Hi friends,
We've been keeping our presentation schedule full for the spring, with a goal of 2-3 talks each week to spread the word about our cross-country eco-video project. 2 months to go! Yikes, so much left to do!
Last weekend we set up a presentation for homeschoolers at our friend's yoga studio in Worcester, Flowforms Yoga. We emailed all the local homeschool groups but were unlucky that day - nobody showed. On Sunday we gave a presentation at the Worcester library and had great help promoting it from the Regional Environmental Council in Worcester, but only a handful of people showed up. That was disappointing, because we're needing to spread the word in a BIG way right now. These library talks have been spotty in attendance at best, so I think we'll pass on that strategy.
Today I exhibited at the Massachusetts Environmental Educator Society's annual conference at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. There were several hundred people there, both science teachers and educators who run different environmental programs. It was a great place to be to spread the word about our project and network with other environmental groups in Massachusetts. Having the support of environmental educator associations will be key to promoting our video project and distributing our video series on a national level once it is completed. I got a lot of enthusiastic feedback from teachers who are excited about what we're doing and who are anxious to follow our cross-country journey in their classrooms. Our Postcard Program fundraiser was also a big hit as well.
For fairs and conferences, we're planning to give a workshop and exhibit at the Maynard Energy Fair this Saturday in Maynard, Massachusetts and also give a workshop and exhibit at the Maine Environmental Educator Association annual conference on March 27.
Carrick and I were invited to be part of the Celebrity Reader series for Millbury public TV, and tonight we went into the studio to film our part. Local notable people are invited for a weekly program for kids to read kid stories, but instead of reading stories Carrick and I talked about our trip and showed how to read maps. We had a fun time on the show, and they are planning to include some of our videos we brought on DVD. The program doesn't appear online, so only residents of Millbury and Sutton will see it on TV.
I posted a short new video about the solar-powered wind turbine toy that I mounted to the dashboard of our car. People ask about it and I had the footage already, so I just put it together and posted it on various video websites. Already 1,200 hits in a few days - go figure. Here's the URL for it if you want to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a067XLOooEI
So that's the update for this week. Another foot of snow on Monday, and California is still 2 months away...
Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
in the Sierra Club campaign, GoGreenTube
Hi friends,
Here's the latest news for our cross-country eco-video project, Our Renewable Nation:
It's official - we were recently contacted by the Sierra Club asking if they can use a video we made for their upcoming national campaign to promote home energy conservation. The website www.sierraclubgreenhome.com will post our video 'Our Energy-Efficient Home' that we entered into the Home Depot Video Contest last fall. They have also asked to give our video to Sierra Club's affiliates to distribute on the internet as well. Since several videos from our upcoming eco-video series will be a great fit for their website, we'll be sharing those with the Sierra Club as well. This is a great collaboration because we are interviewing several people from the Sierra Club's Cool Cities campaign in our video series, as we focus on several of the Top 10 Green Cities in the U.S. and interview representatives from each city to tell us what their city has done to earn their place in the top 10. Publicity from the Sierra Club will be so helpful for us in promoting our cross-country eco-video series!
We have also signed up to partner with www.GoGreenTube.com, which is a video-sharing website similar in format to YouTube but is focused on green living videos. It's a great site for all aspects of green living. We'll be embedding our video series on our website through GoGreenTube, which also helps us to stream videos to schools which block video sites like YouTube. We will also be posting our video series to the other video sites like YouTube, but GoGreenTube has agreed to feature our new videos on their homepage as we finish and upload them through the fall. It should be a great collaboration!
We also have an exciting new fundraising project to tell you about, but it deserves it's own special message, and I also need to get the website updated to include it. Look for more details later this week!
Be well,
Colin & family
www.OurRenewableNation.org
Here's the latest news for our cross-country eco-video project, Our Renewable Nation:
It's official - we were recently contacted by the Sierra Club asking if they can use a video we made for their upcoming national campaign to promote home energy conservation. The website www.sierraclubgreenhome.com will post our video 'Our Energy-Efficient Home' that we entered into the Home Depot Video Contest last fall. They have also asked to give our video to Sierra Club's affiliates to distribute on the internet as well. Since several videos from our upcoming eco-video series will be a great fit for their website, we'll be sharing those with the Sierra Club as well. This is a great collaboration because we are interviewing several people from the Sierra Club's Cool Cities campaign in our video series, as we focus on several of the Top 10 Green Cities in the U.S. and interview representatives from each city to tell us what their city has done to earn their place in the top 10. Publicity from the Sierra Club will be so helpful for us in promoting our cross-country eco-video series!
We have also signed up to partner with www.GoGreenTube.com, which is a video-sharing website similar in format to YouTube but is focused on green living videos. It's a great site for all aspects of green living. We'll be embedding our video series on our website through GoGreenTube, which also helps us to stream videos to schools which block video sites like YouTube. We will also be posting our video series to the other video sites like YouTube, but GoGreenTube has agreed to feature our new videos on their homepage as we finish and upload them through the fall. It should be a great collaboration!
We also have an exciting new fundraising project to tell you about, but it deserves it's own special message, and I also need to get the website updated to include it. Look for more details later this week!
Be well,
Colin & family
www.OurRenewableNation.org
Monday, February 16, 2009
Our Interview on GreenMuze
Hi friends-
I thought you'd be interested in reading an interview we did with GreenMuze, an online green magazine. We were contacted by GreenMuze after they saw the post on Treehugger.com that featured our video project. I've been interviewed a number of times about the veggie Beetle and sometimes the resulting articles can be... a little off. I was glad to see how well this one came out: http://www.greenmuze.com/community/people/784-the-eco-family-activists.html
Please feel free to add a comment at the end of the article!
We are adding several new desinations to our project. We'll be stopping by TerraCycle while traveling through Princeton, NJ - TerraCycle makes product packaging from recycled materials. Go to their website, www.terracycle.net and check out all the different products they package; you will see brands you know and use! I'm also working on getting an interview with Enviro Energies, which produces the Mag-Wind vertical-axis wind turbines for homes.
We just got accepted as a speaker for the Maine Environmental Educators Association 2009 Annual Conference at the end of March, and we are exhibiting at the Massachusetts Environmental Educators Society Annual Conference in a few weeks. These will be great opportunities to spread the word about our cross-country video project and network with people in the teaching community.
Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org
I thought you'd be interested in reading an interview we did with GreenMuze, an online green magazine. We were contacted by GreenMuze after they saw the post on Treehugger.com that featured our video project. I've been interviewed a number of times about the veggie Beetle and sometimes the resulting articles can be... a little off. I was glad to see how well this one came out: http://www.greenmuze.com/community/people/784-the-eco-family-activists.html
Please feel free to add a comment at the end of the article!
We are adding several new desinations to our project. We'll be stopping by TerraCycle while traveling through Princeton, NJ - TerraCycle makes product packaging from recycled materials. Go to their website, www.terracycle.net and check out all the different products they package; you will see brands you know and use! I'm also working on getting an interview with Enviro Energies, which produces the Mag-Wind vertical-axis wind turbines for homes.
We just got accepted as a speaker for the Maine Environmental Educators Association 2009 Annual Conference at the end of March, and we are exhibiting at the Massachusetts Environmental Educators Society Annual Conference in a few weeks. These will be great opportunities to spread the word about our cross-country video project and network with people in the teaching community.
Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org
Monday, February 2, 2009
PEYA Award and Yale Film Festival
We got two great pieces of news this last week about our project!
Carrick is going to be nominated for a Presidential Environmental Youth Award for 2009. All nominees are sent certificates signed by the President of the United States, and the 10 regional award winners receive a presidential plaque at an EPA-sponsored award ceremony in Washington, D.C. The deadline for nominations is in October, so we'll see what happens!
Carrick and I have been invited to participate in the Environmental Film Festival at Yale University in April. The festival will include screenings of narratives and documentary films, features and shorts, and student projects, coupled with conversations with filmmakers,
panel discussions, and workshops for students interested in producing environmental films. Admission to screenings and special events will be free and open to the public. The festival will run from Thursday, April 16th, 2009 - Sunday, April 19th, 2009. I'll update the specific date and time we'll be in the schedule once I find out.
Today I visited one of the local high schools as part of the Focus the Nation program, which is a national teach-in program involving millions of students, faculty, staff and visitors at a thousand or more educational institutions around the country in a discussion of Global Warming solutions. Last year I participated in Worcester, showing our veg-oil powered Beetle and talking to one of the environmental science classes about climate change and sustainability. In the class I visited today, I helped speak about renewable energy and sustainability, and showed a few of our videos. It was a fun experience. I did notice, however, that the Environmental Science textbooks they had were 20 years old...
I've been getting a number of suggestions lately to sell our finished eco-video series to make some profit. The idea of providing our eco-video series free to schools nationally is at the heart of what we're doing. The important thing is for this kind of information to get to as many people as possible. When Carrick and I conceived of this video project, we never intended to produce something that we could profit from. Our profit will be the experience of the journey, traveling the U.S. and meeting many wonderful, generous people!
Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org
Carrick is going to be nominated for a Presidential Environmental Youth Award for 2009. All nominees are sent certificates signed by the President of the United States, and the 10 regional award winners receive a presidential plaque at an EPA-sponsored award ceremony in Washington, D.C. The deadline for nominations is in October, so we'll see what happens!
Carrick and I have been invited to participate in the Environmental Film Festival at Yale University in April. The festival will include screenings of narratives and documentary films, features and shorts, and student projects, coupled with conversations with filmmakers,
panel discussions, and workshops for students interested in producing environmental films. Admission to screenings and special events will be free and open to the public. The festival will run from Thursday, April 16th, 2009 - Sunday, April 19th, 2009. I'll update the specific date and time we'll be in the schedule once I find out.
Today I visited one of the local high schools as part of the Focus the Nation program, which is a national teach-in program involving millions of students, faculty, staff and visitors at a thousand or more educational institutions around the country in a discussion of Global Warming solutions. Last year I participated in Worcester, showing our veg-oil powered Beetle and talking to one of the environmental science classes about climate change and sustainability. In the class I visited today, I helped speak about renewable energy and sustainability, and showed a few of our videos. It was a fun experience. I did notice, however, that the Environmental Science textbooks they had were 20 years old...
I've been getting a number of suggestions lately to sell our finished eco-video series to make some profit. The idea of providing our eco-video series free to schools nationally is at the heart of what we're doing. The important thing is for this kind of information to get to as many people as possible. When Carrick and I conceived of this video project, we never intended to produce something that we could profit from. Our profit will be the experience of the journey, traveling the U.S. and meeting many wonderful, generous people!
Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org
Monday, January 26, 2009
ORN Featured on Treehugger.com!
On Sunday night, we were fortunate enough to get a great write-up on Treehugger.com, one of the most widely-read environmental blogs on the net. It was a terrific article, and it generated a lot of traffic to our website and videos. They say about our project "It's a fine idea, a great cause, and packs a ton of potential--who better to relate sustainable ideas to kids then someone like Carrick?" You can read the full article on Treehugger by following the link:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/most-adorable-renewable-energy-project-ever-video.php
I got to spend some time today talking with Mark Dixon, one of the filmmakers of YERT.com, Your Environmental Road Trip. Mark and crew traveled the U.S. a few years ago making eco-videos on sustainable topics, spending about a year on the road visiting all 50 states. Mark offered some great suggestions and advice, coming from much experience on the road! Check out their website, www.yert.com and see their great work!
One of the ways we're trying to save money while on the road, while meeting some new friends, is to stay with people while we're traveling. I sent a message to the Green Sanctuary email list, which goes out nationally to Unitarian Universalist congregations who are part of the Green Sanctuary program, which works to make congregations more sustainable. I asked members of the email list if they would consider hosting our family as we travel across the U.S. to support our project, and if we could visit their UU congregations and give presentations about our eco-video project. I've been so grateful to receive many generous offers all across the country to help us on our journey! Many people have responded enthusiastically to support us as we travel, offering places for us to stay. It will certainly be a highlight of our trip to meet so many generous people!
Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/most-adorable-renewable-energy-project-ever-video.php
I got to spend some time today talking with Mark Dixon, one of the filmmakers of YERT.com, Your Environmental Road Trip. Mark and crew traveled the U.S. a few years ago making eco-videos on sustainable topics, spending about a year on the road visiting all 50 states. Mark offered some great suggestions and advice, coming from much experience on the road! Check out their website, www.yert.com and see their great work!
One of the ways we're trying to save money while on the road, while meeting some new friends, is to stay with people while we're traveling. I sent a message to the Green Sanctuary email list, which goes out nationally to Unitarian Universalist congregations who are part of the Green Sanctuary program, which works to make congregations more sustainable. I asked members of the email list if they would consider hosting our family as we travel across the U.S. to support our project, and if we could visit their UU congregations and give presentations about our eco-video project. I've been so grateful to receive many generous offers all across the country to help us on our journey! Many people have responded enthusiastically to support us as we travel, offering places for us to stay. It will certainly be a highlight of our trip to meet so many generous people!
Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Special Recognition, Special Offer
Hello friends on this exciting week!
Carrick and I were honored to speak before the Board of Selectmen in our town of Sutton, Massachusetts last night, where we were publicly recognized for our upcoming cross-country eco-video project We are also grateful for our introduction to the Board by House Representative Jennifer Callahan. Carrick and I spoke about our upcoming journey and showed our most recent video, "Wind Over Worcester". It was wonderful to receive such great support from our town!
All this snow has caused us to have to cancel several of our recently scheduled presentations, which is frustrating! We only have several months left before we begin our cross-country journey, and we're trying to give as many presentations as we can. I'm thinking of California a lot lately!
We are excited to announce a new sponsor and supporter of our cross-country video project: VegDining.com. VegDining is a great website that lists vegan, vegetarian, and veg-friendly restaurants across the U.S., and it will be invaluable to us as we cross the U.S. visiting cities and towns, looking for healthy places to eat along the way. Many of the restaurants listed on VegDining.com have signed on to offer discounts to VegDining members - the restaurants we've looked up offered 10% off to VegDining members - that will help save us a bundle on our journey. Our friends at VegDining have generously offered, that for the next 100 people who donate $50.00 to our cross-country eco-video project, they will receive a FREE membership to VegDining.com. Check out their website and see what healthy restaurants are near you, and keep it in mind for when you're traveling! You can make a donation to support our cross-country eco-video project at our website, www.OurRenewableNation.org, or you can send us a check in the snail mail; just send me an email at OurRenewableNation@gmail.com and I'll send you our address.
Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org
Carrick and I were honored to speak before the Board of Selectmen in our town of Sutton, Massachusetts last night, where we were publicly recognized for our upcoming cross-country eco-video project We are also grateful for our introduction to the Board by House Representative Jennifer Callahan. Carrick and I spoke about our upcoming journey and showed our most recent video, "Wind Over Worcester". It was wonderful to receive such great support from our town!
All this snow has caused us to have to cancel several of our recently scheduled presentations, which is frustrating! We only have several months left before we begin our cross-country journey, and we're trying to give as many presentations as we can. I'm thinking of California a lot lately!
We are excited to announce a new sponsor and supporter of our cross-country video project: VegDining.com. VegDining is a great website that lists vegan, vegetarian, and veg-friendly restaurants across the U.S., and it will be invaluable to us as we cross the U.S. visiting cities and towns, looking for healthy places to eat along the way. Many of the restaurants listed on VegDining.com have signed on to offer discounts to VegDining members - the restaurants we've looked up offered 10% off to VegDining members - that will help save us a bundle on our journey. Our friends at VegDining have generously offered, that for the next 100 people who donate $50.00 to our cross-country eco-video project, they will receive a FREE membership to VegDining.com. Check out their website and see what healthy restaurants are near you, and keep it in mind for when you're traveling! You can make a donation to support our cross-country eco-video project at our website, www.OurRenewableNation.org, or you can send us a check in the snail mail; just send me an email at OurRenewableNation@gmail.com and I'll send you our address.
Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
New Pilot Video and New Website Design
Happy New Year everyone!
I've been quiet in posting over the last several weeks but we have two great announcements:
First, we finished our pilot video for our cross-country eco-video project, titled "Wind Over Worcester". The video serves as an example of what our video series will look like - we're planning a series of 35 five-minute episodes that cover many aspects of renewable energy and sustainable living. 'Wind Over Worcester' is about the new wind turbine at Holy Name High School in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Our other big announcement is our new website design. Our friend Tracy Axelson, a professional web designer, has been helping us to redesign our website for a more professional look. I made the original site the best I could with what limited website knowledge I have, but our new site design is a whole different appearance, much improved. Visit us at www.OurRenewableNation.org to see our new look!
As I am shoveling us out from one snowstorm to the next, it's hard to imagine that in 4 months we'll be driving through the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico. It seems so far away right now! With our departure time on May 1 counting down, we're excited to get started and are working double-time to get all the preparations and research done in time.
Be well,
Colin
I've been quiet in posting over the last several weeks but we have two great announcements:
First, we finished our pilot video for our cross-country eco-video project, titled "Wind Over Worcester". The video serves as an example of what our video series will look like - we're planning a series of 35 five-minute episodes that cover many aspects of renewable energy and sustainable living. 'Wind Over Worcester' is about the new wind turbine at Holy Name High School in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Our other big announcement is our new website design. Our friend Tracy Axelson, a professional web designer, has been helping us to redesign our website for a more professional look. I made the original site the best I could with what limited website knowledge I have, but our new site design is a whole different appearance, much improved. Visit us at www.OurRenewableNation.org to see our new look!
As I am shoveling us out from one snowstorm to the next, it's hard to imagine that in 4 months we'll be driving through the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico. It seems so far away right now! With our departure time on May 1 counting down, we're excited to get started and are working double-time to get all the preparations and research done in time.
Be well,
Colin
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