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A full listing of our events can always be found by visiting our virtual calendar.
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Click here to continue with your new or updated information, or text "CHEARS" to 22828.
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Featured Image
CHEARS at Greenbelt Fall Fest
 | | Kristen and Jaya, 7, observe a monarch caterpillar |
See more from Greenbelt 2012 Fall Fest
at Schrom Hills Park!
Greenbelt in 2012: featured blog
by Eric Chang
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CHEARS is now registered
with GoodSearch!
Looking for a way to support CHEARS, without leaving your own chair?
GoodSearch, a Yahoo! powered search engine, donates money to your favorite cause when you search the Internet, shop online, or dine out at local restaurants! We have already raised over $25.00 just by searching the internet and using GoodShop to buy online.
Here are some ways you can help:
- Become a CHEARS supporter! Choose CHEARS on GoodSearch to search the Internet.
- Set GoodSearch as your homepage! GoodSearch donates a penny to CHEARS for each search you make on the Internet.
- Use GoodShop when you shop online! With more than than 2,500 stores, from Amazon to Zazzle!, GoodSearch donates a percentage of every purchase and offers over 100,000 coupons to help you save money too!
- Sign up for the GoodDining program and they'll donate a percentage of your restaurant bill when you eat at any one of thousands of participating restaurants.
- Add the CHEARS GoodApp to your IE or Firefox and never forget to contribute to CHEARS! The GoodApp has a search box and other buttons built in so you never forget to donate to CHEARS - all for free!
It's really easy; it's free and turns simple everyday actions into a way to make the world a better place. Please sign up today to help support CHEARS so that we can continue the work we do for our community!
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Amy S. Hansen: Science Writer for Kids "
Every fall, bugs disappear. And every spring, they return. Where do they go? Bugs and Bugsicles answers this mystery.
To see more books by Amy S. Hansen, local Greenbelt author, click here!
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A Concert of Story and Song
with Teresa Whitaker and
Frank Schwartz,
Featuring Joe Norris
Sunday November 4th, 2012
4 PM to 6 PM
On the water in Lusby, MD
Featuring original music celebrating the beauty and rhythms of water and earth
at Roberta Reeve's beautiful home on Chesapeake waters in Lusby, MD.
This concert is an invitation to share community through story and song.
Using a variety of instruments, including banjo, guitar, udu and hang drum, these dynamic, versatile musicians will enliven listeners with songs and stories from different parts of the world.
The concert will include songs of the late Tom Wisner, long time Maryland environmental educator/songwriter, known as the "Bard of the Chesapeake."
Teresa Whitaker is a singer/songwriter/storyteller and arts educator whose delicate and earthy voice conveys nuance and punch. 
Frank Schwartz is a gifted singer, songwriter and musician who has played many styles of music. He was also a founding member of Maryland's famous Irish band O'Malley's March. Together they have three CDs: Finding Home, Below the Radar, Earth and Sky Lullaby and a new EP from Teresa's performance piece Gathering the Waters.
Tickets are $20 each and must be purchased in advance.
Call Roberta at 410-326-1268 for additional information.
Please make checks payable to Teresa Whitaker and mail to:
Roberta Reeves
PO Box 895 Lusby, MD 20657
Include your email address for confirmation and additional information (parking etc.)
Co-sponsored by the Tom Wisner Legacy Group of Chestory, project of CHEARS. |
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Greetings!
"Whether the weather be fine, Whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold, Whether the weather be hot, We'll weather the weather, Whatever the whether, Whether we like it or not."
-Anonymous
Listening to reports of people trapped on the 16th floor of their New York apartments, business owners stressed over the loss of thousands of dollars, and New Jersey home residents coming together to clean up their neighborhoods, there is little reporting of climate change and it's impact on the increasing severe weather conditions.
We Are Not Powerless to Confront Climate Change, report by Amy Goodman posted on truthdig.com along with an interview with Cynthia Rosenzweig, co-chair of the New York City Panel on Climate Change are worth contemplating at this time in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
Power to all,
Kim Walsh
Executive Director
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Monitoring Sandy with TapRoots
Soil Monitoring Equipment at Springhill Lake picking up the effects of the "superstorm"
 Last weekend, TapRoots concluded it's Adventures in Soil Science program by installing monitoring equipment, funded by the Greenbelt Community Foundation, just in time to collect data from Superstorm Sandy that battered the East Coast early this week. You all can see the data collected and watch the data change as the effects of Sandy are felt in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Live data is available for free online! Click this link and enter the following log in credentials to view the data:
Username: taprootseducation@gmail.com
Password: Carrotsaretaproots
(For the best viewing, please use the Firefox internet browser)
Our sensor is measuring electrical conductivity, temperature and moisture in the soil located 3 meters from the rain garden intercepting runoff from the parking lot. We are also collecting precipitation, wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, and photosynthetic active radiation (400nm-700nm) data from the site.
I hypothesize that this storm will cause major flooding of the soils near the rain garden, and since evapotranspiration and temp are low this time of year, the soils will stay saturated long enough to increase redoximorphic features in the subsurface horizons.
Please feel free to analyze the data and share with us your own hypothesis for how this storm might affect this site.
Keep up with us! Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to keep up with all of the latest TapRoots action.
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CHEARS Home Salon: Film Discussion & Potluck
"Shift Change: Putting Democracy to Work"
We will screen in one of our member's home "Shift Change: Putting Democracy to Work," a film that tells the little known stories of employee owned businesses that compete successfully in today's economy while providing secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces.
When: Saturday November 3, 2012
6:00 PM to 10:00 PM
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Three Sisters Demonstration Gardens
Preparing the Gardens for Winter
Here's what some of our amazing garden volunteers have been up to...
"We spent some time working at the Center Garden this afternoon. We weeded the southern half of the NE bed, added compost to the weeded part of the bed, prepared that part for planting, and planted garlic at the south end (marked by pin flags and covered with straw). There is room for more garlic or to cover the unplanted area with straw for spring planting."
"There are collards to harvest if anybody wants some - very tasty! Under the row cover in the NW bed (south end of the bed: broccoli and cabbage to the north not ready for harvest yet). And our perennial maxmillion sunflowers, dug up from Maggie's yard, will probably flower next fall and hopefully attract some birds...It sure was fun to get some garden work done!"
Many thanks to all the key volunteers, Becky Jean, Ben, Lucy Duff, Jean Newcomb, and especially to Maggie Cahalan, the Three Sisters Demonstration Gardens Project Coordinator, for making the gardens bloom.
 Interested in volunteering with us? Community members are welcome to tend to the garden spaces and reap their benefits with other Greenbelt friends for relaxing, fun activities outside. Feel free to visit any of the locations at your convenience, or let Maggie or Lucy know your availability and preferred garden site. There are also a variety of special events and workshops planned each month, so keep up with the Gardens Calendar for updates.
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GCAN: Greenbelt Climate Action Network
MEETINGS
- The next GCAN Meeting will be on Tuesday, Nov 20, at 7 pm, back in the Community Center, Room 114 The topic will be "The Great Turning: 2012." You will receive a separate GCAN email in about a week with details. Please save the date. Our regular monthly meeting time will be "third Tuesdays" for the rest of the year.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
- An ad-hoc group continues to meet to investigate a green, worker-owned cooperative. The next meeting will be on Sunday, Nov 11, 3-5pm, at The Clubhouse at the Springhill Lake Recreation Center on Cherrywood Lane. Jim Johnson from the Democracy at Work Network (DAWN) continues to consult with us. Contact Lore for minutes of meetings and details.
- The Greenbelt Barter Network has become the Greenbelt TimeBank. We will be beta-testing the software (from TimeBanks USA) this month. We plan to hold an "Open Meeting" on Thursday, Nov 29th. Contact Lore for details.
- Re-Skilling Workshop Committee will most likely convene in November to plan another re-skilling workshop. The topic will probably be "weatherizing your windows." Contact Lore if you would like to attend the planning meeting
GCAN "ACTIVISTS"
We will have several opportunities to get involved this fall, including:
- CITY: Asking Greenbelt City Council to write a letter against Fracking in MD. Jennifer Robinson is coordinating a meeting in a private home, to plan out a presentation in front of the Greenbelt City Council on Monday, Nov 12 (tentative). We are all invited to attend a statewide conference on Fracking, Saturday, Dec 8, 10am-4pm in Baltimore.
- COUNTY: Asking Greenbelt City Council to support a new county Draft Solid Waste Plan, that moves us in the direction of "Zero Waste"
- STATE: Working with CCAN in support of the Offshore Wind Energy Bill in Annapolis. Please join the statewide conference call on Tues, Nov 13, 7-8pm,
- FEDERAL: Contacting Hoyer, Cardin, and Mikulski, to ask for their support for ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies. For starters, come hear Bill McKibben at the Warner Theater in DC on Sun, Nov 18 at 1 pm.
DISCUSSION CIRCLES
Members of these two circles hope to carpool to Virginia on Thurs, Nov 8, 6:30 pm, for the movie screening premier of Money and Life
We are still trying to start a third circle:
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CHEARS has been invited to the 2012
Takoma Park Alternative Gifts Fair
Saturday, December 1st, Takoma Park Presbyterian Church Hall
310 Tulip Ave, Takoma Park, MD 20912
Alternative Gifts of Greater Washington, Inc. (AGGW) has invited CHEARS to be one of their donor organizations in the Takoma Park Alternative Gifts Fair to be held on Saturday, December 1st at the Takoma Park Presbyterian Church Hall at 310 Tulip Ave, Takoma Park, MD 20912 (Takoma Metro).
 AGGW was founded on the premise that sometimes the most thoughtful gift you can give someone is a donation to charity in their honor. Alternative gifts fill a direct and tangible need, such as books for children in transitional housing or a water filter for a family in Haiti. Family members and friends are touched to know that the gift they have just received will have a very real and meaningful impact on people and communities in need.
Beneficiary organizations address some of the most pressing problems in our world today. They are working to eradicate poverty and hunger, provide disaster relief, shelter the homeless, give children access to education, attend to medical needs and protect our environment.
Inspired by the work of Alternative Gifts International, AGGW sponsors alternative gift fairs in the Washington, DC area. AGGW also works to spread the word about opportunities to visit the many gift fairs and markets in the DC region. At an alternative gift fair, a shopper finds causes to match the interests and passions of everyone on their holiday shopping list. AGGW grew out of the Takoma Park Alternative Gift Fair, which started in 1999. Visit the Alternative Gifts of Greater Washington Facebook page for pictures, the latest updates, and more!
CHEARS will be requesting donations to help the Three Sisters Demonstration Garden Project. Join us on December 1st, get your holiday shopping done early, and enjoy giving alternative gifts this year to your friends and family!
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