CoolMom Quarterly News -Summer
July-September 2009
You Could Be A Part of This!
CoolMom and Environmental Groups join together at Seattle Center October 24, 2 to 5pm
On October 24th at Seattle Center take the pledge! Sign up and sign on to make the pledge -3 things you can do in your home and community for greener living, for your children and for the planet.
What's happening:
2-3pm: Exhibitors and live feed of YOU taking action in your communities.*
3-4pm: Photo Op- You and the rest of us will form a "3", "5", and "0" on the Fountain Lawn [the fountain will be a part of the zero] for an exciting photo letting the world know Seattle is serious about climate change. Take the pledge and enjoy entertainment and speakers while the formation unfolds.
4-5pm: Exhibitors, live feed continues, speakers and entertainment.
This is a low impact event, pack it in-pack it out, and we are encouraging folks to arrive by alternative transportation or carpool.
Want to help out?
Volunteer to help people make their pledge and help form the number 350 at the Fountain, to volunteer contact Cathy Tuttle at cathy.tuttle@gmail.com
Tech savvy? help stream in live video around Seattle, contact terri at terri@coolmom.org to help out
*We are encouraging all communities and neighborhoods to create their own 350 action on October 24th before the Seattle Center gathering. Live feeds of community actions will be viewed on a large screen at the Seattle Center event. Check out the 350.org OR on Facebook at 350 Washington for ideas.
Want to learn more about 350? Go to 350.org and learn the FAQs
For questions contact Terri at terri@coolmom.org
Hope to see you there!
CoolMom Green Tips
Try these on and reduce your carbon footprint
350.org is bringing awareness to climate change by highlighting the safe level of CO2 in the atmosphere. The CoolMom tip of the month is to create your own action in your home or community for this special day, October 24, 2009. Either through your CoolMom group, school, work or just in your own family, create a way to recognize this day. Some suggestions are: Create a no t.v. week, drive less, unplug for the day, or create a community garden-like West Seattle CoolMoms or plant trees like Sustainable Magnolia. For ideas and to view the CoolMoms/community partners action ideas go to either 350.org or facebook (located on the 350 Washington page http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=172707348695&ref=ts).
Educate Yourself
In recognition of 350 International Day of Action, what is the current parts per million level of C02 in the atmosphere?
a. 325 b. 385.92 c. 399.23 d. 600
see the answer below.
Advocacy
It Takes a Community
Parade of Ideas, visit to Senator Cantwell and Murray's Offices took place on August 10th. CoolMom, Climate Solutions, Fuse Washington, Washington Environmental Council, People for Puget Sound and many more totaling 40 plus strong visited their offices to express our support for the passing of the American Clean Energy and Security Act . The Senators were unaviable but CoolMom spoke with their representatives and dropped off photos, drawings, letters sharing our concern over climate change and wanting Senator Cantwell and Murray's support for the bill.
Here is the West Seattle Blog Story on CoolMom's visit to the Senators' Offices.
Update on the ACES bill. CoolMom has the latest on the American Clean Energy and Security Act and ways you can support the bill.
CoolMom going to Washington, D.C. that is! Terri Glaberson, Executive Director of CoolMom has been invited by Climate Solutions, one of the leading advocacy groups for climate change, to represent CoolMom and all Moms in D.C. on October 21 and 22. Terri will talk with Senators or their staffers about the urgency of passing a strong climate bill this year.
Help Terri go to D.C. with 50 letters from CoolMom. To help show how important Climate Change is to our Sentors in Washington, D.C. please write a letter, send photos to terri at terri@coolmom.org or snail mail to CoolMom, P.O. Box 46228, Seattle, WA 98146. And, please express the urgency of passing a climate bill this year before the December Copenhagen Summit.
CoolMom in Action
Yakima CoolMoms, is building membership and in one of their meetings this summer talked about ways to keep their holidays green and brought homemade salsa using local ingredients to share. They discussed ways that their Coolmom group could give back to the community and one of the ways may be partnering with a group called E3Washington.org. More to come on this possibility.
West Seattle CoolMoms partnered with WestSide Baby to recycle and dismantle over 40 car seats prior to the Safe, Sound and Green event hosted at Ikea. The Ikea event took place on Wednesday, September 30th, where used car seats that were unsafe and unusable were collected from the public and dismantled and then shipped to Portland, Or for recycling.The car seats pictured here were then sent down to Ikea to be included in the Portland shipment.
Magnolia CoolMoms came up with some great ideas to try at home with their kids:
- Take a photo of your pantry, fridge & freezer and see where you can reduce your impact.
- Great Pacific Patch jar: fill glass jar full of water & collect tiny bits of garbage. See how much accumulates.
- Collect trash from soccer/sports snacks for a season. See how much waste is created.
Other areas Magnolia CMs are taking action are coming soon, which include first steps in getting Zipcar to Magnolia. The folks at Zipcar wrote MCM back and now they have to do some homework- making a case for bringing this wonderful car sharing program to Magnolia. Also on the dockit, contacting Magnolia Soccer Club and asking them to get involved with the October 24 International Day of Climate Action and asking families to reduce their impact on the environment through transportation choices and snack decisions.
Some great ideas are coming from our Monroe CoolMom group. At their last meeting, MCM celebrated their school district's new choice in food service offering lots of vegetarian choices as well as a "grown locally" week! They cheered on folks who were using reusable containers for kids lunches. They also talked about a new second hand store in town, had a different suggestion for people who wanted to stop receiving catalogs, -write a short note and return w/ their envelopes and no postage asking to be removed! They decided to hold a Halloween costume and costume piece exchange, to reduce purchasing new items for the holiday. They have hopes of offering this up to community moms in the future.
On the island, Bainbridge Island CoolMoms invited Green Halloween's Corey Colwell-Lipson to share creative ways to green up your kids' traditional Halloween with some healthier treats. Check out Green Halloween's ideas for getting your neighborhood and community involved.
Greenwood CoolMoms also participated in the recycling car seat event by hosting their car seat gathering at Sustainable Ballard. They collected and dismantled 28 used car seats and sent their loot down to the Ikea event courtesy of Jackson Remodeling on the 30th. A special thanks to Jackson Remodeling for donating their truck all weekend and for schlepping all the car seats. Thanks to all for helping make this happen! Kimberly C, Greenwood CM, spoke with a lot of really grateful parents who said things like, "We really wanted to do the right thing we just didn't know how. Thanks for being here!"
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Upcoming Events
Annual Holiday Toy Swap 'n' Sale, November 14th. Start saving those gently used toys for the upcoming 2nd Annual Holiday Toy Swap 'n' Sale November 14th in West Seattle and Greenwood neighborhoods. CoolMom is holding its annual sale this November to reinforce the idea of reusing toys to replace new toy shopping for the holidays. CoolMom has secured a spot at the Fauntleroy Church in West Seattle for the WS CoolMom group and the Woodland Park United Methodist Church for the Greenwood toy sale. Please contact Terri if you would like to help the West Seattle CMS out or Brooke if you are wanting to help out in Greenwood.
Oct 1-2, Northwest Children’s Environmental Health Forum, Tukwila Community Center. Are you interested in learning how our children are really affected by toxic exposures.? Would you like to know what laws and rules currently protect our young ones from toxins? Hear the answers directly from scientists doing the research and policy experts in the field.
October 2, Sustainable Education/Service Learning Seattle Schools Network and Training Day
Oct 4, 6:30-8:30, WSea Crop Circles - discuss urban permaculture.
Oct 7, National Walk to School Day, www.Iwalktoschool.org
Oct 8, 7:30am, Washington Conservation Voters breakfast. (details)
Oct 11, 5-10pm, Eat Local Now! Dinner at Alki Masonic Lodge. Support CoolMom, SWS and BALLE Seattle and have a great time eating and learning about local food initiatives in our 'hood. Buy tickets here.
Oct 12, Environmental debate between King Co Exec candidates. (more)
Oct 24, International Day of Climate Action (more on the topic at http://www.350.org/). See above for details on the Seattle Center Event.
Nov 6, 6:30-8:30pm, CoolMom Family Movie Night at Camp Long
Nov 14, CoolMom Toy Swap'n'Sale
More great events listed @ WSBlog, EOS Alliance, and Seattle Green Drinks has a calendar of events for environmental causes and activities. Check out Washington Clean Technology Alliance for a list of environmental clean tech events.
Green Up Your Reading Here are a few books that enlighten
Recommended by Laura Elfine, West Seattle Coordinator
Non-fiction book recommendation, The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet, One Simple Step at a Time by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen. You'll find hundreds of small choices you can make to have a big impact on the health of our planet, including not asking for ATM receipts, which if everyone in the U.S. refused them, it would save a roll of paper more than two billion feet long, or enough to circle the equator fifteen times!
And, for the kids... Recommended by Terri Glaberson, CM Director
Recycled, Crafts, Box: Sock puppets, cardboard castles, bottle bugs & 37 more earth-friendly projects & activities you can create, written by Laura C. Martin. In this book, you will find one-of-a-kind, save-the-Earth craft ideas that you can make from things you would have thrown out or tossed into the recycling bin.
*both books are printed on recycled paper
Answer to Educate Yourself:
b. 385.92
find out more about the Earth's CO2 level and other green house gases here and what you can do to help
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