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YOU ARE INVITED!

The Transition Team at Boulder County Going Local invites you
to join us as our Honored Guest for the
Rollout of our 2008 BOULDER COUNTY GOING LOCAL! Campaign

Tuesday, May 13, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Boulder Dinner Theater
5501 Arapahoe

This event is free and open to the public, with a cash bar, and complimentary hors d'oeuvres provided by the Boulder Outlook Hotel.

The county-wide 2008 Campaign sets the theme for a decade-long effort to make the transition to a stronger, more localized economy in an energy-constrained future. This very special celebration will feature perspectives from a variety of sectors of our community, including locally-owned independent businesses, the local foodshed, city and county government, and non-profit community services, as well as a preview of upcoming Campaign activities, projects and events through the end of this year.

Highlights of the Evening

• Presentations by key sponsors and supporters of the BOULDER COUNTY GOING LOCAL! Campaign

• Introduction of Boulder County's GOING LOCAL! Resource Guide, which will include articles and directories covering our BUY LOCAL FIRST! and EAT LOCAL! themes

• Update on The Great Reskilling, an educational program designed to rebuild the basic life skills that our grandparents took for granted

• Announcement of the Chautauqua Summer Forum Sustainability Series of panels and presentations

• Announcement of the 2008 RENAISSANCE OF LOCAL!

• Announcement of new community projects we are catalyizing

• Announcement of the uplifting Transition Town Initiative in Boulder County, and a direct connection to an inspiring international movement of communities who are officially transitioning off fossil fuels and becoming more resilient and self-reliant in response to the twin threats of climate change and fossil fuel depletion

We believe Boulder County has an opportunity to break new ground. Perhaps in a couple hundred years, people will look back at the beginning of the 21st century as a crucial time, as the fading moments of the Oil Age, the time of the Great Turning. Perhaps people will tell stories about what happened in Boulder County. And perhaps this evening at the Boulder Dinner Theater will be something that is the beginning of one of those stories.

As we look ahead at the future, there are certainly great challenges ahead, but there are also inspiring possibilities. We'd like you to help us anchor these inspiring possibilities by joining us for this important event.

TRANSITION TOWN INITIATIVE & COMMUNITY SEED EXCHANGE
The Great Unleashing, May 1

A lot has been happening behind the scenes at Boulder County Going Local, and it's time to make a series of exciting public announcements. Come join us for an evening of celebration as we unleash a new direction for relocalization and join forces with the international Transition Network.

With this new initiative, Boulder is poised to become one of the first official Transition Towns in the U.S., and we hope to proliferate Transition Towns throughout Boulder County and the Front Range. This movement is catching fire, and it's motivating us to organize our communities' relocalization efforts in creative and empowering new ways!

"The Transition movement is the most exciting, most hopeful, most inspirational movement happening today." --Caroline Lucas, European Parliament

The Transition news will be followed by a lively Seed Exchange to help us all reclaim the art of seed saving and to prepare for planting this and next year's crops. Please bring seeds that you'd like to share and perhaps trade with others. There's still time to get new varieties planted in the ground!

WHEN & WHERE
May 1 (Thurs.), 7:00 p.m.
Boulder Meadows Community Room
4500 19th Street (19th & Violet)
Free, open to the public

HEALTHY SOIL
With Eric Johnson, May 3-4

NOTE: THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN POSTPONED. THE NEW DATE WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN THE NEAR FUTURE.

The season of surplus food will soon be upon us. Plan now! Join Sandy Cruz for this acclaimed workshop and learn how to acquire, preserve, store and use an abundance of fruits, vegetables, culinary herbs and medicinals. In addition to freezing and canning, Sandy will explore nine simple, timeless low-energy methods to preserve the harvest. Participants experiment in the kitchen, making pickled veggies and other delights.

Sign up soon, only two spots remaining!

WHEN & WHERE
May 17 (Sat.), 10:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Mennonite Church, 3910 Table Mesa Drive
Registration $85 ($65 ten days in advance)

EDIBLE AND MEDICINAL WEEDS
With Claire Zimmerman, May 24

Many homeowners and gardeners shun the weeds in their yards, even going to the point of using toxic sprays to eliminate these "misplaced" plants. This class, taught by Claire Zimmerman, will introduce you to "weeds" in a whole new light. We will focus on practical skills of weed identification and discuss their applications as food and medicine. You will leave this class feeling empowered to use the plants growing right outside your backdoor and less likely to yank every "weed" you find.

WHEN & WHERE
May 24 (Sat.), 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Location TBD
Registration $25

BOULDER LOCALS MAKE INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Kai Abelkis and Kipp Nash become media celebrities

Boulder Community Hospital's sustainability coordinator, Kai Abelkis, was featured in New York Times Magazine, The Green Issue, April 20. Click here for the story.

Community Roots' Kipp Nash was also featured in the Wall Street Journal on April 22, in an article titled "Green Acres II: When Neighbors Become Farmers (suburban arugula is organic and fresh, but about that manure...)." Here's an excerpt:

BOULDER, CO--When suburbanites look out their front doors, a lot of them want to see a lush green lawn. Kipp Nash wants to see vegetables, and not all of his neighbors are thrilled.

"I'd rather see green grass" than brown dirt patches, says 82-year-old Florence Tatum, who lives in Mr. Nash's Boulder neighborhood, across the street from a house with a freshly dug manure patch out front. "But those days are slipping away."

Since 2006, Mr. Nash, 31, has uprooted his backyard and the front or back yards of eight of his Boulder neighbors, turning them into minifarms growing tomatoes, bok choy, garlic and beets...