It’s, It’s An Email Blitz!

In the past forty eight hours I have received a bunch of emails and many of them are related to causes that are dear to my heart -- The Environment and The President. In fact two emails in particular not only show support for one or the other but managed to combine both the environment and President Barack Obama into one message. Now that is something I can sure get behind!

Let’s start by talking about 1Sky. This is an organization dedicated to creating alliances with politicians to effect real change in the realm of fighting global warming on a larger scale. Yesterday they sent all of us supporters a message to let us know that when President Obama signed the recovery plan into effect it included $87 billion in green investments. From what they have indicated this is the largest expenditure the government has ever made in the area of clean energy. Hooray!

Of course 1Sky was not simply letting us know about this wonderful turn of events, they have asked us to please send a thank you note to Congress and President Obama showing our willingness to continue to support the efforts they are standing behind with this package. The great news is they made it easy to express our gratitude! Simply go to http://www.1sky.org/green-recovery-thankyou and enter your zip code. A pre-written message of thanks (and thumbnails of our local Senators) will pop up. Enter the required information (name, email, zip) and hit submit. Then please pass this link on to as many people as possible. Showing our support for their support ensures the gratitude loop for positive change keeps revolving!

Speaking of change…

Is it time to change that old, worn out T-shirt yet? Well perhaps I could interest you in one of these:

Jason Mraz and Rock the Vote have partnered up to bring us this 100% Organic cotton t-shirt in two fun colors. As if that wasn’t enough the inks are water based and all solvents are environmentally safe. Considering all of these factors, the shirts are not expensive like many tend to be -- small to XL, men’s or women’s, silver or blue will not cost you more than $25.00 (plus shipping -- please note that I found the shipping cost to be a bit pricey but I feel the cause is worth it!). They will ship within the next couple weeks and 50% of the purchase price proceeds will go directly to Rock the Vote efforts.

That gives a whole new meaning to ‘Rock On’ as these folks spend countless hours educating and encouraging voter registration. Plus how cool will it be to walk down the street with the caricature version of President Obama emblazoned on the front of a shirt?

Sharing Is Caring

I am a member of Focus the Nation, a non-profit organization that is committed to fight for clean, renewable energy resources. This morning their news letter arrived in my inbox detailing some of the upcoming events and where they would be held. All the way at the bottom was a link to 41pounds.org which was described as a service that will stop all unwanted junk mail for five years. Having never heard of this particular organization before, I went to the website and read each page, looking to gain a broader perspective on what and how they do it. For $41.00 (US) they will contact and stop all unwanted mail for five full years -- catalogs, credit card offers, fliers -- anything with a name and address on it and $15.00 of that donation goes directly to an organization in the drop down menu. It sounded pretty good (especially since FTN was in the list), but while reading through the list it occurred to me that many of the organizations on it were local to southern California.

I love SoCal but presently live in Massachusetts so my wheels began to turn and I realized that the only organizations I currently belong to as a member are all national. This made me stop to think -- where are my local organizations and how can I find them? I thought about the saying:

Think Globally. Act Locally.

Now that is not to say that acting globally does not help because I do truly care what happens to the rest of the world but starting at home will give me more pride in actually being able to watch that effort come to fruition.

So where can I research local organizations? How do I join them? What makes them reputable?

I had a lot of questions and only the internet to guide the origins of my search. So I opened up Google and typed in “Environmental Org my hometown and state”. To my surprise and delight my own town website came up with links to three committees and the Sustainability Action Plan. The Town Selectmen voted eight years ago to join with the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign that would require a plan be put into action.

Eight years ago! I felt like I had a lot of catching up to do! My town issued part one of their Sustainability Plan just two years ago and a committee was formed so the first thing I did was register for an account to their website so I could learn more about upcoming events and town meetings. I learned that the next will be held tomorrow night at 7:30 PM and emailed the moderator of the meeting to see if it was open to the public. Finally, while waiting to hear back I called my Mom, who also lives here, and asked if she too would be interested to attend if we were allowed and she said sure!

There were two additional committees listed and I fully intend to research both in the same manner in order to get more involved right here in my own town. I will continue to donate to and support larger organizations such as We, 1Sky and Focus the Nation but to begin an effort right here in my own town makes me feel more connected to the air my own community breathes every day.

What are you doing to support local organizations? Tell me about your experiences!