Volunteer Opportunities

LITERATURE -We have many literature needs -- such as a new brochure, plus other hand-outs for our tabling and workshops - graphic artist skills nice, but not required!

WEBSITE - We are building a new website, and need help improving our social networking with updated FACEBOOK page, twitter, email links, communication between the two sites, etc. But we need more help from folks who have computer skills!

OUTREACH - All our projects depend on outreach, which is especially challenging to engage not only campus and NGO folks, but also the minority community, public school classes, church groups, you name it . . . Simple things like delivering brochures, posting notices, getting calendar listings into the newspaper in a timely manner, and scheduling and presenting to a high school class or club about how we might collaborate. Helpful if you have a car and don't mind talking w/ people!

UPCYCLING PROTOTYPE CONTEST -- See info on the Recyclique page on the Re-Hashed Trash Bash in 2010. We'd like to turn the Bash into a regular event -- Help us make this happen! Habitat Re-Store and Scrap Exchange are potential partners. Would be cool to engage arts and science or enviro classes, and high school groups. [A variation on this could be a RAIN BARREL DESIGN & PAINTING CONTEST

RECYCLIQUE (our upcycling co-op)-- We need outreach to crafters/carpenters/inventor-types to build our ranks. We need designs and tests of new prototypes for upcycled products to make sell. We need help painting rain barrels and staffing our Sat. Durham Craft Market table. And we need help marketing the barrels and Recyclique's new store (eg. someone to regularly update newspaper and online calendar listings and a Craig's List ad).

Feed My Sheep Community Garden

UPDATE: In spring 2011, due to the merger of Asbury Temple with another congregation and pending building renovation, the garden has moved to Eastway Elementary School, and will now serve educational goals as well as aiding food security in East Durham.



YIKES! (the predecessor to CommunEcos) was a proud partner in the founding of the Feed My Sheep community garden at Asbury Temple UMC Church (corner of Angier & Alston Ave.). The first section of the raised bed organic garden was built in June 2009, the garden doubled in size in early July, and in early Dec. our raised bed space doubled again, thanks to a donation from NEEM in coordination with Durham's Community Development office, with funds from Glaxo Smith-Kline.!! The garden was a centerpiece in the church's Wright Room youth program in July and August 2009. YIKES! led morning workshops on sustainable approaches to gardening on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the 4-week program. [see below for fall activities of the garden crew]

The garden came about as a joint project of yikes!, Public Allies & Asbury Temple's Feed My Sheep food ministry. Three UNC service learning students, Linnie Greene, Jayme Strowd & Tavia Benjamin worked with Sandy on bio-intensive methods & container gardening in the spring of 2009 as part of an anthropology course titled "Inventing a Sustainable Agriculture." The students used container gardening to get a variety of seedlings underway; Our partners, the NCCU Public Allies organizers class (see Eric & Tionya above!) did neighborhood outreach and obtained a small grant to fund the project. The students gave a workshop with community members on biointensive methods in April. Rachel Hardy, who directs the "Feed My Sheep" food ministry at Asbury Temple, at corner of Alston and Angier in Durham, NC, secured permission for the garden on church grounds in May. Eric and Sandy did a presentation about the garden at a Feed My Sheep food distribution day. Many thanks to LeDarrell Murray, who brought his tiller to break ground on our first garden workday, and to David Arthur of Isaiah House/Jubilee Restoration Project who consulted with us on the entire project and built the frame for the raised bed.
During the July 2009 Wright Room youth program at Asbury Temple YIKES! volunteers Sandy & Nyota offered classes on community gardening and biointensive methods to young people (covering a range of ages from 1st through 12th grade) enrolled in the program two days a week. The young people filled the bed and planted the new portion of the garden and took care of it. We planted tomatoes, onions, cabbage, brocolli, green beans, swiss chard, squash, zuchinni and cucumbers. We ended the program with a tasting and sharing of recipes for healthy dishes made from fresh produce. Most vegetables we planted were very productive.

We held a fall garden workday to clear old annuals and plant winter vegetables. Later in Nov. Eric installed landscape fabric to protect plants from freezing weather. On Dec. 8th the staff from NEEM (Natural Ecological and Environmental Management) built and filled two additional raised beds, effectively doubling our space in preparation for the spring season. The new beds have a rich organic soil mix, with compost enriched from products of the Indian Neem tree, which stimulate root growth and contain natural pesticides. Our first spring planting of cool season veggies took place in March 2010, and we have set up a weekly watering schedule. Periodic workdays have taken place since, and once again the garden was a centerpiece of the Wright Room program. To join the garden co-op, email Rachel: rahardy0052 @ mindspring.com or Sandy: scsmith @ email.unc.edu.

Green Living Issue of Indy Weekly

Check out the Indy's new Green Living Issue, which just came out in celebration of Earth Day 2009. I was the special project editor, & I thought it turned out nicely (but then, I would . . .)
Indy Weekly: Green Living Issue

Blogging toward Sustainability

Sandy's occasional editorials on sustainability (Independent Weekly):
Bladerunners: Towards a sustainable lawn

How our kids will pay for global warming

NC Powerdown events

From July 2008 through March 2009 we hosted regular events at the EcoLounge on energy/climate topics as part of NC Powerdown, a Triangle-wide meet-up site for all ages. You can join the site to receive notices of future events at: http://oilawareness.meetup.com. Just go to home page and sign up. Events to date included:

· a forum on sustainable biodiesel w/ tour of production facility (July 2008)

· viewing of the film "Blood & Oil" followed by a panel discussion (August 2008)

· a slide-show by early adopters of solar hot water (October 2008)

· two workshops on do-it-yourself solar space heaters (Dec 2008 & Feb 2009)

· an electric car demo & showing of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" (March 2009)

• The NC Powerdown website also helped promote the YIKES! "Sustain" workshop series, sponsored by Durham Parks & Recreation (Dec -Aug. 2010)
  

Build Your Own Solar Space Heater

Solar Space Heater Student project:

In two workshops last winter Steve Hren and Chris Allen led reassembly & installation of our solar space heater, (built in Mar 2009 by students at NC School of Science & Math). Then Marc & Henry hooked up the PV fan - so the system is now working! Time to test it! Anyone have an infrared temp. gun we can borrow?

In spring 2009 a "miniterm" class from the NC School of Science & Math built the solar space heater at the EcoLounge (at Carolina Biofuels). These boxes, which come in a variety of designs, save energy in winter and many models have a rapid payback. YIKES! coordinated the project, which ran from Feb 26 - March 6. Prof. Marion Brisk taught the class; Steve Hren, Chris Allen & Matt Jacobi advised students on materials and construction. Special thanks to The Forest Foundation, which sponsored the project.
See the resulting YouTube video which lays out each step in construction:
How to Build a Solar Space Heater, Parts I, II & III (too bad big brother killed the cool soundtrack)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl5stDoprhw

Here's photo of our prototype (below, right):

This project grew out of a yikes!/NC Powerdown workshop: How to build your own solar air heater on Feb. 6, 2009 held at the N.C. School of Science & Mathematics, Durham, NC, taught by Steve and Rebekah Hren, authors of The Carbon-Free Home.

Update: In fall 2009, after some trouble-shooting, we decided to redesign the space heater with fiberglass insulation, as we discovered the rigid polystyrene warped when it got too hot.

"Global Warming gonna get yo Mama" Halloween Party

Be Very Afraid!!
Can you survive the Haunted Staircase. . .
Food, drink & treats! Come in costume! (Prize for best) - Invent a bio-superhero costume!
NE Central Durham neighborhood kids especially welcome!!

7-9 pm - Friday Oct. 31, 2008
The EcoLounge at Carolina Biodiesel
1404 Angier Ave.
Durham, NC