lhep Helps Green the Plunge ... and Raises Over $1,100

I did it! Thanks to my generous contributors, I exceeded my $1,000 fundraising goal and raised $1,100 for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. We had a beautiful, sunny day with temperatures in the high 30s and a comparable water temperature. Quite frankly, I could have stayed outside in my bathing suit, basking in the sun for a bit longer than I did.

lori hill event productions helped make this NO BUDGET event a GREEN event with the assistance of several generous sponsors:

Chesapeake Bay Roasting Company provided organic, fair trade, locally roasted coffee for all the plungers and watchers. They pledge 2% of every can of coffee we sell to go back to support the Watershed Preservation Fund which supports the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

New Leaf Vegan Society provided delicious vegan cookies and muffins and showed us that eating vegan can not only be tasty, but it is also better for the planet, the animals and our own health.

Perfect Settings, a very eco conscious party rental company, provided us with beautiful linens to make our Plunge look polished. If you rent linens from Perfect Settings, just return their hangers (they will reuse them) and bale and recycle the plastic used to protect the linens. They also rent recycle bins for your event!

Waste Neutral Group helped us make this a zero waste (or nearly zero waste) by recycling and composting our waste. Our biggest bin was the compost bin, followed by the recycle bin and then the SMALLEST container of them all was the evil landfill bin.

Thanks again for your support! Now go out and support CCAN and our generous sponsors at your next event!

Help Me Fight Global Warming

For the third year, I’m taking a cold plunge to fight global warming. In 2 ½ weeks, on January 23rd, I'm going to jump into the icy Chesapeake Bay for a cause I am extremely passionate about: the fight against global warming.

I am going to plunge right on the beach at the headquarters of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation which happens to be one of the greenest building the country! I’ll join hundreds of other crazy folks in the Fifth Annual Polar Bear Plunge. The event, organized by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN), is meant to raise awareness about the growing crisis of global warming and to raise the funds needed to continue the fight against it.

The basics are right below. For those who want to read more about CCAN, see the end of this email.

How to Make a Pledge
Last year, I raised over $1,000. This year, due to the economy, I’ve set my goal at $1,000. I realize times are tough, so pledge what you can. If I can get 200 people to pledge $5 each, I will meet my goal.

Contributions are tax deductable and it only takes about ONE MINUTE to make a pledge! IF you pledge, I promise to email you photos of me plunging!

Credit Card
Go to the following secure webpage

Check
Make your check out to "CCAN" and mail to
P.O. Box 11138
Takoma Park, MD 20912

On the memo line, write Plunge/Lori Hill on the memo line, so they know who your pledge is supporting.

Thanks in advance for your interest and support in the fight against global warming - and for supporting me while I turn a little blue in the process! If you're not busy, please consider coming out to join me I the plunge or cheer me on this January 23rd. It's a really fun event and we’ll have coffee from Chesapeake Bay Roasting Company and delicious food from New Leaf Vegan Society (they provided muffins and cookies last year and everybody ate ‘em up!!)

Green Up in 2010

Happy 2010! This is the first day back for most of us and we are all focused on the goals we want to achieve this year. As you list those tasks, I hope you will think about what you can do in your work and home life to be more sustainable. Perhaps you’ll make an effort to print less frequently, print on recycled paper, print on reused paper OR maybe you’ll lead the effort to become a paperless work environment. If the building you work in doesn’t have a recycling program, begin a petition to start one. If your office still engages in practices that are not Earth friendly, start a green committee where you can brainstorm with your co-workers about policies you can initiate like replacing bottled water with filtered and providing all staff with an aluminum water bottle.

At home, perhaps you can begin to compost your leftover food scraps and unplug major appliances when they are not in use. Swap your incandescent lights with compact florescent light bulbs and turn off lights when you leave a room. Switch to wind power.

There are so many things we can all do and most take little or no effort. Here are some things you can do in your HOME that don’t cost a penny.

Turn off the lights in any room when it is not in use.

Unplug your TV, DVD and phone charger when not in use.

Take a 3-minute shower.

Wash clothes in warm or cold water and always rinse in cold.

Wash dishes by hand or run the dishwasher only when it is full. Don’t rinse plates in advance.

Say NO to bottled water. Drink filtered or tap water from a glass or reusable water bottle.

Set your thermostat to 65 degrees in the winter and your water heater
to 120 degrees.

Don’t let your vehicle idle for more than 20 seconds.

Say NO to paper AND plastic bags wherever you shop. Bring your own canvas bag leftover from a conference or trip.

Recycle every scrap of paper, newspaper, cardboard and junk mail as well as every plastic, glass or aluminum container.

Pledge to NEVER throw anything in a trash can – at home or outside the home -- that can be recycled, and then recycle!