The 27th Annual Outdoors Inc. Canoe & Kayak Race is "ON" for 10 a.m. this
Sat.(5/3)in Jefferson Davis Park. It is always a wonderful event, so come
down and be sure to stop by the FfOR booth. For a map and more info., go
to http://www.friendsforourriverfront.org
just got this email and it seemed like fun!!

CFLs

Hey guys! I just went out and bought a few CFLs today, and I had a few people ask me what they were when I mentioned them so just in case any of you still don't know exactly, here's an explanation! They cost more money (about $3 a bulb), but they can last like 8 times longer than normal bulbs. I found the article below on the website Energy Star:

CFL stands for compact fluorescent lamp, and it is a small fluorescent light bulb that uses 75% less energy than a traditional incandescent bulb and can be screwed into a regular light socket. Don’t let the fact that it is fluorescent turn you off! ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs must pass extensive testing to ensure they produce only the highest quality light.


By the way, I put 2 in my bathroom today and it lit it exactly the same, if not better! Here's another article I got from Energy Star:

CFLs provide 75-80% energy savings
An incandescent wastes 90% of its energy generating heat.
In comparison to using 100-watt incandescents, one 27-watt* CFL
can save 730,000 watts over its lifetime!
This is enough electricity to power an average home for a
month!!
Over its lifetime, one single CFL bulb prevents 2,000
pounds (1 ton) of carbon dioxide from heating the
atmosphere.
It will also prevent the emission of 8-16 pounds of sulfur dioxide
which causes acid rain.
CFLs also reduce nitrogen oxide emissions which contribute to
atmospheric ozone and can cause severe health hazards.

CFLs can be purchased at most retail stores. You can also order
them by mail. www.deq.state.mi.us/documents/deq-ess-p2-
brightidea-vosslighting.pdf

That's pretty much it...
If you want to buy some, they sell them pretty much everywhere...
I got mine at Kroger!

--Lindsey

sweet website!

http://www.greenisuniversal.com/

If anyone has any shopping to do you should get it out of this way this Saturday or Sunday!

Macy's will give you 20% off if you simply give a 5 dollar donation to the National Park Foundation! It would help save you money and go to a great cause!

                                          This is SOO awesome! great idea AY!

i just went to this website- (wecansolveit.org) after seeing a tv commercial for it & its pretty cool so if anyone is web-surfing, check it out!! 

This is a great idea! Alright, so I have been in contact with some agencies throughout this school year about volunteer opportunities and how we as a club can become more involved in the community. I wanted to let everyone know of volunteer opportunities, as well as various organizations you can join around Memphis to get more involved. With summer almost here, I also wanted to encourage everyone to do something this summer that will help the environment. So take a look and please let me know if you have any questions at all! 

-Shelby Farms Youth Alliance: I have been in contact with the director for some time. There is an essay to fill out, but you can go to meetings about conserving the park, sponsor volunteer projects, etc. Let me know if this interests you and I will be happy to give you an application.

- Call your lawmakers about global warming and saving energy: you can contact Senator Lamar Alexander or Senator Bob Corker, illustrating to them your concern about global warming and implementing strong federal legislation to protect the environment, something Tennessee legislators have not made a priority. Any form of communication will help! I spoke with some people who have taken steps to do this at the Down to Earth celebration last weekend and they expressed that it really does make an impact, even an email. You have a powerful voice...use it!

Lamar Alexander- http://www.alexander.senate.gov (contact via email)

Memphis Office Phone Number: (901) 544-4224

Bob Corker: http://www.corker.senate.gov

Memphis Office Number: (901) 683-1910

If you feel uncomfortable doing this...not to worry! There are still ways to make an impact regarding environmental legislation. I picked up some cards already made to send to our senators, explaining concerns and asking for a signature (a petition, if you will). If we could all do this, think of the impact we could be making. 

-Hang with me....I also encourage everyone to visit greenpowerswitch.com, an organization which works to create clean and renewable energy. If you sign up and donate $4, you purchase green power in 150-kilowatt hour blocks (12% of a typical month's electricity use) This purchase adds to the mix of power the TVA provides to the Valley. This can only help. JUST $4! Let me know if you are interested in contributing.

Lastly, you can visit www.cleanenergy.org, a website geared towards educating the public on ways to make their lives cleaner and better the environment. Join the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and you can write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, stay educated about current environmental issues, and learn even more about how we as a school can help our community.

I have some volunteer projects that I've somewhat communicated with other organizations about and I will be sure to let everyone know about them, so be sure to keep yourselves updated at the end of the year and into summer!

Botanic Gardens

This is great! I just talked with representatives from "Sprouting Out" at the Botanic Gardens today at SMCF, and they are definitely interested in having SMS students learn about nature over the summer in Botanic Garden workshops and help teach little kids. They promised to contact me with specifics.

Thanks, Alexandra, for getting this up and running. What a great opportunity for us all to share ideas with one another. I am so proud of all the E-club members and the leadership they've shown this year in educating SMS about how to help maintain a safe and healthy environment. I hope to see bunches of us at the Shelby Farms Earth Day celebration on Sunday.

the duckling

okay so i had the coolest thing happen last night. We got home to my house to see my dog awkwardly running around the pool chasing something that was swimming in it. We ran outside to see what was going on to find a little baby duckling swimming around in our pool! We have no idea how it got left without its parents since ducks never fly carrying their babies so we are assuming my dog had scared off the other birds and left the poor baby!so we immediately called all these wildlife places to see what we could do and ended up getting in touch with this extremely nice lady who has been caring after about 40 birds at the moment and informed us how to care for it and keep it warm and said we could take it to her house! so for about an hour we made friends with our little ducky and i held him and pet him and fed him worms. He was soo cute! ahh. well we let him scamper around the house and all he did was follow me so i assumed i was the new mother, but unfortunately we had to take him to the lady to be raised with other birds since ducks are social birds. I learned so much when i got to her house! she showed me all the amazing birds she has been taking care of and all the wounded birds she was healing, even like resetting broken legs! Well this nice lady and her husband has a website and we have any oppertunity to help them, since they have so much to do with all those birds! They have to also pay so much for feeding all of them so i was thinking we could maybe do a fundraiser to get some money to donate to her for all she has been doing. Shes a really cute lady and if you want you can visit her website at wildwingsrescue.com for more information!

The beginning.

Well, the concept of an environmental blog is definitely a new approach. I’ve never been a devout blogger unfortunately, but the idea seemed quite appealing after having an economics blog for our class 1st semester. Since this school year is coming to a close, along with our club, I feel that we should still have the ability to serve and take care of the environment surrounding us at any opportunity offered; therefore, I have created this blog. The purpose of the blog is to keep the club together throughout the entire summer and enable us all to become more involved with Mother Nature and have a strong start to next year! Whenever you have free time on your hands, feel free to check the site to look for any upcoming opportunities I have posted for community service! This will also help us next year, since we will be able to communicate and discuss issues through this blog, and be prepared for any upcoming meeting in Mrs. Goodman’s room. If you hear of any service opportunities, you are welcome to post it on here so we all may attend! This summer and upcoming year should be full of fun activities, so don’t forget to check the blog!


Remember, "We must all work together in order to save the environment and the world that we live in from further change" -Dave Foreman