August 19 Newsletter: TransitionKW Meeting, Gardening Workshops and Homestead Skills Symposium
Transition KW
Hi there, Transitioners!
I just came home from Open Streets in Uptown Waterloo. It was a beautiful afternoon, and I’m glad to have met and connected with so many people. If you were there today and you signed up for the newsletter, then welcome!
The big item to look out for this week is the our monthly meeting! Come by the 3rd floor of the LSPIRG office (165 Albert Street) at 7pm on Thursday (22 August). We’ll be chatting and planning our future events and actions. First-timers welcome!
Aside from the meeting, there’s lots of great community events coming up this week. Check out all the details below!
----
Nick Belanger
Facilitator, TransitionKW
Facebook | Twitter | Blog | www.transitionkw.ca
____________________________________
Community Notes
Summer in the Garden Workshops: The Working Centre is putting on two gardening workshops this week. First up is their ‘Planning for a Better Garden Next Year’ workshop which will be held on Monday (August 19) at the Working Centre Greenhouse (79 Lancaster Street East, Kitchener), from 6-8pm. Cost is $10. Next up in this series is the ‘Early Harvest Celebration & Youth Market Garden Tour’, a harvest potluck and garden tour set for Thursday (August 22) from 5-7pm at Patchwork Community Gardens (66 Hickory Street West, Waterloo). This event is free!!
Last but not least is the Homestead Skills Symposium, which is happening Saturday, August 24, from 9am-4pm, at the Little City Farm in Kitchener. This day-long skills & info sharing event features 10 mini workshops (!!) to choose from, a wood-fired organic pizza lunch, and lots of informal time to socialize with other urban homesteaders. The cost is $60, including workshops and lunch. Registration is also here on our website: www.littlecityfarm.ca. Register soon, as they’re max capacity is set at 25 participants!
__________________________________
Green News Roundup
The battle for access to water in the Guelph area is heating up as Nestle, the swiss foodgiant, is appealing regulations set on its license forcing the company to reduce its take during times of drought. For more information on this story, click here.
Here’s a great piece from Yes! Magazine, which serves pretty much as an ode to room-mates and communal living. More on intentional communities here. Can you relate? Comment on our Facebook page and let us know about your best and worst group living situations.
And I’ll leave you this week with a great Youtube talk by Jennifer Hirsch, who discusses the importance (and the mechanics) of getting cities to work together with community groups to build climate change solutions.
If you have views on any of the above, post them to our Facebook wall!
____________________________________
Volunteer Corner
Climate Change Adaptation Toolkit: Lots of skills are needed! The positions available now include:
Workshops: We have the opportunity to host re-skilling workshops at the KWArtzLab space in Kitchener. This will be discussed at our at NEXT MEETING (August 22). We are looking for volunteers who are interested in coordinating and/or hosting a re-skilling workshop. Are you good at canning, sewing, repairing, woodworking, or just generally making - or know someone who is? Have them Contact us at resilientc...@transitionkw.ca!
Outreach: Do you like chatting with people about resilience, or like helping kids make crafts out of recycled products? Join our outreach team! We will be running booths at Day in the Park (July 13), and we’re looking for volunteers to help design our booth, activities for kids (of which we have a few already), and staff the booth. If interested, contact resilientc...@transitionkw.ca.
Casual: Right now we are looking for very low commitment volunteers who can be our “ambassadors”. These volunteers would help us connect with organizations that we don’t know yet (in the social justice, community or environmental fields), or would help us learn about events throughout the community and contribute to our community calendar. If you could contribute a few hours per year (that’s right - nothing more than making a few phone calls or sending out a few emails every year), and are connected with other organizations that can make us better, then please contact us a resilientc...@transitionkw.ca.