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Greetings,
Sincerely,
The YES! Staff
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The 2012-2013 YES! Season in Numbers
What a year for YES! Last school year 470 students from 32 different schools participated in YES! These students worked with 365 community members and 144 local businesses to achieve their energy-related goals. The energy action projects that these students worked on last year impacted an additional 12,763 students and 17,247 community members. This means that since its inception in 2007, YES! has involved more than 1,500 students who have worked with 1,390 local businesses, organizations and community members to impact an additional 83,630 community members and 39,848 students.
Congratulations to all of the YES! teams and their wonderful accomplishments last year. Read more about the impact these projects had here. We're excited to see what YES! teams will accomplish this year!
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YES! Fall Summit 2013
 | | Barb Omann, Rocori YES! coach, participating in the "Flying Squirrel" challenge course at the Fall Summit |
166 students and coaches from 19 YES! teams converged on Prairie Woods Environmental Learning Center October 30th to kick off our 7th season. These students and coaches gathered from across the state to connect with and learn from their peers, challenge themselves on the climbing wall, the Flying Squirrel and in initiative games, think critically about the projects they intend to tackle this year, and celebrate this season of YES!
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YES! in Action
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New London-Spicer YES! students at their new passive solar greenhouse
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It is easy to see that the New London-Spicer YES! team is going to have another productive year. They are growing healthy food for healthy minds in their passive solar greenhouse, partnering with the robotics club to improve their milk carton recycling program, and are building upon their hydration station project by purchasing water bottles to promote the hydration stations and create a revenue stream for their current and future projects. Read more about their projects here. Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City (ACGC) The ACGC YES! team is putting on a free Energy Expo at the ACGC Junior/Senior High school in Grove City from 9 am to 3 pm on Saturday, November 16th. There will be recycling of items like cell phones, ink cartridges, holiday lights, tennis shoes, cardboard and paper. There will also be an expo of energy-related businesses and organizations, children's activities, and lunch.
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Energy Business Highlight
 | | Mankato West YES! students promoting organics recycling |
40% of organic compostable materials are currently being sent to landfills. Full Circle Organics, LLC strives to reduce this amount through successfully managing a multi-location cooperative of compost facilities. This includes continuing to expand partnerships outside of the metro area, one of which has recently involved the Mankato West YES! team. Together, the Mankato West YES! team and Full Circle Organics collected over 3.5 tons of organics from the Mankato West High School cafeteria in September and October (an average of 160 pounds a day), which are being composted at Full Circle Organics' Good Thunder facility. As this program moves to more of the Mankato schools, we look forward to seeing the results increase!
Read more about what the Mankato West students have been doing through their partnership with Full Circle Organics to educate their peers about organics recycling on our blog. Learn about the history and philosophy of Full Circle Organics on their website.
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Give to YES!
Give to the Max Day, November 14th, is an opportunity to support Minnesota nonprofits that you believe in and want to see succeed, grow, and continue to work to better Minnesota. YES! is participating and we would love to see your support of the program! To participate by saying "Yes to YES!", simply donate here.
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In Memory
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Chuck Waibel sharing his knowledge of greenhouses and local foods with YES! students at the Milan Winter Workshop 2013
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YES! staff, coaches, and students were saddened to hear of the death of Chuck Waibel. Chuck, the founder of Garden Goddess, helped several of our teams with their greenhouses and local foods projects. He recently noted in his blog, "my greenhouse and local foods work over the past decade...has been about giving people tools and experience in a way of thinking, a way that will help them to adapt and thrive". His passion and enthusiasm for greenhouses, local foods, and sustainability will live on in the YES! students who learned from him. He will be missed.
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YES! empowers youth to partner with their community to create economic and environmental vitality through hands-on learning and team-based projects.
YES! provides a unique opportunity for students to learn by engaging directly in community efforts that lead to dramatic demonstrations of renewable energy technology and conservation practices and exposes them to how science is applied in real life. |
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YES! Program Partners
Additional Program Funders
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