Green Up Clean Up Events this weekend plus a Memorial Tree Planting for Richard Lee

There are several Green Up Clean Up community park cleanups this weekend and we hope many of you can attend one or more of them.

On Satruday, May 14, 2011, from 9AM to Noon is the clean up at Wright's Pond. There is much to do there, including gardening, in addition to the regular cleaning up. Please bring a water bottle, work gloves and dress to work! If you'd like to contribute, but can't go we're accepting donations of perrenials to be planted in the gardens.
Immediately following the cleanup, at noon, the Medford Arts Council, Friends of Wright's Pond, Grace Episcopal Church and the City of Medford invite you to the planting of a memorial tree in honor of Richard Lee, who served the Medford Community and loved our City.
The tree planting portion of the event is sponsored in part by a grant from the Medford Arts Council, a local agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Also on Saturday, from 10AM to 2PM is the annual spruce up at the Brooks Estate. Green Up Clean Up is sending a group to help with their event. There will be both indoor and outdoor tasks. Volunteers are welcome to come all day, or just for an hour. More information about that event is at http://www.brooksestate.org/events.php

POSTPONED to Sunday May 21st, from 1-3PM is a Green Up Clean Up event at Playstead Park. This event is being led by Brownie Troop 65007 from St Raphael's School. Come help the Brownies rake, pick up litter and paint equipment on Sunday!
For more information about Green Up Clean Up, please see http://gracemedford.org/greenupcleanup
Additional scheduled cleanups include:

June 4th - 10AM-12PM Barry Park - Chris DesAutels

June 18th - 9-11 AM Cummings Park - Laura Brebreton

August 27th - Tufts Park

This entry is cross-posted from Alicia's blog on the Medford Patch.

Successful GreenUp CleanUp at Carr Park

Over 20 adults and children gathered for a community cleanup at Carr Park as part of the Green Up Clean Up effort organized by Grace Church. It was a beautiful spring day and volunteers quickly spread out around the park picking up trash and recycling, raking leaves and painting benches.

Local residents Cecilia Talamantes and Joan Cyr coordinated the efforts of volunteers from the church and local residents. While many people came intentionally to help clean the park, some volunteers joined on the spot. One mother was following her young son who was picking up trash said "We came to play in the park, but he says he doesn't want to play, he wants to help out!" John Falco of the School Committee was at the baseball field with his sons for a little league game, but stopped to help pick up trash and rake leaves while his youngest climbed on the equipment.

Unfortunately after about 50 minutes of cleaning it started to rain and a light sprinkle quickly became a down pour with lighting and thunder. Many of the workers tried to wait out the rain, but eventually they realized that they had done a solid job on the park and there was no end to the rain in sight. They consolidated the bags of trash and recycling down to just a few and loaded the equipment provided by Medford's DPW back onto the DPW truck for later pickup.

It was a rewarding and fun afternoon and we look forward to several more successful community clean ups over the coming weeks:

• May 14th - 9AM-12PM Wrights Pond - Rev. Noah Evans
• May 14th - Brooks Estate - Allison Andrews
• May 15th - 1-3 PM Playstead Park - Medford Brownie Troop 65007
• June 4th - 10AM-12PM Barry Park - Chris DesAutels
• June 18th - 9-11 AM Cummings Park - Laura Brebreton

For a Greener Earth - Green Faith Series - Joseph Asaya

Joseph Asaya showing his home made laminate solar panels.

On Wednesday, March 26, 2011 Josephy Asaya shared his story with Grace Church about how he is making a difference in Nigeria with solar energy. His story is shared below. Enjoy!










Think about what you can do to make a difference.

More stuff for TerraCycle - Cereal Bar (aka Energy Bar) Wrappers

Box of candy wrappers to send into TerraCycle

Thank you to everyone for collecting and bringing in all the would be trash for TerraCycle:

• Coffee bags
• Juice Pouches
• Chip Bags
• Cookie Wrappers
• Inkjet Cartridges (though we've decided to give those to the Robert's Elementary School PTO instead)
• Candy Wrappers.

Through our efforts we have raised over $100 for Grace Church and recycled thousands of items that would have otherwise wound up in a landfill.

Great Job Grace Church!

During the last big sorting I noticed that a lot of people were collecting cereal bar wrappers which at the time we were unable to TerraCycle.  I checked with TerraCycle and they said they consider them energy bars and so I signed us up for that campaign as well.  So, in addition to all the great stuff above, you can now bring in cereal bar and energy bar wrappers.

If anyone is interested in helping with the management of Grace's TerraCycle program and sorting the items, please let me know as I'd love the help.

Peace!
Jonathan Hunt

Grace Church Celebrated Earth Hour

On Saturday, March 26th, Grace Church joined with people from 131 countries to make a statement of support for addressing climate change by turning off our lights for Earth Hour 2011.

Below are pictures from the church with the lights on and off.

Grace Church - Lights ON

Grace Church - Lights OFF

And another view from Earth Hour 2011

Grace Church - Lights ON1

Grace Church - Lights OFF

Maybe next year we should have a candle lit party at the church...

Peace!