinking – wow, I really fit into that dress? But that’s another story.
I DO(nate)
Walking into the cozy shop, you’ll be taken in by beautiful wedding gowns that hang on hand painted hangars with mission statements with like:
I will help children cope with cancer
I will build community
I will promote healthy lifestyles
I will improve quality of life
I will strengthen families
Knowing that 100% of the proceeds from the sale of these dresses donated from around the country goes to Cancer Support Community of Greater Ann Arbor (and surrounding communities) which helps people with cancer or families that are touched by it, you’ll be taken in even more. And BTW, who hasn’t been touched with someone with cancer?
If that doesn’t pull at your heartstrings and you’re all about the bargain, where else can you find a Vera Wang couture gown for 1/2 off?
At any given time the shop is host to around 400 dresses. You can even find brand new ones tucked into the rows and rows of silk and taffeta which have been donated by bridal salons clearing out last season’s inventory. Again, all of which are available at 1/2 off.
Already have a dress? Some gowns become flower bouquets, headbands, ring-bearer pillows or flower girl dresses. See what can be created at BeautifulAgainBridal
The Cancer Support Community of Greater Ann Arbor is all about living with cancer. It offers support groups, education, workshops, nutrition, and a special place for kids, too. Barb Hiltz, Executive Director “wants to make it a good experience for friends & family.” Hiltz goes on to say “It offers hope. It’s a home away from home.” A place where people can meet in the living room or belly up to the kitchen counter and bond over meals.
The Brides Project is completely run by volunteers, even the storefront is donated. When you donate your tax deductible dress, be sure to include a special note written for the new bride.
Don’t have a dress to donate? There are other ways to help. Your time and talents are welcomed. Things you may have around the house, like hangers, rugs, shelves and storage are items for the showroom are needed, too.
Who knew that one dress could do so much. For an appointment or to donate, get in touch with the Center and see your gown dance another day.
Info on donating: http://www.thebridesproject.org/donate
Info on purchasing a gown: http://www.thebridesproject.org/buy/make-an-appointment/
Volunteer info: http://www.thebridesproject.org/support/volunteer.
See more of what “Just Bea” and gang have got going on at www.facebook.com JustBeaCartoon
Yellow Pages Gardening
The Yellow Pages. A very useful tool. Not only for locating a local pizza joint, but quite possibly use as a booster seat. Some make raised beds for herb gardens. And, on occasion Zoos actually give primates old books to interact with for enrichment – many even find them tasty.
No monkeying around.
Even though the Yellow Pages are made from recycled paper and lumber sawdust, you may not get as excited as the apes. If you’d prefer to let your fingers do the walking on the keyboard rather than on paper, you can easily choose not to receive the book at YellowPagesOptOut.com.
Rather than sending the Yellow Pages straight from the doorstep into the recycle bin, now you can be even more environmentally conscious. Just opt out.
Opt In To Learning With Green Living Science.
Rachel Klegon and Mary Claire Lamm of Green Living Science are up-cycling Yellow Pages in a very cool way. Find out about it in their guest blog below!
“Green Living Science is partnering with YP to provide a phone book recycling competition, Project ReDirectory, with fifteen Detroit Public Schools. This competition challenges students to collect phone books to win the first place prize of five hundred dollars. Schools will decide how to spend the prize money but some have already established that they will have a field day event while other schools will give pizza parties!
Green Living Science will be using some of the phone books collected to make a raised bed for herbs in the Lincoln Street Art Park. Those classes participating in Green Living Science’s in-class lessons will be given a free field trip to visit the Recycle Here facility and Lincoln Street Art Park. When students come to visit they will see how phone books can be reused to make neat new projects!”
Back To More Monkeyshines.
Interested in seeing apes interacting with the Yellow Pages? Click on these links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RacMM6bROPs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJO6c9rWdws
See more of what “Just Bea” and gang have got going on at
www.facebook.com/JustBeaCartoon
The Fortitude of Fruitcake
Fruitcake. It’s one of those things. Either you love it or hate it. No in-between as far as I can tell. Me? I’d rather up-cycle that brick of fruit.
The Gift That Keeps On Giving.
Don’t have a fruitcake on hand to re-gift and are in a pinch for a last minute present? No worries, there’s still time to get that special someone something without without having to battle shoppers at the mall. Perhaps a membership to a favorite Museum or a Zoo for year long enjoyment?
Maybe a membership to a local harvest in which fresh food and goodies are enjoyed throughout the year http://www.localharvest.org.
Or, how about help wash down that fruitcake with a Monthly Wine Club Subscription http://www.theorganicwinecompany.com/owc/pages/shop_wineclub.shtml. Then just pop a note in a card telling the giftee what awesome gift they can look forward to. Done and done.
So, cheers everyone, and have yourselves a very merry Christmas!
See more of what “Just Bea” and gang have got going on at www.facebook.com/JustBeaCartoon and www.justbeacartoon.com
Clean Green Pipes
The Holidays can be draining – or not. With all the festivities, holiday meals, and primping, have you noticed the water in your kitchen or bathroom sink may not be moving quite as quickly as it should?
Wash your troubles down the drain, naturally.
I’m sure you’ve used drain cleaner products found on grocery shelves or at the hardware store, but here’s something I’ve recently tried that I find works really well – if not better. Baking soda and vinegar.
• Pour in 1/2 cup baking soda into the drain.
• Then follow with 1/2 cup white vinegar.
• Let it sit for 2 hours and then run the warm water for a few minutes
It fizzes up kind of like a science experiment, who knew keeping your pipes running clean could be this much fun?
So, rather than using expensive drain cleaners try this and save your money for some extra holiday merrymaking. And oh, there’s a little something in it for Mother Nature, too 
See more of what “Just Bea” and gang have got going on at www.facebook.com/JustBeaCartoon
Gotta Love A Parade!
Detroit has been coming together for 86 years to celebrate Thanksgiving and kick off the holiday season with a Parade. Did you know America’s Thanksgiving Parade is one of the oldest and second largest in the country?
It’s OK to get a Big Head
This Parade has a big head. Well, actually over 300 big papier-mâche’ heads. The heads are one of the oldest Parade traditions and “it is probably the best collection in the United States today,” says Tony Michaels, The Parade Company president and corporate executive officer. Hudson’s originally purchased them from artists in Viareggio, Italy in the 1940′s, and rather than destroying the heads as they did in the “old country”, the heads were re-used and cherished here in Detroit.
Detroiter Carly Strachan will be wearing one for the first time this year. “Some date back to the 30′s” she says “and the money that we pay to be part of the Big Head Corps is used towards maintaining and restoring those historic “big heads.” $200 gets you in the Corps and from the sounds of it, it’s first come first served. But, Strachan says sometimes it’s not that simple. You have to try on the head and see if it fits, if it’s too heavy or too tall, and make sure you are able to see out the spy hole to see where you’re going. Basically, she says “you need to feel comfortable walking in it for over a mile”. But the money goes towards more than just being able to wear the costume on Thanksgiving Day, it goes towards restoration and maintenance and also attending fun activities and events with the Big Head Corps throughout the year.
All 150 Big Heads will be marching together as a group in the parade this year. Sparky Anderson is a new addition to the cast which includes Henry Ford, Joe Louis, Diana Ross, Tom Selleck, Bob Seger, Rosa Parks, Gerald Ford, Walter Reuther, Aretha Franklin, Charles Lindbergh, Father Cunningham, Elijah McCoy, Father Casey and Hank Aguirre.
Gotta love a parade!
Not only are the heads reused from year to year, but so are the floats. Floats have about a 3 year life-cycle, and according to Tony Michaels, floats are taken apart and try reuse everything that can possibly be reused. That includes the infrastructure, plywood and steel, too. The characters and other artistic items are also used for inventory and props and are rented for usage throughout the year.
This year the Charter One float, Michaels goes on to say, is mostly made up of recycled products. Not what you’d imagine – it includes recycled pop bottles!
So, this Thursday morning bring along a thermos of hot cocoa and continue on with the smiles and tradition along with hundreds of thousands of your closest friends and neighbors
It’s Alive!
Green Living Science is truly an experience. For big and small kids alike. Yes, it’s a recycling center, but it’s more than that. It’s a visual feast for anyone that appreciates art and learning. Rachel Kelgon, the Executive Director for Green Living Science, is guest blogging to share more with you.
“Raise your hand if you like art,
now raise your hand if you like dinosaurs.”
This is how I get even the most distracted third grader to get excited about the school field trip to the city of Detroit’s Recycling Center. That’s right, in Detroit, we use dinosaurs and art to teach about the three Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). Students regularly visit Recycle Here! to learn about an alternative way to dispose waste rather than throwing it in the trash. However, no trip to Recycle Here! is complete without taking a walk down the street to the Lincoln Street Art Park, otherwise known as Frank The Dinosaur’s home. Frank is an art installation made out of plastic trash that was recovered and reused to create a life size dinosaur. Frank found a natural home in the Art Park, which was designed to transform a vacant lot into a creative use for reclaimed material and gathering spot for the community.
As Frank’s head bobs in the wind, the students look at the towering sculpture in amazement and begin identifying the different items they recognize and use. We are able to begin a discussion about other ways we can use things that we thought were just trash. Frank is a reminder to everyone who visits the Art Park about the amount of waste we produce and the non-renewable resources we are using up. Frank is made from plastic, which is made from oil, which was created by fossil fuels (non-renewable resource), which was created by the fossils of dinoaurs. Frank has come full circle.
Want to plan a field trip/recycling program for your group or school? Contact Rachel at 313.744.2294
The Mighty Mac Bridge Walk
Buster the Dog’s featured caption entry by Jillena Rose
It’s on my list. Actually, it’s been for a while. Walking the Mighty Mac, that is.
This year marked the 55th Annual Bridge Walk. At the Bridge’s 1958 dedication ceremony 60 people walked over the Straits of Mackinac. And this year – from big kids to little, around 45,000 walkers became part of the tradition.
Yoopers and Trolls Attack the Mac!
Labor Day is the only time of the year that pedestrians are allowed on the bridge, but there’s more to the bridge than meets the eye than the breathtaking view. Bob Sweeny, Executive Secretary of the Bridge Authority, says that along with the grandeur also comes a responsibility to the environment.
Did you know that at midnight the decorative lights get turned off to conserve energy? And, to be even more energy and green conscious, the amount of lights that set the bridge all aglow are restricted. In hoping to make more of a difference, the lighting has also been reduced at the toll plaza and LED lights in the arrow board and toll canopy help lead the way now, too.
So next time you cross and are looking at the grandeur of the Mighty Mackinac, remember that the Bridge is doing it’s part, too!
Pure Michigan Mighty Mack Bridge Walk Cartoon
Pure Fun.
Caption by Pure Michigan contest winner Sue Bartlett
Who doesn’t remember going to the fair during the hottest month of summer vacation? Did that stop the anticipation of carnival rides, elephant ears and the lure of winning the big banana at the ring toss the on the midway?
This year the big kids even had a chance to win a pretty cool prize at the Upper Peninsula State Fair. A souped up Pure Michigan Roush 2012 Mustang.
Big Bananas. Pure Local Fun.
But the local fair is more than prizes and rides. It’s learning about livestock and witnessing the miracle of life. It’s learning about the environment. The UP State Fair even has a Green Forester Exhibit that teaches the significance of trees in our ecosystem. You can also interact with an exhibit on how important farming and agriculture is to Michigan.
The Fair. It’s about community. Where neighbors meet each other and cheer on their favorite pie in the baking contest. Or, marvel at the butter sculpting exhibit. Where family and friends can remember a summer day of chainsaw carving, lumberjack shows and tummy-aches from too much cotton candy and deep fried pickles.
Be sure to savor your summer. Look back fondly with time spent with your family and friends. Be a part of Michigan’s heritage.
As I’ve outgrown my childhood years, the lure and excitement still lives in my spirit – except for maybe the “guess your weight and age” game. Especially after a day of corn dogs and funnel cakes.
Spring Mills Elementary Caption Contest Winners!
Congratulations to Jacob S. and to Zakary K. for coming up with the winning captions for this Earth Day cartoon! Such smart and funny thinking from these up and coming writers and cartoonists!
Holy Bat Cave!
Bats. Not sure about ‘em. My basic introduction to them began at an early age Saturday mornings while watching Sir Graves Ghastly horror flicks and seeing a vampire manifest itself into a bat. Come to find out it doesn’t really work that way.
Holy Bat Cave!
“Unfortunately,” according to the Organization for Bat Conservation, “due to many years of fear and misunderstanding, bat populations are decreasing and some are nearly extinct.” Don’t be afraid. But you don’t need to open up your home to them either. Since their natural habitat is quickly disappearing, bat houses give them a place to call their own.
John Bradburn is General Motors’s resident expert on waste reduction and recycling. Rather than just recycling, which uses more energy and resources, he focuses on repurposing materials and what to do with unwanted scraps. So, with his love and appreciation of the earth and its wild life – combined with his job, he came up with a pretty cool idea. While trying to figure out what to do with scrap Chevrolet Volt battery covers, he came up with bat houses! So, he along with the help of Rob Mies, founder of the Organization for Bat Conservation located at the Cranbrook Institute of Science, figured out how to make the habitable environment for bats out of them.
I had no idea that the Little Brown Bat can eat up to 6,000 insects each night. Bats are the primary predators of night-flying insects including moths, beetles, flies, and mosquitos. And if one of these bat houses can hold up to 150 bats, that’s 900,000 bugs in a night – gone!
Put away the Raid® and get yourself a bat house.
If you’re a school or organization and would love to adopt a bat house, wood duck nesting habitat or a screech owl house, contact john.bradburn@gm.com and see if he can hook you up with your very own habitat.
Want to find out even more? Check out this link! GM and Detroit Youth Turn Chevy Volt Battery Covers into Wood Duck Homes; Michigan Kids Go Batty for Chevrolet Volt Battery Covers
And, for additional fun stuff about bats visit www.batconservation.org
Table Of Bees
Middle School. The awkward years. I flashed back as I was carrying my box of my “Just Bea” Cartoon display stuff down the long locker lined hallway. What to expect. What will the kids think of my cartoon. Will I get the ‘ol stink eye?
Kids in the hall.
As I made it to my destination, I glimpsed that the Anchor Bay Middle School students had made a huge drawing of the “Table of Bees” cartoon from the Caption Contest entry form for my display table at the Family Science Night. Then I looked up – hey wait. That’s a drawing of a different “Just Bea” cartoon. Then I spied another one. Then another. That’s when it sank in. The hall walls were filled with student’s renderings of various “Just Bea” cartoons. Not only that, turns out Ms Wiles’ students were using the cartoons as a study aid for their science class! Some students even chose to do extra credit projects using “their” cartoon. Emily chose “Earth Movers” as her cartoon and created an edible earthworm landscape that included gummi worms and even chocolate chip “worm poop.” I hope she got lots of extra credit points for that one.
The kids had fun filling out the talk bubble for what they thought Buster might be saying as he’s studying the honeybees and why they could be disappearing. Olivia Z. was the winner of the “Cartoon Caption Contest” you see in this posting! To see the honorable mentions, photos of the wonderful drawings, projects and Emily’s fun worm farm, too – be sure to go to www.facebook.com/JustBeaCartoon www.facebook.com/JustBeaCartoon
It ended up that I had nothing to fear. The kids were great and my “teenage” angst soon disappeared when I got looks of surprise, seeing the kids proudly present their work and even hugs at the end of the night. I hope they had as much fun with it as I did.
The Honeybees thank you Michael Wettlaufer!
Thanks for being the first seeder to Just Bea’s “Save the Honeybees” project!
http://www.greenunite.com/projects/1-help-save-the-honeybees
Birthday Green
Green has always been my favorite color. Various shades, forest, gray green, lime. But come to think of it, I’ve never had a green or “green” birthday party. Not that I can remember.
I have, although, wrapped gifts in the Sunday comics because it was fun and reused gift bags and bows because it made sense, but until now never considered that to be green.
Birthday Green. Now we’re talking.
When I found out it was greeningdetroit.com‘s 2nd birthday it got me to thinking. What would make for a more sustainable birthday party?
Some posts I read encourage no gifts for the birthday honoree – but I don’t see that going over so well with a 6 year old. So here are some other ideas.
Possibly skip the paper invitations and send personal emails, set up a Facebook event, or use an online invitation site like Evite.com instead.
For kids, colored pencils are a fun party favor that can be used over and over and are much less likely than a plastic toy to end up in the bottom of the toy box and worse – the landfill.
Another way is to green up the party is to eliminate paper and disposables. Rather than using paper plates, plastic cups and plasticware, what works quite nicely are re-usable plates, flatware, and napkins. Did you know that during an average year, an American uses approximately around six paper napkins each day. If everyone in the U.S. used one less napkin a day, more than a billion pounds of napkins could be saved from landfills each year. Same goes for special occasions. Just sayin’.
Let’s give it a try, how about we start by clicking on greeningdetroit.com and give a them big paperless birthday wish. And while you’re there under the “big green umbrella” maybe you’ll find more ways to make your next birthday party a little bit greener.
Pickin’ Away
I’ve never played guitar, and I know about two words in French. But, I have used gift cards. OK, hold on, there is a connection.
When I saw the posting “Handmade Unique Recycled Guitar Picks” on Facebook, I had to inquire. It turns out that Alicia, a student at Wylie E. Groves High School, is trying to send herself to France on next year’s senior class trip by up-cyling used up gift cards.
What’s in your wallet?
While thinking of ways on how to help fund her trip, Alicia remembered that she had a bunch of expired gift cards and hotel key cards and didn’t know what to do with them and – Viola! (that’s pretty much the extent of my French) the makings of Guitarishy was born. In Alicia’s fundraising effort, she is now making and selling “one-of-a-kind” recycled guitar picks all of which are custom and different from any other.
Did you know that there are 10 billion new cards placed in circulation every year? When these cards are replaced or reach their expiration dates, most of them are thrown in the trash – wouldn’t you rather contribute to a young student’s dream than to the landfill?
Really, $10 for 15 picks? So reasonable and just in time for the Holidays, you can order them here: http://etsy.me/tnNPfd
Don’t know what to do with your old and expired library card, video rental card, membership cards, shopper discount cards and retailer gift cards? For card donations or special orders, you can get ahold of Alicia at 248-645-0938 / email guitarishy@aol.com.
Let’s make some beautiful music and help Alicia get to France.
