To everyone who “does the dishes”; results of a sustainable school picnic

Here is what I wrote for the school newsletter. I think it summarizes our results. By the way, our tickets were “gold” coins- plastic from a past event with a pirate theme. The flowers and herbs in the re-purposed lemonade glass jars were all from my garden with some bouquets of sunflowers which I bought from a local farm stand. I was so relieved that the farm stand was full the day I went out there! I gave them to as many volunteers as I could catch up with at the end of the evening since volunteers are so important both in setting the tone and literally working!

“Thank you to all of you who “did the dishes”. In doing so collectively:

• we produced very little garbage from feeding 628 people (save a few plastic forks, we were using them from a past event),
• everything that was thrown in the bins was compostable,
• the flowers were local,
• we re-purposed the “tickets”, and
• the few leftovers (we had no idea how many people planned to attend) were taken to Our Place and devoured appreciatively.

We were so grateful to see the sunshine for so many reasons! We appreciate all of the volunteers—returning parents and students and new parents who donned an apron and pulled up their sleeves to make this event so successful; the aprons and other linens have been laundered and are placed in our Parents’ Auxiliary cupboard/room awaiting the next event.” I added a picture of them hanging on the line drying in our beautiful sunshine.

I post this here, not because I am so proud of our school for living as sustainably as possible (which I am) but because these things are so easy that anyone can do it. It started with one person’s idea and then we made it happen..it’s simple and doable.