Monday, September 20, 2010

GreenUp CleanUp 2010

This post is to preserve the contents from the GreenUp CleanUp project for 2010 as we plan the 2011 series of cleanups.

Come join Grace Church in our spring GreenUp CleanUp of Medford's Parks

Grace Church has embarked on a parish-wide environmental stewardship program, Greening Grace.  This spring's GreenUp CleanUp aims to organize over 250 members of the Grace Church and our surrounding community to clean up some of Medford's shared open spaces (such as parks and playgrounds).
  • Sunday, April 11th - Kick Off Event at 11:30am for ice cream and information 
  • Saturday, April 24th, 10am - 12noon - Mystic River - lending our hands to the Friends of the Mystic River spring cleanup
  • Saturday, May 1st, 10am - 12pm - Cummings Park - Ann Frenning Kossuth
  • Saturday, May 8th, 10am - 12pm - Brooks Estate- lending our hands to the Brooks Estate Spring Spruce-up
  • Saturday, May 15th, 10am - 1pm - Wright's Pond - Jonathan Hunt
  • Saturday, May 22nd 
    • 9am - 11am - Carr Park - Linda Rogers
    • 9am - 11am - Barry Park - hris DesAutels
  • Saturday, June 5th, 9am - 12pm Capen Street Park - Melanie Tringali


View GreenUp CleanUp in a larger map




If you have questions about the GreenUp CleanUp project, please email the team at GreenUpCleanUp@gracemedford.org or speak to a member of the team:
  • Ann Frenning Kossuth
  • Jonathan Hunt
  • Rachael Pettengill
  • June Pietrantoni
  • Linda Rogers
  • Margaret Smist
  • Chris DesAutels
  • Melanie Tringali

We look forward to learning how we can work together as a parish to achieve our mission of preserving God's green earth!



Friday, September 10, 2010

Update on GreenUp CleanUp at Tufts Park

Tomorrow morning from 9-11am Grace Church is hosting another GreenUp CleanUp to clean Tufts Park! This is a part of the Sept 11th Day of Service.

Tasks include:
  • raking sand
  • laying out mulch
  • planting bulbs
  • pruning trees
  • weeding the infield
  • and hanging out with our neighbors!
Tufts Park is located on Main Street in South Medford.

View Larger Map

If you have any questions, you can contact Rachael Pettengill (rachael@gracemedford.org).

Sign up through the Day of Service site at:
http://diomassintern.eventbrite.com
select Grace, Medford

See you there!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

GreenUp CleanUp of Tufts Park - Saturday, September 11th

Grace Church is organizing another Green Up Clean Up. We will be cleaning Tufts Park on Saturday, September 11th from 9-11am. This park clean up will be part of a larger effort to involved the whole Diocese in a Day of Service, our site is one of twelve who will be recruiting people in our community to serve. 

To learn more information and to sign up please visit: http://diomassintern.org/911/Welcome.html or speak with Rachael Pettengill (rachael@gracemedford.org).

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Energy/Water Saving Parts and Materials used for HEET

The following companies and organizations helped by providing us with materials for the HEET Barn-Raising.

Hillside Hardware (325 Boston Ave, Medford)

Our local hardware store that has been very good to Grace Church over the years.
Parts/Materials used
  • Weather Stripping Kits for doors
  • Caulk for around windows (Siliconized Latex in brown, white and clear)
  • Misc Nails

Advanced Energy Panels - Albany, NY

Interior Storm Window
Jim Devine went to extraordinary lengths to get us the interior storm windows in time for the event.  They do custom fit interior storm windows as well as DIY kits.  We installed 4 AEP interior storms at the back of the stage to eliminate the cold draft that has been coming through those very leaky stained glass windows.  Installation was a breeze.  Check out their site for video instructions on measuring and assembling kits.

Parts/Materials
  • 4 AEP Interior Storm Windows custom built to fit

Energy Federation Incorporated (EFI) - Westbourough, MA

Q-lon weather stripping kits being
installed on double doors
EFI is the go to supplier for other HEET events as well as for many energy auditors in the New England area.  They have a wide range of good quality affordable products for saving energy and water including CFLs, faucet aerators, insulation and more.  They even sell the AEP interior storm window kits.  They environmentally friendly packaging and are great all around to work with.

Parts/Materials used (EFI Part# Description)
Toilet Tank Bank
  • 5000.58 AUBE TH 140-28-01-B millivolt
  • 6560.052 TAYL Refrigerator Therm. #3507
  • 7005.149 BITS SmartSurge 7-Outlet SCG3
  • 3540.13 Q-lon White w/Metal Carrier
  • 3540.18 Q-lon White w/Wood Carrier
  • 5010.16 Intermatic TN311C Timer 120v
  • 3020.10 NIAG N3137 Toilet Tank Bank
  • 1100.324 20w Earthmate T-2 Spiral 27k
  • 1100.322 13w Earthmate T-2 Spiral 27k
  • 1100.325 23w Earthmate T-2 Spiral 27k
  • 4000.031 MD 3/4" Pipe Ins. 4x3' pieces
  • 3000.422 WHE UA1C Ultra Saver Aerator

MA Water Resource Authority (MWRA)

low flow shower head, faucet aerators
and toilet leak detection dye pack
MWRA supplies water for most of the Metro-Boston area.  They are big into water conservation and will provide home owners with free low flow water fixtures:

    • low flow 2.0 gpm shower heads
    • 1.5 gpm faucet aerators
    • toilet leak detection (dye packets)
MWRA provided us these materials for free and we handed out the shower heads, faucet aerators and dye packets at the HEET and have some left over.  Talk to Jonathan if you would use these in your homes or apartments.  You can request more from the MWRA site.

Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) - Cambridge, MA

Without help from HEET to identify the projects to tackle and help organize the event, it would not have been as successful as it was.  A special thanks to Audrey Schulman for her assistance, coaching and support.  They can always use more volunteers and have several barn-raisings planned already for this fall.

HEET Barn-Raising Big Success!

Congratulations and Thank You to all the volunteers that came out to help on Monday.  What a great event and we made a difference. We had over 30 volunteers from Tufts, Grace Church, Medford and beyond.

A longer post with more details will be coming out, but for now here are the preliminary numbers from Monday. Our work should result in the following annual savings for Grace Church:
  • 6,400 pounds of CO2 emissions avoided per year
  • 34,000 gallons of water saved per year
  • $1,300 saved on energy and water bills per year
Check out the slide show of some photos from the event.  If you have some photos, please contact me at jmhunt@mit.edu.


May God be with you!