CHEARS!
  Chesapeake Education, Arts and Research Society
 
Restoring and promoting the health of all life in the Chesapeake Watershed  
 through education and action projects organized by volunteers
September 2013: Welcoming the Harvest Season 
     
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In This Issue
Poem: "Fall Song" by Mary Oliver
Powering up the Dragon Lines
Quadrathon Challenge
GCAN: Draw the Line!
Work Party at Schrom Hills Park Garden
10th Annual Greenbelt Fall Harvest Festival
9 Lives Yard Sale & Exchange
CHEARS Calendar
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A full listing of our events can always be found by visiting our calendar.
 
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autumn-winding-road.jpg  Fall Song 
by Mary Oliver
 
Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,
 
the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back
 
from the particular island
of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere

except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries - roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water.  This

I try to remember when time's measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay - how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures.

from "House of Light," Beacon Press, 1990.
Powering Up the Dragon Lines
Saturday, October 12 through 
Sunday, October 13
532 Lake Drive, Lusby, MD
 

Join Andrew Steed for 2 days of deep shamanic work loving the land and working with the dragons. We will work with water, earth, fire and air. Come and connect with the spirits of the land, the majesty of the bay and the dragons who live within and upon her.


ches bay  

Honoring the stories etched in the land and our ancestral roots we will connect deeply with our allies and guides. We will connect with our authentic voice and the beauty of our own hearts, prepare ourselves to be hollow bones and allow the flow of love to infuse the Dragon Lines of planet earth/planet water.  

  

Early Bird Registration: $179 by September 1st

 

Please send a check or money order to Andrew Steed, 1962 Tollgate Road, Palm, PA 18070 or go to visit the website to pay via Paypal.  
Email Andrew Steed with questions.
Quadrathon Logo  
All are invited to accept the Quadrathon 2013 Challenge to honor and carry-on the Peace, Social Justice, Environmental Stewardship, and Creativity.  
4 People
Legacy of four outstanding Greenbelt and Earth Wide Activists and Community Builders.  
Carry their work forward by letting your own  personal challenges, or providing sponsorship and friendly support to others to help meet their personal challenges in the four areas. For Quadrathon 2013 we are hoping to raise $2000 to create an inspirational memorial outdoor area in historic Greenbelt for quiet thought and small gatherings.  
 

Donations for the Memorial Legacy Project can be made to CHEARS 
with note that it is for the Memorial Legacy Project and sent to Maggie Cahalan at 4 Maplewood Court, Greenbelt MD 20770. We will have a Quadrathon 2013 home page and event web-registration coming soon. In the meantime you may contact Barbara Stevens ([email protected]) , Lucy Duff ([email protected]) , Donna Hoffmeister ([email protected]), Marj Donn ([email protected]), or Maggie Cahalan ([email protected]) for more information.
Featured Video
  
food desert   
    USDA Labels Prince George's County "Food Desert"  

A special message from Prince George's County Planning Department: 
 
As part of the Prince George's County Food System Studythe Planning Department will be conducting focus group discussions in August. Focus group participants will have in-depth discussion on issues related to access to healthy food.  A focus group meeting will be a one-time, two-hour meeting, during the week from 6-8 PM.  
 
Participants will receive grocery store gift cards, refreshments, snacks, and door prizes.  If you or any resident of the study area are interested in being a focus group participant, please contact Fatimah Hasan, 301-952-3580.  We will contact those who are interested to give further information.  We are especially interested in hearing from people who are experiencing difficulty in accessing healthy affordable food.
 
Thanks for your help with this study! 

G�l G�lery�z, Planner Coordinator, Special Projects Division, Prince George's County Planning Department

Greetings! 

 

Harvest Time is also a time letting go - as is reflected so beautifully in the poem, "Fall Song" by Mary Oliver.  In this season of gathering up and letting go, we appreciate community more than ever and hope you will join us for the Fall events coming up this month, especially the 10th Annual Greenbelt Fall Harvest Festival and Nine Lives Yard Sale on Sunday, September 22nd in downtown Greenbelt.  Also, you can save on registration for "Powering Up the Dragon Lines" workshop with Andrew Steed in Lusby, Maryland on October 12 and 13 if you sign up by October 1st. 

 

Blessings to you,  

 

Joan Clement
CHEARS Board Member and Chestory Coordinator
 
Greenbelt Climate Action NetworkGCAN: Greenbelt Climate Action Network

  

  You can now find full listings of news and events on our new GCAN website at chears.org/gcan.  Click here to view September 2013 or click each heading below for more information.

MEETINGS: Our next GCAN Meeting will be Tues, Sept 17th, topic tbd...

We continue to have a broad-spectrum focus at all government levels.  Visit the page for complete information. 

  • CITY: GCAN is monitoring various issues, such as recycled rubber used as a playground surface...
  • COUNTY: Join Susan Ungar and other county residents to ask Ingrid Turner and the County Council to pass the County Climate Action Plan...
  • STATE: This summer we have been working with CCAN to monitor the Commission on Fracking, to make sure the natural gas industry does not exert undo pressure on the process... 
  • FEDERAL: We are continuing to fight the approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline by drawing the line... 

 

 SPECIAL PROJECTS

  • Our Greenbelt Time Bank is now up and running!  Click to join...
  • The Greenbelt Worker-owned Cooperative "Incubator" Group continues to meet monthly.  Two of the most popular ideas are a Childcare Center in Franklin Park and a Composting Facility to make organic soil.  Upcoming September meetings include...  
  • Re-Skilling Workshop Committee is being spearheaded by Kim Keyes.  The next topic will be "learning to sharpen your reel mower blades."  Stay tuned for details... 
  • Film Fest: The recently completed Sacred Economics circle has decided to host a series of provocative films...
We would like to start two more circles this fall, as soon as we get enough people:
A. "Peer Support Group" for Climate/Sustainability Activists
C."Going Green at Home", to be held in Franklin Park/Springhill Lake 
  
For more info on any of these listings, contact Lore Rosenthal, 301-345-2234, Greenbelt Climate Action Network.  Also visit our calendar on the CHEARS website.
 
Three Sisters Demonstration Gardens
Greenbelt Food Forest 
Bay-friendly Gardening ~ Growing Food, Community & Healthy Ecosystems

  

GFF header
The plants are in and growing strong!  Help us grow together by lending a hand with weekly waterings and Arts in the Gardens at our sites.  Interested? Contact Kim, 301-458-0241

----------------------------------------------------------------
 
3SDG
Visit our websites for more information about what we do at the Gardens and the Greenbelt Food Forest
Come out this month to meet Lucy, Maggie, and other Greenbelt friends for relaxing, fun activities outside.  Stop by to meet the entire core Garden planners, including Ben, Becky Jean, and Jean!

 

Cleaning out your garage?  Do you have extra garden tools?   
Contact Lucy, 301-577-2350 to donate equipment! 
Below are the garden addresses and upcoming events at each site. 

  

10th Annual Greenbelt Fall Harvest Festival
Live Music * Arts and Crafts 
Sunday, September 22, 11:00 AM-5:00 PM 
Roosevelt Center, Crescent and Southway, Greenbelt, MD 


CHEARS invites the community to join in celebrating the Harvest season, the milestone in the yearly cycle of our planet, to celebrate the work and creations of common folks, and the spirit of life that springs forth from the earth and reflects in our being.


Come enjoy live music, arts and crafts, the exchange of ideas and a great fall day.

The festival is held on the Roosevelt Center in historic Greenbelt, MD: 

  • Come enjoy live performances by Tinsmith, Global Warming, Raincrow, The Scrub Pines, Doug Way & Jeff King.
  • Community Stone Soup Demonstration, starting at 11 am   
  • Bring some veggies and herbs from the garden or stock beans and grains from your cupboard and help make the "Soup of the Day"  
  • Get your hands on the Interactive Mosaic Mural project and add some pieces to express your own creative touch to the mural.  
  • Get moving with the open air table tennis demo  
  • And much more!

Brought to you by the Stone Soup Project, a conspiracy for the Arts.  
A project of CHEARS.  For more information contact us at [email protected].

 

Nine Lives Yard Sale and Exchange
Sunday, September 22, 10:00 AM-2:00 PM 
Roosevelt Center, Crescent and Southway, Greenbelt, MD 
Yard Sale

Tired of feeling like you are carrying the weight of the world around on your back?
Maybe it's time to lighten up!

Donate in the name of Turtle well-being, build some art from new found treasures, collect to help the Chesapeake or create a roomier home for you. 
Or, perhaps find stuff that has more lives left. 

Bring your offerings in the Spirit of the Turtle... rescued treasures from the deep recesses of attics and overstuffed closets... before they bite the dust or clog the sea... take time to make room for the turtles... sharing the bounty with others before it becomes just another landfill throw-a-way. 

Join the Turtle and his friends as they offer good things a chance at a new life at our Nine Lives Yard Sale and Exchange.



TO DONATE ITEMS: 
You may drop off at the event on September 22 at the event anytime between 7:30am and 11am

 

or arrange for a pick up at your house on:

  • Saturday and Sunday mornings, 9am to 11am, through Sunday, September 8th.
  • Friday 9/13 from 5 pm to 8 pm
  • Saturday 9/14 from 9 am to noon.
  • September 22 at the event anytime between 7:30am and 11am.

 

Clothing donations should be limited to small children's sizes. Preferred categories include small electronics (no old style tube TVs), kitchen dishes and tools, toys, books, records and other music media, cameras, gardening tools and supplies, and bikes. Any items including furniture requiring more than 2 people to carry should not be donated.

 

For more information, contact Richard McMullin, 202-664-7572

Funds raised will help CHEARS support free public gatherings in the Spirit of the Turtle, and the continuing efforts to bring together Science and the Arts in harmony with Nature. 

Visit our website!
Chesapeake Education, Arts and Research Society
P.O. Box 1841 | Greenbelt , MD  20768
www.chears.org  |  301-458-0241
 
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