I know some of you may not receive the Santa Rosa mothers group newsletter so I just wanted to pass a long this information about The Living Room's Gift and Clothing drive going on during the month of November.

The Living Room is a wonderful local agency that supports women and children in homeless situations. If you are able to donate gift items (for women or children), clothing or food items (particularly those listed below) or if you can donate some of your time at the organization during the week of Dec 14 while they are setting up for the holidays and making it a really special time for their participants, anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me or the Living Room coordinator Caroline Banuelos at 321-0976 or cbanuelos@thelivingroomsc.org

Thank you very much in advance if you can help in any way. - Emily Vincent


Here (below) is a copy of an article written in this months newsletter with more detailed info.....

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The Living Room Clothing and Gift Drive

By Mary Hortin & Emily Vincent – Community Service Coordinators

 For the last several years, the Santa Rosa Mothers’ Club has collected donations for The Living Room’s Holiday Store. We are proud to be continuing this tradition again this year. The Living Room is very concerned about receiving enough items this year.

 The Living Room is a daytime, drop-in center providing safe haven for women and their children who are homeless in Santa Rosa. Throughout the year, women who utilize The Living Room earn “points” which they use at the “store” to purchase donated goods for themselves and their children for the holidays.They serve people from 0-80 years old.

Don’t be intimidated by this long list, whatever you can do to help is greatly appreciated.

Please only NEW, unused items.

For their Christmas store and Santa’s visit: new children’s toys (no plush toys please) and adult gifts.

 High need items are:

• Pajamas (two piece sets sizes 4-14)
• Blanket sleepers (toddler sizes)
• Slippers for mothers and children (all sizes)
• Pocket calendars
• New underwear (kids to adult, especially ladies’ sizes 8 and up)
• Diapers (especially sizes 5 and 6)
• Sanitary pads and tampons
• Anything for cold and rainy weather (especially socks, gloves, scarves, hats, blankets, coats, sleeping bags and umbrellas)
• Stocking stuffer items
• Gift cards for teenagers (movies and clothes)
• Handheld games
• Arts and craft supplies
• Cosmetic bags
• Large shampoos
• Hair accessories (brushes, combs, clips, scrunchies)

The Living Room feeds 60-80 people two meals a day.

They frequently run out of items like :

• oatmeal packets,
• packets of hot chocolate,
• tea (especially herbal)
• dry cereal.

 Items need to be turned in to The Living Room by December 10 becasue the store and dinner party are the next week.

The Living Room is seeking volunteers for the week of December 14^th.Even a small amount of your time would be greatly appreciated. 

Duties would range from

• setting up the store for the women and children,
• assisting them in selecting items  
• wrapping gifts

If you are interested in helping please contact Caroline Banuelos at 321-0976 or cbanuelos@thelivingroomsc.org

Drop off sites all through November / Deadline Dec 9th:

 The Living Room

636 Cherry St

Santa Rosa 95404

cbanuelos@thelivingroomsc.org

Monday through Friday OPEN 8:30 am to 1:30 pm

       or) Emily Vincent

579-3566 or emilyvincent@hotmail.com

(I can pick up your items if you are unable to deliver to one of the drop off sites)

Mary Hortin

570-1621 or morthort@sonic.net

Here is an email I received recently from a local creek steward. It highlights the good work our community is doing to clean up our creeks as well as all of the work that still lies ahead  to return the water and habitat in the Santa Rosa creek system to health and vitality.

Hello Creek Stewards,

 With nearly 2 3/4 inches of rain in the last several days our creeks have started flowing again.  Not many leaves have fallen yet so the storm didn’t cause as much street flooding as a storm later in the fall might have.  I spent a little time on Santa Rosa Creek near Pierson Street this morning and didn’t see as much trash littering the shoreline or hanging in bushes as I expected.  I think that the work of the Youth Ecology Corps on creeks this summer and the 10 volunteer creek clean ups we’ve had this fall made a big difference.

 Six groups on Colgan, Spring, Matanzas and Spirit Creeks counted the trash they collected on tally cards and the results were turned in as part of the 3 week period of recording data for the California Coastal Commission.  Coastwalk led the Sonoma County effort and reports the following numbers from Sonoma County, with numbers from Santa Rosa in the second column:

No. of volunteers:              1,218                  182

Pounds of trash:               10, 564                 634

Pounds recyclables:           8,390                  236

Distance cleaned:             104.85 miles       3.5 miles

Quantified trash in the Santa Rosa area included:

211 plastic bags

28 balloons

59 pieces of clothing

45 toys

83 straws and stirrers

232 cups

884 food wrappers

125 plastic bottles

136 glass bottles

116 beverage cans

26 plastic six-pack holders

52 pieces of building material

3 tires

What can we make of these results?  Unfortunately, there is a lot of trash out there such as balloons, food wrappers, and plastic bags that can be mistaken as food by birds, fish, terrestrial, and marine animals.  The relatively low number of 26 plastic six pack holders might indicate that these are becoming less used as packaging to the relief of ducks, fish and other animals that can become entangled by them.  Food and beverage packaging is the most common form of trash.  There are 74 more tires somewhere in our creeks.  (This is calculated by having found 3 tires in 3.5 miles of creek and extrapolating that to 77 tires in the 90 miles of creeks within the City of Santa Rosa.  A similar calculation would estimate that 1,111 toys and 2,050 straws remain in our creeks.  Actually, I think these numbers would be high as the clean ups concentrated on creek areas with the most trash.)  Certainly, we can conclude that the volunteers made a difference. 

If you can, please join us for another volunteer creek clean up on Saturday October 24 on Steele Creek by Biella School.  Details are below.  And we’re certainly ready to support students, clubs, or businesses with a creek clean up as a community service project.  Sonoma Country Day School and Waldorf Summerfield School will keep the ball rolling with creek clean ups scheduled for later this month. 

A couple of animal sightings: I was surprised to hear from several people of a coyote wandering in Santa Rosa Creek not too far downstream from Stony Point Road.  I’ve heard of coyotes on the outskirts of town but not of them using the more urban stream corridors.  Sharp-eyed Mary Tressler spotted a river otter in Santa Rosa Creek by Gateway Park (the mosaic fish statue).  A Water Agency maintenance worker in the creek out by Willowside Road was startled when an inquisitive otter suddenly emerged between his hip boots.  A gaze of eight raccoons (time for the Funk and Wagnalls) raised havoc in garages as they used the storm drain pipes to move around a NE Santa Rosa neighborhood.  What have you seen?  It’s always fun to learn from the many eyes, ears, and voices on our creeks. 

Hands Across the County & Make a Difference Day

Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009,

9:00 a.m. to noon

Steele Creek clean up at Biella School – 2140 Jennings Avenue, Santa Rosa (west of Marlow Road)

Hands Across the County, a county-wide volunteer work day underwritten by Friedman's Home Improvement, mobilizes volunteer groups and individuals to make the community a cleaner, safer, brighter place while making friends and having fun too!  This will be the first time we’ve done a community creek clean up on Steele Creek.  Many parents and students will be working on the buildings and grounds.  This is a chance to clean up the neighborhood creek that drains the land as far away as Cleveland Avenue and enters Piner Creek a couple of blocks downstream of the school.  Tools and refreshments provided.  Rubber boots could come in handy. 

Insecta-palooza – explore the fantastic world of insects

Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009,

9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Darwin Hall, Sonoma State University

What’s the difference between a bug and an insect?  Do scorpions really glow in the dark?  Find out about the diversity of insects, spiders and other arthropods that live in our gardens, fields and forests.  Entomologists of all ages can explore the fascinating world of insects in a day long series of interactive displays, presentations and lectures and a chance to use the University’s top-notch microscopes.  Sounds like they will cover everything you didn’t know and didn’t want to know about insects.  The flyer for this event is available at

http://www.sonoma.edu/pubs/insectapalooza/images/insectapalooza.png

and details are online at:

http://www.sonoma.edu/pubs/insectapalooza.html

Volunteer Night at the Redwood Empire Food Bank
Thursday, September 17, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
We need volunteers! We will pack boxes of donated food
assembly-line style. It's a lot of fun and a great way
to meet some new friends and give back to the
community. Spouses, friends and teens over 14 are
all welcome to come help. Please wear close-toed
shoes for warehouse safety.
To sign up or for more information, contact Emily Vincent

emilyvincent@hotmail.com

Weekend Along the Farm Trails sponsored by Sonoma County Farm Trails
Over 40 Farms Open the Barn Doors
2009, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Sonoma County, CA –

On Saturday, September 26 and Sunday, September 27, dozens of local farmers and artisan producers throughout Sonoma County from Healdsburg to Petaluma will open their doors to tell the behind-the-scenes story of local food during Weekend Along the Farm Trails sponsored by Sonoma County Farm Trails.

Join local farmers for a weekend of tours, artisan foods, hands-on activities, cooking, pick-your-own, agricultural demonstrations, music and harvest. From hay rides to cheese-making, Weekend Along the Farm Trails offers a chance to experience Sonoma County's agricultural heritage. Participants of all ages will learn how and where their food is grown, and meet the farmers and artisans who produce it.

Admission is free to most farms: all you need is transportation, a map and a sense of adventure. The gates and barns of your local farms are wide open on Saturday, September 26 and Sunday, September 27 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. along the Sonoma County Farm Trails.

Free tour information and map available on www.farmtrails.org or visit Farm Trails FACEBOOK page for tales from the farms. Call Sonoma County Farm Trails for more information at (707) 837-8896.

Sonoma County Farm Trails is a non-profit organization formed in 1973 to promote buying fresh food directly from farms. Over 100 local farms and agricultural businesses comprise its membership

Pick up your free Farm Trails Guide for 2009 -  2010 at a local farm or business or email them and they will send you one for five dollars.

They are really nice this year with recipes and notes from local farmers as well as the typical maps and guides to all the local farms in Sonoma County.

 SOLAR FAIR

 Saturday June 20

11-6 pm

Finley Center, Santa Rosa

http://www.solarsonomacounty.com/

EARTH DAY ON THE GREENWAY

Celebrate  Earth Day’s 40^th birthday on the Prince Memorial Greenway with a clean up of Santa Rosa Creek.  The restored creek flowing through the heart of downtown provides a home for river otter, kingfishers, egrets, and steelhead trout as well as parks, public art, and recreation along the six mile creek trail.

Date: Saturday April 25

Time: 9:00 – noon

Location: Olive Park footbridge near the Vineyard Creek Hotel on West 3rd St.

Noah and I will be going to help out at this event. 

We hope you can join us for this great opportunity to introduce our children to the idea of  community service and environmental responsibility.

sat and sun

Mar 28-29

8:30- 4:30

Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa

 examples of items accepted include:

laptops, monitors, keyboards, TV, cell phones,  fax machines,

blenders, toaster, coffee makers, vacuum cleaners

Cameron and I are hosting a Call Party for Obama on October 26, Sunday at our house.

11- 2 pm

Bring you cell phones and your charming phone voices!

We will feed you : ) 

Pumpkin Patch and Farm Days

Sept 26 - Oct 31

Thursdays through Sundays 10 - 6:30 pm

5360 Bodega Avenue (5 miles West of Petaluma)

• -U- Pick organic pumpkins
• -Take the Sunflower Maze Challenge
• -Make your own butter
• -Hayrides
• -Feed a calf
• -Learn to milk a cow
• -Enjoy Farmstead Ice Cream

I posted about this a while ago but I wanted to remind all of you about the Weekend Along Farm Trails weekend

September 27 and 28 in Sonoma County.  

Our family and some friends have been the last 2 years and really loved it. We milked cows, pulled potatoes, climbed hay pyramids, hid in corn mazes, found pumpkins, picked apples, pet all kinds of farm animals, samples cheese and ice cream made from local dairys.......

If you make a weekend out of it, you can visit a lot of farms and your kids will love it.

Some of the activities include:

• Special farm tours
• See animals on the farm
• Visit pumpkin patches with fun activities for kids
• Learn gardening and landscaping tips
• Visit unique nurseries with a variety of plants
• Meet Sonoma County food artisans
• Taste freshly picked fruit and vegetables
• Connect with the farmer that grows your food
• Savor a restaurant meal featuring local ingredients
• Visit wineries during crush and harvest season

September 27 & 28, 2008  ~   10 a.m. – 5 p.m. , Saturday & Sunday

I will be bellydancing at this event, and do volunteer work with Mother's support network. Should be a great event, and if greenmommy wants a table there, please contact the organization!

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Save the Date!
Mothers' Support Network board members are gearing up for our annual fund-raising event. This year, it will be "Tread Lightly: A Fall Family Resource Fair." This family friendly resource fair is for sharing information regarding the health of both family and Mother Earth. It will be held 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 4 at Carmichael Park. If your interested in helping to shape this event, or want to be sure to save a spot for your family-friendly business, please contact Mya at mya@motherssupportnetwork.org.

Green Drinks International

Every month people who work in the environmental field meet up for a beer at informal sessions known as Green Drinks.

We have a lively mixture of people from NGOs, academia, government and business. Come along and you'll be made welcome. Just say, "are you green?" and we will look after you and introduce you to whoever is there.It's a great way of catching up with people you know and also for making new contacts. Everyone invites someone else along, so there’s always a different crowd, making Green Drinks an organic, self-organizing network.

These events are very simple and unstructured, but many people have found employment, made friends, developed new ideas, done deals and had moments of serendipity. It's a force for the good and we'd like to help it spread to other cities. Contact your local node to get the latest info about coming along.

You can also email edwin [at] greendrinks [dot] org if you want some tips on how to set up Green Drinks in your City.

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I noticed that there is one in Sonoma and Sac has one too. I thought it might be of interest to some, as well as a potential place to market and promote Greenmommy.org

It doesn't look like there is one in Santa Rosa organized yet.

Sarah H. informed some of us GreenMommies that  this year's Coastal Clean Up day is September 20, 2008.

Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup is the world’s largest volunteer event of its kind. Last year, 378,000 volunteers from 76 countries and 45 states cleared six million pounds of trash from oceans and waterways and recorded every piece of trash collected.

I think she and her family are going to participate and hopefully other GreenMommies may be interested as well. If so you can sign up here and a local coordinator will contact you. 

 Thanks Sarah H. for bringing that to our attention.

The Downtown farmers market in Santa Rosa began last night.

FREE each Wed night 

May through August

5:30 - 8 pm along 4th street

Local farmers, vendors and activities for children.

A great venue to get local, organic produce, cheese, bread and meat. 

Just a reminder that the Rose Parade & Festival is this weekend:

Saturday, May 17
Parade Steps off at 10 AM in Downtown Santa Rosa
Festival runs 11 AM to 4 PM in Downtown Santa Rosa

Looks like a fun thing to do with the family, and we can wave to Emily and Noah who will be in the parade!   

From the website : 

New additions for the 2008 festival include a Green Zone where you can learn about steps we can all take to help save our planet and an X-Treme Zone where we will be showcasing extreme skate boarding demonstrations.  Where else in Sonoma County can you learn about ways to reduce our carbon foot print and watch some gnarly boarding all in the same afternoon?

The Harmony Festival, in Santa Rosa is June 8-8.  I plan on going on Sunday to see Arrested Development.  Check out the website; http://harmonyfestival.com/  It's a lot of fun.  Who wants to go?!

Emily, Jen, myself, and our families when to the Whole Earth Festival today in Davis.  What a fun day!  I put the boys in tie-dye, put on my "Real Environmentalists Don't Eat Meat" shirt (more on that later), and Calvin switched the car seats into our smaller car to make the trek as eco-friendly as possible.  We ate great vegetarian food, listened to some fun hippy music, shopped (oh there was some cool stuff), and hung out in a huge tee-pee while the kids had a ton of fun playing with a hay bale in the middle.  

It reminded me a lot of the Health and Harmony festival that is every summer at the Santa Rosa fairgrounds.  It would be fun to get a group together to check that out this year too!

Thanks again Emily for letting me know (on this blog!) about the festival.  Who knows, maybe it will become a Mother's Day weekend tradition.  Oh and by the way... HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY GREEN MOMMIES!!!  

Just a reminder that this weekend is the Green Living Expo.  It's a free event!  To read more here's the website www.northbaygreenlivingexpo.com

Saturday April 12

10am-5pm

I went last year, and it looks like it will be a little bigger this year.  It would be awesome if  we could have a booth, but they are $450 (cheapest).   I was thinking of  asking if they have any that will go unsold if they would be willing to donate it to us.  What do you think?

Santa Rosa's 114th Annual  Luther Burbank Rose Parade and Festival

Saturday , May 17th

Parade Steps off at 10 AM in Downtown Santa Rosa
Festival runs 11 AM to 4 PM in Downtown Santa Rosa

I was excited when I learned that the theme of this year’s event will be “Go Green & X-Treme” which will showcase activities that take life to the edge as we focus on reducing our carbon footprint.

Some of the days activities will include:

Iron Chef competition adding a new twist – X-Treme n Green Iron Chef competition – in which the participants will  be judged on their ability to cook green and extreme; 

Green Zone where you will be able to learn about how each person can make a difference and help to sustain our planet.

 Good for Santa Rosa!! It's definitely a step in the right direction.

 Here's some resources for green giving this holiday season:

www.justgive.org  - You can give gifts to charities in friends and family members names.

www.esty.com - An easy way to shop for great hand made goods. (I think of it like a craft fair online!)

Another way to support local crafts people (and traveling artisans) is to shop the craft fairs.  My favorite one is coming up this weekend at the Finley Community Center.  Click here for details. 

Here's an article that was recently in the Press Democrat on shopping green AND local.

If you want to shop for fair trade locally there's Kindred in downtown Santa Rosa.

www.fairtradefederation.com - A portal to many great on-line fair trade stores.

This holiday season I keep reminding myself of the green shopping law, as described in the book It's Easy Being Green,
"Buy not, buy less, buy green" 

We had a great time at the San Francisco Green Festival!  So many great ideas!  So inspirational.  I can't wait to go back next year.  Maybe with a Green Mommy booth... hey, never hurts to dream! 

It was a lot of fun to meet up with Sarah and Nate, I meant to get a picture with the 4 of us, but I forgot.  Here's Calvin and I getting green...

November 3, 2007

Noon-4 pm at Julliard Park in Santa Rosa

227 Santa Rosa Ave
Santa Rosa, CA 95404

• Get free compact fluorescent bulbs
• Learn how to take local action and local leadership
• Learn more about reducing your carbon footprint
• Check out some of Santa Rosa's green building and sustainable agricultural efforts
• Live music
• Children's Art contest with Prizes

Co-op America is offering free membership to those who visit the Green Festival in San Fransisco.

If you enjoy what you read in Co-op America's E-newsletters and have been waiting to become a supporting member—Green Festival™ is the perfect opportunity to cash in on membership!

Buy the Festival Pass for only $15—three days unlimited festivities—and receive a FREE Co-op America membership. All you have to do is sign up!

We have discussed the Green Festival before and this is just another bonus for going. I also read that you receive a free 1 year subscription to Plenty Magazine with paid admission. It should be fun!  

San Francisco Green Festival

Show Hours
Friday – 2pm – 8pm
Saturday – 10am – 8pm
Sunday – 11am – 6pm

Wells Fargo Center for the Arts is hosting a used clothing sale for children on October 19th from 11-7pm and Oct 20th from 10-4pm.

There will be a huge selection of quality childrens clothing in all sizes. Shoes, toys, tights and accessories too. Wee Peats offers slightly experienced  quality clothing, and Wee Three Children's Store will bring up past years Fall/Winter clearance. Over 25,000 pieces! Excellent shopping both days, all day!

Click here for more information! 

Tomorrow at Finley Community Center, the Santa Rosa Park and Rec Dept is hosting a Kids Stuff Flea Market.

There will be community members selling their used children's books, toys, games and clothes.It is a great way to recycle items, conserve resources and save money too.

Date: Saturday , Sept 29th (tomorrow) from 10-2 pm

Address: 2060 W College Ave in Santa Rosa 

On Thursday November 29, 2007, Food For Thought - Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank, will have their 6th Annual Dining Out For Life night of dining.

You can dine out at a participating restaurant and either 25% or 50% of your food bill will be donated to Food For Thought. Some restaurants will be donating the same percentage of alcohol sales as well. I noticed on their list of participating restaurants that there are several restaurants in Sonoma County who are participating in the "Dining out for Life" that use local / organic ingredients, i.e. Farm House, French Garden, etc.

It might be fun to support one of those restaurants and support the Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank at the same time. I know that the Food Bank also supports AIDS work in parts of Africa as well.

Here is a bit of information from the West Coast Green conference website.

The event is being held in SF on Sept 20-22. www.westcoastgreen.org 

While new green events emerge every year, West Coast Green represents the largest milestone yet in the residential green building movement. Never before has a conference and expo provided access to such comprehensive state-of-the-art resources, impactful presentations, and rewarding opportunities for business development in the residential green building field.

You’ll find over 250 exhibitors showcasing the latest in resource-efficiency among a stunning array of green and healthy building products. Over 100 experts and visionary leaders will be presenting their latest developments, insights, and inspiration at the expanding frontiers of the field. And over 13,000 attendees including the entire chain of professionals and decision-makers rarely reached by other conferences are expected.

West Coast Green is a feast of innovations, ideas and opportunities designed to expand your business, widen your vision, and stimulate your thinking with the latest, best practices and key players in green building.

The following is a cut and paste from farmtrails.org

Sonoma County Farm Trails is celebrating our 35th anniversary! During fall harvest our farms will open their doors for a special weekend of fun activities and informative tours. See a listing of participating farms, nurseries, wineries and restaurants to visit, or get a year-round Map & Guide and come visit us anytime!

Printable Weekend Guide and Farm Trails Maps

Join us on Weekend Along Farm Trails:

• Special farm tours
• See animals on the farm
• Visit pumpkin patches with fun activities for kids
• Learn gardening and landscaping tips
• Visit unique nurseries with a variety of plants
• Meet Sonoma County food artisans
• Taste freshly picked fruit and vegetables
• Connect with the farmer that grows your food
• Savor a restaurant meal featuring local ingredients
• Visit wineries during crush and harvest season

September 29 - 30, 2007   ~   10 a.m. – 5 p.m. , Saturday & Sunday

It's a weekend full of family fun, adventure and discovery in Sonoma County!

Community Market
1899 Mendocino Ave in Santa Rosa

Tuesday, September 18
4-7 pm

Meet your local Sonoma County farmers. There will be biodiesel workshop, recycling workshop, gardening and composting workshops.