Friday, January 20, 2012

Otesha Play Morning Choices; Auditions


Environment Hamilton Youth Group is organizing a play. It's the OTESHA play: Morning Choices.

Synopsis: Careless Consumer and Hopeful Hooligan are 2 average teenagers getting ready for school in their respective homes. Each teen goes through 6 sets of choices: water use in the bathroom,
clothes to wear, leisure time entertainment, buying coffee etc. Each set of choices have significant, tangible impacts on the Earth and its inhabitants.
Carless' choices have negative impacts. Hopeful's choices are a number of small, thoughtful efforts to consciously make choices that have positive impacts.
Mother Earth enters after each time Carless and Hopeful make a set of choices. She clarifies the situation and dispels myths with additional facts regarding each issue.

I have included the poster with the audition information and hope that you can encourage your youth to try out for some of these fun parts.
Auditions are February 2nd at Centenary United Church, 24 Main St W.
4-6pm.
This is open to grade 7-12

Please let others know about this opportunity as well! The play will be shown at that Bay Area science and engineering fair at the end of March. There will be a good 1,500 students who will see it! Maybe after this we can find other venues in which to perform it.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Nourishing Hamilton: Food, Faith and Our City

A Greening Sacred Spaces/Canadian Organic Growers Event in partnership with Hamilton Eat Local's FEBRUARY IS FARM MONTH


Come out and for a screening of Nourish Peterborough followed by a panel discussion on nurturing the growing organic food movement in Hamilton.
About the film
Nourish Peterborough is a documentary film that follows ten unique community groups from Peterborough who are advocating for food security and sovereignty. These are programs that have a substantial influence on many people's lives, though many of them go overlooked and/or underfunded. Nourish Peterborough provides a platform for these organizations, giving members, participants, volunteers and staff, a louder voice in the community. 


Panel discussion: Growing the organic food movement in Hamilton.
About the panelists: 
Crystle Numan works with Environment Hamilton's Good Food Box Network and Neighbour to Neighbour's Building Better Futures. She has been involved with community gardening since starting Hill Street Community Garden in 2010.
Loretta Jaunzarins is pastor at Grace Lutheran church. She's experimenting with straw bale gardening on church grounds.
Bill Wilcox's vision is fight poverty in Hamilton. To do so, he wants to expand his program 'Hamilton Victory Gardens" across the city.
Clare Wagner is the Community Garden Program Coordinator, Green Venture.

When: Thursday February 2nd 2012
Where: Free Way Cafe (FRWY) 333 King Street East, Hamilton
Time: Doors open 6.30pm- 10pm 

This event is free of charge. Everyone is welcome!

Contact Beatrice for more information

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Building Renewable Energy Co-operatives

The Hamilton Halton Energy Awareness Team (HHEAT)
Presents
Building Renewable Energy Co-operatives 
2012 Workshop Series

Overview of the co-op model/Technology and Site Selection.
You will learn about how the community renewable energy co-operative business model works and the basics of renewable energy installation technology and site selection..
Bill Thompson, Hamilton Coordinator Blue Green Canada.
Martin Ince, Project Developer, M.K. Ince and Associate Ltd, Renewable Energy and Environmental Consulting 

Halton: Tuesday, January 24th 2012 Oakville Town Hall from 6.30-9.30 pm.
Hamilton: Wednesday, January 25th 2012 Laidlaw United Church from 6.30-9.30 pm

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Happy New Year!

      This year, Greening Sacred Spaces/Environment Hamilton is planning all sorts of learning opportunities for people of faith to green their sacred spaces, their communities and live in more sustainable lifestyles.
Our resources are constantly being updated, and new partnerships are in the developing stages. For example, in the area of food, we are working towards helping make fresh food available to all people through the Good Food Box. The GFB is a non-profit fresh fruit and vegetable distribution program. It makes healthy fresh food affordable and accessible to everyone. For only $15 you receive a box of fresh quality produce worth $25 or more. The food is bought at wholesale prices, often from local farmers.The Hamilton Good Food Box Network delivers directly to various locations all over Hamilton. You could be a drop-off/pick up spot.
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   Have you considered growing a vegetable garden at your place of worship? Many faith groups have and we can learn from them. In Hamilton, Bill Wilcox of the Hamilton Victory Gardens is doing wonders to help fight poverty. Bill spent many summers helping to organize and manage the West Highland Baptist Church’s “Victory Garden” – a ministry wherein fresh produce is grown and harvested by a group of volunteers, and then donated to the numerous food banks and soup kitchens in the Hamilton area.
Bill and his team have already created two new Victory Garden sites around Hamilton and has much to share with us on how to get started at your place of worship.
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    In other GSS news, we are ever eager to see your places of worship conserve energy. That's why we will continue to guide and provide resources and contacts for your convenience. Renewable energy such as solar panels for those lucky faith groups facing south is another 'greening' possibility through the FIT program and through creating a co-operative. See the HHEAT project at Environment Hamilton to see how you can get involved.

   Lastly, and maybe most importantly there's youth. If we are serious about greening our lives, we have to include young people in decision making and the work we do. That's why, this year it's the youth we want to focus on. Does your faith group have a youth group already? Are you a youth reading this? Are you interesting in engaging youth to environmental action? Contact Beatrice at

 
bekoko@faith-commongood.net
905 549 0900