By Dena Fritz

Great idea founded in 2008 by Mike Marone in New York, the world’s largest recycling event on May 14th in North Chili, NY. Kudos to Mike for coming up with this idea! It is an event held to give away your goods to save them from ending up in a landfill. Are you a hoarder or on you way to being one? This event can help you help others! Wouldn’t it be great if the idea spread to more neighborhoods? How about a national event? This is what I am talking about. Your trash is almost always someone else’s treasures. All you do is place your items on the curb for others to take away free. It’s like a “curb alert” for all in the neighborhood. No cost and very little effort, you can clean out your junk and help out someone who may need that item. I do this all the time with craigslist offering things for free that I would have to pay to have hauled away, you wouldn’t believe what people look for. Start an event in your neighborhood or just give it away on a site like craigslist, you will be happy you did!

Shirley and Eugene Goles and their family, from Baltimore, Md., have camped at the Jellystone Park Camp-Resort in Quarryville, Pa. almost every Easter for nearly 40 years.

 ”That’s when our family starts our summer camping trips,” Shirley said, adding that the tradition started even before the 175-site campground joined the Jellystone Park chain in 1991.

“We just love the park and the area that it’s in,” Shirley said, adding that their children, grandchildren and many other family members have all grown up having their Easter egg hunts and other holiday activities at the Quarryville Jellystone Park.

Jellystone Parks are nationally famous for their family friendly activities, which take place most weekends throughout late spring, summer and fall.

But while most activities are geared toward children and teenagers, some Jellystone Parks also have Easter activities specifically for adults, including the Jellystone Park in Hagerstown, Md., which holds separate egg hunts for men and women with about 200 to 300 plastic eggs that are stuffed with coupons that can be redeemed for soda, candy, game room tickets and other assorted adult beverages.

“We have to hold these egg hunts separately. Otherwise, the men will push the women out of the way to get the eggs,” said park co-owner Vicki Vitkun.

The Quarryville Jellystone Park also offers separate Easter egg hunts for children and adults as well as an egg rolling and decorating contest, a visit by the Easter bunny, and nighttime DJ dancing with a light show.

•  Here’s a sampling of what’s being planned at Jellystone Parks in several cities east of the Rockies: Bremen, Ga.: This park’s Easter egg hunt involves hayrides with an antique tractor and real bunnies. The park is also planning train rides, Easter egg basket making and other children’s activities. www.georgiajellystone.com
• Burleson, Texas: Activities include making an Easter basket, and parents will have the option of filling them up or having Yogi Bear deliver them to their children. A big egg hunt is also planned. Additionally, a local church hosts a live Easter Pageant, and they will send their cast members – including a high priest, a blind man and Jesus – will come to the park in costume to share their experiences.

www.rusticcreekranch.com

• Canyon Lake, Texas: Activities at this park include a nighttime flashlight Easter egg hunt for the older kids with thousands of eggs and a church service on Sunday. www.jellystonehillcountry.com
• Frankenmuth, Mich.: This park mirror’s the Osterbrunnen Easter decorating traditions of Franconia, Germany, and decorates the park with thousands of eggs and ribbon. The park will also have an Easter egg hunt, Easter decorating, movies, games and crafts. www.frankenmuthjellystone.com
• Fremont, Ind.: This park will have egg dying and an egg hunt as well as other activities, including bingo, cartoons, wagon rides and free pancakes. Real baby chicks and bunnies will also be on hand. www.jellystonesbest.com
• Horn Lake, Miss.: This park is planning egg dying, an Easter egg hunt, spoon races and a coloring contest. www.memphisjellystone.com
• Nashville, Tenn.: This park’s activities include crafts, such as decorating you own Easter basket, egg games and an Easter egg hunt. www.nashvillejellystone.com

The Goles Family doesn’t limit their Jellystone camping to the Quarryville Park at Easter. They also visit the Jellystone Park in Hagerstown, though they have a tradition of closing out the camping season with a visit to the Quarryville Park in October, when the park hosts its Halloween themed weekends, with costume contests, trick or treating and campsite decorating.

“About 15 families will join us for camping for Halloween. At times we have had as many as 65 in our group,” Shirley said. For more information on activities and events at the Quarryville Jellystone, visit www.jellystonepa.com. Activities listings for the Hagerstown Jellystone is available at www.jellystonemaryland.com.

About Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park™ Camp-Resorts

Launched in 1969, the Jellystone Park system now boasts 75 campgrounds with more than 15,000 campsites in 30 states and three Canadian provinces.  Its Camp-Resorts are among the best campgrounds in the industry with a quality reputation for being fun, friendly, clean and customer service-oriented parks. Additionally, each Jellystone Park is themed with Yogi Bear elements providing instant recognition and consumer appeal.  It is truly a place “Where You Camp With Friends.”®   

Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts are franchised through Leisure Systems, Inc. (LSI), a wholly owned subsidiary of The Park River Corporation, Cincinnati, Ohio. For more information, visit www.campjellystone.com.

I stumbled onto this website that is focused on teaching children how to care for their planet and to be environmentally conscience in their daily habits. It focuses on heightening awareness for sustainability and environmentally responsible practices.

Where better to start than with our youth? When we were children there was no such thing. Waste was at its highest with the invention and use of plastics, landfills and toxic chemicals. Now our world is getting smarter and working harder to clean up our mistakes and teaching children to go forward with this kind of thinking. Signing up can give you the information that you need to get started with your very own campus green initiatives. Registering with the Go Green Initiative Association to access all the tools, training and funding opportunities you will need to make your program a success. Getting started involves a four-step process; building your team, setting goals, evaluate successes and forming partnerships.

 Jill Buck is the Founder and Executive Director of the Go Green Initiative and is also the owner of Buck Consulting. In 2002, Jill wrote the Go Green Initiative, which is now the largest and fastest growing comprehensive environmental education program in the world. You can follow Jill Buck on Twitter @jillbuck and FaceBook at Go Green FaceSpace.

Watch this video to coordinate your own Go Green Initiative. This is for School Leaders and includes information that a teacher, principal or superintendent needs to know about getting a green initiative going at your school.

There is nothing more traditional than baking your own holiday’s cookies. There is certain nostalgia to mixing the dough, decorating, baking and sliding them onto a cooling rack. Oh and the house smells so good!

Baking your own cookies also is an eco-thing to do. You are eliminating the expensive, wasteful packaging that come with the store bought kind. The ingredients are all fresh and you can use all the natural ingredients you want.  You can give them as gifts which is an affordable and always useful gift. Everyone loves homemade cookies and you can bake different kinds to make a nice looking array of treats. Along with baking cookies, you can make your own peanut brittle or toffee and put it on a decorative tray for a popular addition to your holiday yummies. It is a fun activity that the whole family can get involved in.

By Dena Fritz

I wrote in my two previous blogs about the positives on using cut trees and artificial trees for Christmas. Both have their good points when it comes to saving our environment but this option is probably my favorite as it gives back to the earth, is living and it can be enjoyed for many, many years to come.

A living tree or balled tree roots are wrapped in burlap by a farmer and the consumer uses the tree inside for the holiday season and then replants it outside. You have to think ahead when choosing the option of a live tree inside your house. How tall, remember the root ball takes up floor to ceiling space so the actual tree isn’t as big as a cut tree would be. How much space will it take around? How will I stage my tree, you have to transition it from the outside to the inside and vice versa, so you may want to store it in the garage or a shed for a couple of days. Where will I transplant it? When we used a balled tree, my husband dug the hole ahead of time and planted it outside soon after. Remember, trees with the root systems attached are very heavy. A six foot tree can weigh as much as 250 lbs.

The Benefits: They are safer; they offer a habitat for wildlife, live trees replenish our air with oxygen and improve the look of your landscaping. Live trees do not drop needles like cut trees do and do not dry out.

By Dena Fritz

It’s convenient to go out and buy all of your holiday ornaments but is it always green? Sometimes we have to make sacrifices and make an effort if we truly believe in the green initiative.  Making your own ornaments is one way to make a difference, you can use natural items from the earth such as pine trees, pine cones and fabrics with water colors that are green, no pun intended!

Making new ornaments out of old ones is a good way to recycle, buying fair trade tree decorations is a way to give back, stringing cranberries or popcorn into garland is what my family did when I was young, construction paper chains makes for good garland, salt dough makes great decorations, candy and cookies can be used to make hanging ornaments, using flowers such as poinsettias make rich looking décor, crocheting ornaments is an age-old method of homemade decorations and using recycle gift bows and ribbons can be used as tree toppers. See! There are many projects that you can take on to tackle your urge to be eco-savvy.

By Dena Fritz

 Today is the first day of Chanukah and if you are Jewish, you will be kindling your Menorah tonight after dusk. Something different to green up your holiday… Try soy or beeswax candles. Menorahs come in different sizes and not all candles are

available in soy or beeswax but you can find them. The benefits to soy wax candles: non toxic, no lead, no synthetic fragrance, burns clean, paraffin candles are made from petroleum and not a renewable source like soybeans. Buying soybean products also stimulates economic growth for our agricultural economy. Burning beeswax has similar qualities as soy, it burns cleaner, longer, it is a natural resource, contains no petroleum and they don’t drip.

Jews light Chanukah candles to remember the miracle of the Maccabees’ victory and the miracle of the oil that burnt for eight days in the holy Temple. It is a mitzvah (commandment from God) that Jews “publicize the miracle” by lighting a Chanukah Menorah (also called a Chanukiah) each night during the eight days of Chanukah. You can buy or make a Menorah, but it should hold 8 candles in a row and 1 extra to be the “starter” candle or the “Shamash”. All members of the household should be present for the lighting of the Menorah. Have the whole family light their own Menorah and group them together on a table. By the eighth night it truly is a beautiful sight.

Happy Chanukah to all my Jewish Friends and soon to be family!

By Dena Fritz

We produce more than 15oo lbs. of trash a year. Much of our trash is plastic. A chemical called Bisphenol A which is found in plastic is leaching into water sources and is getting into animals. Bizarre developmental problems in animals sparked a national effort to find the cause. Bisphenol A breaks out of plastic and leaches into water, it can act as a dose of female sex hormone, estrogen. Too much estrogen can disrupt the endocrine system in animals and can be linked to many health impacts. This chemical is in baby bottles, but the plastics industry disputes the effects on humans. In cooperation with the National Toxicology Program, FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research is carrying out in-depth studies to answer key questions and clarify uncertainties about the risks of BPA. FDA is seeking the public’s input and input from other expert agencies.

To protect your baby, use BPA free bottles. Using glass bottles also avoids your baby’s exposure to these potentially harmful chemicals. Born Free specializes in developing and manufacturing baby feeding products that combine the safest materials with the smartest innovations.

Getting away from traditional photo albums didn’t just happen overnight. This is an evolution! The more we use photos online for social networking, the easier it is to be enticed to store our photos on a site that is made just for that. There are websites that now hold all your photos and at the same time make it convenient to order prints or to order photo books. Photo books stay with you for many years without the magnetic pages losing their stickiness and the photos falling out all over the floor! Using online photo albums for storage saves our environment. We are not killing trees, using ink or chemicals to process eons of photos that lay in a box untouched except when Aunt Nelly comes to visit every 4 years. Some sites that are popular on the internet are shutterfly, KodakGallery, myphotoalbum, Flickr, and photobucket. These sites offer photo cropping, enlarging, organizing and you can share them with your friends and family. Give one a try, you might just like it.

Ever notice how the air changes in August? It takes on a crisp feel and the humidity takes a back seat. I am from the mid-atlantic region where the sun gets brighter and the leaves turn scarlet and gold. Autumn is a nice season because it isn’t too cold or too hot; it’s very pretty and makes you feel nostalgic. I am not sure why that is, but it is. I have taken this list from STORMFAX Guide to Fall Foliage. It covers most of the U.S. and offers state website links and phone numbers that will be helpful when planning your fall foliage tour. Use this guide to commune with Mother Nature and enjoy some peace.

• Mid-Atlantic Region: 

PENNSYLVANIA  Fall Foliage/Events Hotline  1-800-FALL-INPA
 NEW JERSEY  Fall Foliage/Events  1-800-VISIT-NJ
 DELAWARE | (alt) Fall Foliage/Events  1-800-441-8846
 MARYLAND | (alt) Fall Foliage/Events  1-800-LEAVES-1
 VIRGINIA | (alt) Fall Foliage/Events  1-800-434-LEAF
 WEST VIRGINIA Fall Foliage/Events  1-800-CALL-WVA
 NORTH CAROLINA | (alt) Fall Foliage/Events  1-800-VISIT-NC

• New England Region: 

CONNECTICUT Fall Vacation Hotline  1-800-CT-BOUND
 MAINE Publicity Hotline  1-800-533-9595 or 1-888-MAINE-45
 MASSACHUSETTS | (alt) Fall Foliage Hotline  1-800-227-MASS (6277)
 NEW HAMPSHIRE |Fall Color Hotline  1-800-262-6660 or 1-800-258-3608
 NEW YORK | (alt) Fall Foliage Hotline  1-800-225-5697 or 1-800-CALL-NYS
 RHODE ISLAND | (alt) Fall Vacation Hotline  1-800-556-2484
 VERMONT | (alt) Fall Foliage Hotline  1-800-VERMONT or 1-800-828-3239

• Midwest, West & South: 

ARKANSAS | (alt)  Fall Foliage  1-800-NATURAL
 CALIFORNIA | (alt)  Fall Foliage  1-800-354-4595
 COLORADO | (alt) Travel/Events Hotline  1-800-COLORADO
 GEORGIA Travel/Events Hotline  1-800-864-7275
 ILLINOIS | (alt) Travel/Events Hotline  1-800-2CONNECT
 INDIANA | (alt) | (alt) Travel/Events Hotline  1-888-ENJOY-IN
 KENTUCKY Color Connection  1-800-225-8747
 MICHIGAN Foliage Hotline  1-800-644-3255
 MINNESOTA Foliage Hotline  1-800-657-3700
 MISSOURI Fall Report  1-800-NATURAL
 MONTANA | (alt) Travel/Events Hotline  1-800-847-4868
 OHIO Foliage & Travel Hotline  1-800-282-5393
 OREGON | (alt) Foliage Hotline  1-800-547-5445
 TENNESSEE Fall Color Hotline  1-800-697-4200
 TEXAS | (alt) State Park Hotline  1-800-792-1112
 WASHINGTON | (alt) State Foliage Information  1-800-354-4595
 WISCONSIN Foliage Hotline  1-800-432-TRIP
 WYOMING | (alt) Travel Hotline  1-800-225-5996