Fun in the Sun at NW SolarFest! – 11th Annual NW SolarFest: Renewable Energy & Sustainable Living Fair

On Saturday, July 26th at Shoreline Community College from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. head to NW SolarFest to learn about and celebrate renewable energy and sustainable living. You’ll find fun activities such as:

• KIDZone; music circle, drumming, yoga, art & craft activities, take an energy pledge and get a mini solar car (first 300 kids get their own for free), Bubbleman (noon), Professor Phillip Photon (1:00 p.m.), Solar Powered Kidz Rock Concert (4:00 p.m.)

•NW EcoBuilding workshops, hourly from 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

•Seattle City Light Solar Powered “Green Up” speaker and music stage featuring sounds from The Hollers, the Highlife Band, and Ayron Jones (noon-2:00 p.m.)

• Trash Fashion Show where dogs will model fashionable outfits created from recycled garbage sponsored by ShoreDOG (2:00 p.m.)

• Barter Fair, bring your home grown or homemade items to trade (2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.)

• “Momenta” documentary film screening about coal exports in the Pacific Northwest (2:30 p.m.)

• Urban County Fair: Sustainability displays and competition – Backyard Floral Arrangement, Container Garden, Restyled Clothing/Wearables, Recycle/Upcycle Idea, Food Art

• Enter to win a Little Free Library

• Transportation Zone features 100% electric vehicles; Nissan Leaf and Tesla S Model

• Exhibits, Presentations, Urban Farm, Transportation Zone, Solar Cooking Demonstrations, Live Music, and Food.

NW SolarFest is an outdoor annual regional event supported by the City of Shoreline, Shoreline Community College, Seattle City Light, and many others and is organized by Shoreline Solar Project. The free event will run from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Shoreline Community College, 16101 Greenwood Avenue North.

Metro Route 5, 331 and 345 serve the college on Saturdays.

More information

Join Community Alliance for Global Justice and over 300 local advocates, farmers, food workers, and allied organizations at our 8th annual Strengthening Local Economies, Everywhere! Dinner on July 26.

Keynote
This year’s  theme is Fisherfolk in the Food Sovereignty Movement. The keynote will be given by Niaz Dorry, Coordinating Director of NAMA- North Atlantic Marine Alliance. Niaz will be speaking about her work organizing small-scale fisherfolk to survive in the face of corporate consolidation of the fishing industry.

Schedule of Events
Happy Hour 5:00 p.m. -6:30 p.m.: Enjoy libations, live music, complimentary hors d’oeuvres, a Silent Auction, and the opportunity to acquaint yourself with featured food justice organizations and groups promoting urban agriculture, food sovereignty and Fair Trade.

Dinner 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.: Enjoy a scrumptious locally sourced and Fair Trade meal. The Dessert Auction featuring 40 different desserts will make your mouth water!

Tickets
Sliding scale $40-$100: Please be generous in your support! We want to make this event accessible to everyone while also recognizing the need for us to raise crucial funds. Paying at the $100 level will support a farmer/food worker. This gives you entry and also ensures that a local member of our food economy can be an honored guest at our event. Kids are only $10!

*If you are unable to afford a full-price ticket, please contact us for solidarity tickets.

For more information, or to volunteer for the event, please contact CAGJ: 206-405-4600, slee@seattleglobaljustice.org

Notes:
Childcare will be available for kids aged 2-11 from 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.; please note in your RSVP how many children you will send to childcare, and their ages.
We encourage people to carpool, ride their bikes, and take public transit to this event!

The Department of Ecology and Seattle Public Utilities have teamed up with community colleges and some high schools to offer free auto leaks workshops to help you learn about your car and make sound choices for Puget Sound.

Certified automotive instructors teach the monthly workshops at fully equipped auto-repair training centers at South Seattle Community College, Shoreline Community College, Renton Technical College and West Seattle High School.

The workshops are open to EVERYONE in Puget Sound region who drives a car! You also get a professional inspection of your car for free.

In just 2-4 hours, our workshops take you through the basics of vehicle maintenance. You can attend for only 2 hours if you want to skip the free car inspection (but, why would you want to do that?).

Join the experts for our FREE monthly auto leaks workshops at a location near you.

Register now!

Thanks to the warm spring and timely rain, the 2014 summer harvest season is underway!  With the encouragement of Solid Ground, City Fruit has been asked to assist the fruit harvest this year in the Ballard and Wallingford neighborhoods.   Over the past five years, City Fruit has harvested more than 55,000 lbs of fruit for the food banks, created a thriving Orchard Steward program, taught dozens of classes, and created a registry of harvestable fruit trees of the Seattle area. None of this would be possible without the supportive community that we live in. City Fruit has been growing every year since its inception in 2009 and the trend continues this year with the expanded harvest that now includes neighborhoods in the north.

With your generosity, the momentum can keep going. If you would like to be a part of City Fruit’s community building mission of providing access to healthy, fresh produce to all people in our community by donating your fruit tree for harvest, OR if you have any questions whatsoever about City Fruit, please email Luke.  You can learn more about City Fruit at www.cityfruit.org. The website is full of resources on how to care for your trees, information about who City Fruit is and their goals as an organization, and notifications for upcoming community events and volunteer opportunities Thank you all very much!

We have some great ideas brewing for this year’s festival and just need a few more folks to help follow through.  Trash Fashion, Taste of Ballard, Kids Art, Cooking Demos, Farm Animals, Great Music and much more.  Get in on the fun of creating this lively community learning event.  Join us on July 23rd, 7:00 p.m. at EETBAR (1556 NW 56th) to get in on the action! RSVP please!

Be sure to mark Sept 28th on your calendar for the 11th Annual Sustainable Ballard Festival!!

Join the call for safer, more walkable communities by signing on to become one of your Neighborhood’s Walking Ambassadors through Feet First.  Sign up for a workshop on Saturday, August 2, 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Broadview Branch Library, 12755 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle, WA 98133.  Snacks will be provided. Space is limited, please complete this application by 5:00 p.m., July 28.

Neighborhood Walking Ambassadors are volunteers trained to lead walks that inspire, connect, and inform the community.  These walks provide people an opportunity to explore their communities together while meeting new neighbors. Feet First is imagining a different way of connecting with our surroundings that takes steps towards improving personal and environmental health while sharing knowledge.

Walking in your community is a healthy and sustainable mode of transportation that helps promote neighborhood safety and unity. More people out walking means more eyes on the street and bolsters neighborhood pride and social connections.  Join Feet First’s team of Neighborhood Walking Ambassadors, and share your story about the important places you connect with while inspiring others to put their feet first!

Sustainable Ballard is teaming up with PNA Village!

The PNA Village enriches aging and quality of life in our neighborhood by creating an intergenerational, inclusive and diverse community that supports independence, security and shared experience.  PNA Village serves East Ballard with a boundary extending west to 15th Ave NW.

What is the PNA Village?

The PNA Village is an “aging in place” program that helps people to remain in their homes and neighborhoods while staying active and engaged.

Joining provides support, and a sense of belonging, helping you to age gracefully, with the reassurance that you are part of a supporting community.

Members have access to a network of volunteers, vetted business referrals and community and social activities.

Join as a member, a supporter, a volunteer or all 3.

HOW DO I JOIN OR GET MORE INFO?

Call the Village at 206.789.1217 or visit the website: www.phinneycenter.org/village

Or stop in to the Village office at the Greenwood Senior Center, 528 N 85th St.

Open Space – What does it mean to you?

The Ballard Open Space Plan (BOSP) will be a tool that can improve the quality of life in Ballard for generations to come. Funded by a grant from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, Groundswell NW is assessing our community’s open space needs. Open space includes parks, trails, rights-of-way, public art, natural areas, spaces for events and festivals, and other green infrastructure.

Take the survey!

Tell us what open space means to you!

The fifth annual Spoke & Food event will take place at a up to 20 host restaurants in 20 different Seattle area neighborhoods on the evening of Tuesday, July 29th, 2014. If you have yet to ever participate in this important and fun community building event, this is your year to do so!  The 2014 event will benefit the Seattle based Outdoors for All non-profit.

The Outdoors for All Foundation provides year round instruction in outdoor recreation for people with physical, developmental, and sensory disabilities. Outdoors for All’s programming encourages and enables more than 2,000 children and adults with disabilities to exercise their abilities outdoors.

Learn more at www.outdoorsforall.org.

Participation is easy. All you need to do is to bike to and from one of our participating host restaurants on the evening of our event. Invite your friends or family to meet you, bring your neighbors, pack up your kids or go at it alone.

Each of the participating host restaurants has agreed to donate 20% of ALL of their patron revenues from the evening of the event directly to the local non-profit that we select each year. This means 100% of the funds raised via the restaurants go to helping a local Seattle area non-profit.

The 2013 Spoke & Food was a record year! In total, $6,080 was raised and donated to the Bike Works non-profit via the 2013 event. Thank you to everyone who participated!