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Green Up Keene Day

21/04/09 19:24 Filed in: volunteering | Mina
Mina
On Saturday, GKT participated in Green Up Keene Day, an event that called for the citizens of Keene to “Green Up” the city, or in other words, make our city cleaner. Although only six of us (including me and Alisha‘s father) showed up, I would say that we got a lot of work done, and we definitely made a difference.

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The participating GKT members ended up picking up garbage from around 8:00 to 11:00 near Beaver Brook. First, we went to Carpenter St. and the field there. That wasn’t too bad, just a lot of broken beer bottles (as well as some whole ones with mysterious fluid inside) and small articles of trash. But WOW! The sheer number of cigarette butts disturbed me. They were everywhere! So many people smoke, and though it’s a disgusting habit, it’s tolerable if they care for the butts properly. Put the cigarette out on the ground, and then stick it back in the package until you get home! I also think it would be great if we had more trash-can-ash-tray-things.

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After we thought we were done with Carpenter field, we went to a different area behind the Beaver Brook Apartments. When we got there the scene was appalling, there was all kinds of trash strewn about. We found tires, car batteries, Christmas lights, unidentifiable plastics, empty soda cans, beer bottles, candy wrappers, heavily rusted metal pipes and bars, nauseating scented washcloths, of course more cigarette butts, and a simply revolting amount of other debris. Why would people litter the area with waste that could easily be taken care of by walking an extra 50 feet to a garbage can? How could they not care about the safety of the organisms depending on the land, or even their own children? If that car battery had been old enough, the chemicals could have contaminated the waters. Rubber tires don’t decompose naturally and they could be made into playground equipment for your kids if they’re recycled. I truly believe that our community needs an immediate wake-up-call and everyone needs to be more aware of the effects of their actions.

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All in all, it was kind of fun. We got a couple of laughs and it felt really great to know that we did something good for our local environment. A tremendous thank you goes to Dan, Alisha’s father, for not only providing us with the transportation but also helping us pick up rubbish. Without him, it would have been extremely difficult to have done a lot of the work we were able to do (especially lifting the heavier stuff). Personally, I hope we can do something like it again with maybe three times as many contributors.



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When I grow up I want to be just like Barbara and Michael…

29/03/09 15:31 Filed in: green people | Lucy
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Things are really starting to fly with GKT! We are now selling our laundry soap at 24 Carrots Farm Stand in Swanzey—well, actually Barbara is selling it for us. We make it and she puts it out on the shelves of 24 Carrots Farm Stand and tells her customers about us. This is really unbelievably cool for our club! Barbara and Michael are the owners of this cute new store. 24 Carrots Farm Stand is housed in a little building located on Homestead Highway in Swanzey. The store sells a small variety of products with a focus on local producers. Their food consists of fresh veggies, cheese (the best stilton cheese in the world according to my mom), meat (elk, buffalo, venison, and beef), gourmet chocolates, and much more! They have quite a wine and beer selection also. Some brands they have are Rogue, Unibourne, Pennichuck, Ommegang, and Belgians. If you are not such a drinker (or can’t drink yet) they also have soda like Izzie, and Jones. Barbara is selling our soap just to help us out, without even taking a percentage! They are all about helping farmers, local producers and the community.

When I stepped inside the store I immediately thought, “This is the coolest place!” It really reminded me of the Brattleboro Coop but on a smaller scale. Someday (I hope a day that comes very soon), I believe 24 Carrots will grow to be just as big and great! Barbara and Michael are so warm and compassionate in their store, that anyone who walks into 24 Carrots feels like they are welcome. I like coming back to the store because they are so openly nice that you immediately get into a friendly relationship with them.

Barbara was so quick to jump on board to support GKT that she ordered 10 gallons of Green Keene Teens Laundry Soap from us on Wednesday—when we had just come by to give her a sample and say hello. We were hoping she would use the soap and spread the word. But she wanted to go further and provide a place to sell it!!! Barbara seems super excited about the club. She said, “Lucy, there are some people that just talk about doing things. You actually do them! You’re a do-er and that’s why I’m going to support you!” I couldn’t believe someone would be that quick to jump on the bandwagon without any persuasion. Barbara was so open to supporting us that I feel like she is a long lost aunt that wants her niece to do well. They have even put an ad in the Shopper News about our soap being sold at their store. And they’re talking to the newspaper about doing a bio on our club! I have to say, I’m the happiest girl in the world right now!

We chatted with both Michael and Barbara for a while and got on to the subject of our trip to Costa Rica. Michael lit up because he spent a year in Costa Rica after college and loved it. He wanted to know more about Punta Mona and where it was. After looking the website up really fast, he told us that the island is in the best and most beautiful region of the country. They want to be kept updated on the trip. I’m hoping they might want to chaperone??

I really encourage everyone to go and visit 24 Carrots. Buy what you can there. It is such an amazing place! They are open Tuesday-Saturday from10-7, Sunday from10-4, and closed on Mondays.

Check out their website here: http://www.24cfs.com/

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