MONROE GROUP NEWS

JUNE

by Casey Oroarty, Coordinator

Hey all you Cool Moms!

We had a really nice meeting this past Tuesday at Main Street Books in Monroe.  I sure do get  a lot of energy from meeting with other like-minded moms, who understand the need for making our planet a better place to live - thank you to those of you who attended. I started off by sharing some news from the Cool Mom organization.  We have a new leader out there in Seattle, Terri Glaberson, who is involved with the West Seattle group.  She came out to our own Tye Lake Park and met with Debi and I to become more informed about our group.   A few of her questions have really had me thinking...  She wanted to know what the main goal of our group was, what goal we were working towards...  Now, Debi and I both have things that are important to us, but as a group, what is our goal?  Also, how are we attracting new members?  I posed these questions to our group and we had some great discussions...

One great idea came from Katie.  What if we had a different member lead  "mini-workshop" each month.  Her example was sharing ideas about environmentally friendly party favor alternatives.  Perhaps another month a member teaches about how to make homemade cleaning products?  I keep thinking a book club model would be fun as well - I am reading these really good books right now by Ernest Callenbach and would love to have a group discussion about some of his ideas.  What are your thoughts?  What direction would you like to see us go in?

As far as the member question goes, we talked about leaving literature at the Farmers Markets here in town.  I am sure that Terri, in Seattle, would help us create some nice brochures/fliers.  Also, I challenged those present to bring a friend next month! 

The eco tip for this month is to consolidate our driving so that we are getting into our cars less often.  Try and leave the house 2 or 3 times less a week.  If you already do this, carpool with a friend when you need to do errands - anything to do less driving!  The amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere each day in our state is mind boggling, so lets try and do our own little part to change that!

We do have a new day for our meetings.  We will be gathering the SECOND Tuesday of each month at Main Street Books.  I am hoping this will work for more people...  We all have busy schedules but the only way to encourage change in our world is to come together in our community and make it happen!

See you next month -

Casey

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Monroe CoolMom, Deb Lingren, wrote a letter, "Why No Compost Option" to the Monroe Monitor expressing her unhappiness with the lack of composting in the city of Monroe.  Check out the full story in the Monroe Monitor.