Grey to Green Festival – Wick Park

Lots of great vendors and exhibitors will be at this year’s festival!

We have extended the vendor due date to Friday September 2nd, 2011.  You can download the form here:

http://www.greytogreenfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/G2G2011Vendor-Letterform-b.doc

Dear Friends of the Earth,

We welcome your participation in the 4th annual Grey to Green festival!  The festival transforms Wick Park in Youngstown’s Wick Park Historic District into a bustling marketplace energized by local and regional vendors and exhibitors who share a common purpose of caring for the environment around them.

The mission of the Grey to Green festival is to raise awareness of environmental issues in the Mahoning Valley region, encouraging sustainable living and business practices, invigorating local green businesses, and helping to beautify Wick Park. This year emphasizes climate change and the devastating impact of global warming as we focus on making personal commitments to reduce our carbon footprint. Featured activities include:

• Who Cares? Commitment to Action Essay Contest “My Commitment to Sustainable Living”
• Soap-Box/Open Mike 3 minute views on “Making a Difference in Global Climate Change”
• Practical Skills Workshops including Composting (Green Team); Wick Park tree identification (Naturalist Bill Whitehouse); Wick Park architecture walking tour (Architect Paul Hagman); nutrition for healing; and more.

For the fourth year in a row, the Grey to Green festival will attract a diverse audience of people with workshops beginning at 11:00 am, opening ceremonies at 12:00, and concluding with a salute to volunteers and concert after 5:00 pm at the Lemon Grove Café in downtown Youngstown.

Since its inception in 2008, the Grey to Green festival has grown exponentially.  We expect a terrific crowd with a flow of families and university students from the greater Youngstown/Warren MSA exceeding 1500 to 2000 people throughout the day.  We’re looking forward to vendors and exhibitors participating in the festivities at Wick Park, along with arts and crafts exhibitors, workshops, children’s and family activities.  There is no charge to attend the festival; however there is a small fee for vendors and exhibitors.

With increased interest from local and regional elected officials, businesses, and concerned citizens, the Grey to Green festival is a prime opportunity to highlight your organization not only the day of the event, but also the month leading up to and for months after the event, when media coverage will be strong. This year’s sponsors include: City of Youngstown, Youngstown State University, CityScape, Common Wealth, Farmer’s Market @ UUYo, Treez Please, Green Homes Ohio & Lemon Grove Cafe.

Your participation either by tax-deductible donation, sponsorship or exhibiting at the festival will provide you with great rewards.

Sincerely,

Grey to Green festival Coordinators

Pat Rosenthal, Debra Weaver, Susie Beiersdorfer, Jacob Harver, Jean Engle, Amber Foster, David Slanina, Lyndsey Hughes, Gary Davenport, Howard Markert, Mark Hoelzel and Jim Converse

IF YOU HAVE ALREADY signed up here>> http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=104075949697270 then you are good to go!!!
FREE: 25 participants

Plant A Rainbow…Eat A Rainbow

Turn Your Schoolyard from Grey to Green, and Every Color In Between

Presenters: Anita Wesler and Samie Winick, Mill Creek MetroParks, Fellows Riverside Gardens and Paul C. Bunn Elementary, Youngstown City Schools

Move over Alice Waters. The “Edible Schoolyard” isn’t just for Californians any more! Join us in an exploration of ideas for garden-to-table programming, well suited to the “growing” classrooms of Ohio. In this workshop you will learn how to start and sustain a successful vegetable gardeni…ng program, with a minimal amount of money, and in a minimal amount of space. We’ll even show you how to grow a garden on asphalt. Together we’ll share creative hands-on activities, that use the plants and produce you grow, in ways that also meet state standards. Whether you’re just thinking about a school garden or you’ve already gotten started, this is the workshop for you!

Email greytogreenfestival@gmail.com and write “Plant a Rainbow” workshop in the subject line.  Susie will reply to your email.

Download Plant A Rainbow INFO sheeet:
http://www.greytogreenfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Plant-A-Rainbow.docx

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http://www.greytogreenfestival.org/ MORE INFO
http://www.facebook.com/GreytoGreenfestival FACEBOOK PAGE
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=257392477616067 EVENT Page

We had a great time this past Saturday as we celebrated our third year of Greening Wick Park!

Check out the awesome video from the good folks at Metro Monthly:

Metro Monthly at Grey to Green

WKBN was also out to shoot some footage, but all I can find on their site is this little article (for the record, I spelled my name on camera – but I like the spelling they settled on anyway – and the spelling of “gray” they chose is also keen :))

The Vindicator also had a great article. Here’s a teaser they ran on Sunday…and here’s the Vindy preview article and the Valley24 article as well!

This year we are lucky to have some really cool, innovative thinkers as our guest speakers. These are people who are at the helm of major projects that stimulate the economy, job supply, and minds of their communities. So, without further ado….here’s more about them!

MAURICE SMALL (and friends)

Maurice Small is an independent consultant with 22 years of experience in urban food systems development, youth entrepreneurship training, and soil creation. His work addresses the development of a more sustainable regional food system in Northeast Ohio; he began in 1988 with vacant lot reclamation, community garden creation, work with local after-school programs and volunteering with organizations to cultivate urban local food production. He has since worked as Learning Garden Director at The Cleveland Botanical Garden (CBG), (where he was the first minority to be hired in a managerial level position), co-founded City Fresh, a project that focuses on improving urban market access for rural farmers while improving food access in urban neighborhoods in Cleveland. He now works on various project around the region, and holds the position of Chief Compost Officer for Spencer’s Boy, an urban agro-tech consulting enterprise.

 Speakers w/ Maurice Small

 Destiny Hughes – 16 years old, from Youngstown, OH

Alexander Arnold – 17 years old, from Youngstown, OH

Calvin Scott – 16 years old, from Youngstown, OH

Destiny, Alex and Calvin worked for Youngstown Neighborhood Development this summer doing creative landscaping, grass cutting and watering of newly installed gardens in the Idora neighborhood.  They also worked with Maurice Small in the Youngstown urban agricultural laboratory.  Their studies with Maurice included native plant identification, herb use and identification, food preparation, seed starting, perennial and fruit tree transplanting, soil microbe identification, and neighborhood community relations.  These three young people have not graduated from the urban laboratory yet, but they are some of Youngstown’s most knowledgeable urban agricultural entrepreneurs.

 Ms. Hattie – Urban Agricultural Entrepreneur and Compost Queen, YT resident

Ms. Hattie started her work with Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative with an interest in community action and a vision to create her own urban farm.  She has since gone on to create three sizable compost bins, completely filled a four-house vacant lot with food and fruit.  She is also composting 50 pounds per week of local compost.  Ms. Hattie is currently developing relationships that will facilitate the sale of her produce in the community and to local restaurants.  Ms. Hattie has also lost 20 pounds in the past 6 months from her active lifestyle and has become an inspiration for her neighborhood.  Many residents in her neighborhood have begun to duplicate her vision through the creation of their own gardens.

 Mr. James – Urban Agricultural Entrepreneur and Compost King, YT resident

Mr. James works with Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative and recently received a grant from the Wean Foundation to do organizing work on the south side of Youngstown.  Mr. James has been influential in his community and is currently using his social capital in that community to conduct outreach to the larger Youngstown community.  Mr. James’ vision for composting includes serving all of Youngstown with the finest soils and mulches available.  He believes that Youngstown should serve Youngstown and that Youngstown does not need to look beyond its borders to find appropriate soil treatments.  His goal is to create a one-stop-shop for fruits and vegetables, soil and mulches, and good urban landscape/garden practice advice and support, all located in the south side of Youngstown.  Currently, Mr. James composts 1 ton of fresh vegetable scraps per week.  Mr. James’ son and his business partner, together with Mr. James, continue to work alongside 55 pounds of worms to make this dream a reality for Youngstown.

About the Speech

The streets of Youngstown are overflowing with something that Maurice Small identifies as pure, potential energy.  This past spring and summer, that energy was harnessed in the form of five people.  Five people who will share their story with festival goers at the Grey 2 Green Festival.  That energy translated into a street-by-street transformation that, no doubt, will spread like wild fire through Youngstown. 

 Finding potential energy, letting it loose and supporting it through its growth is what has happened since March of 2010.  These individuals and hundreds more have seen and tasted success in the form of urban food access and empowerment.

The video presentation and words from these five individuals will serve as evidence of Youngstown’s pure potential energy and what can happen when that energy is unleashed, supported and celebrated.

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MICHAEL GAINER

Michael Gainer is an Echoing Green Fellow and founder of Buffalo ReUse, Inc., a 501c3 not for profit organization located in Buffalo, New York.  Buffalo ReUse’s main focus is innovating strategies of green demolition in order to carefully dismantle houses, recycle materials and turn liabilities into assets.  Now approaching its third year, Buffalo ReUse has refined its techniques to create a cost-effective alternative to demolition; has expanded the ReSource, its community store which sells low-cost materials to the community; and has piloted a successful green space program which demonstrates strategies for vacant lot stabilization.  The organization’s innovations provide a vehicle for job creation, building materials recycling, and the strengthening of inner-city neighborhoods.  

Buffalo ReUse’s work has been featured by the New York Times Magazine, Dwell Magazine, on the Sundance Channel’s Big Ideas for a Small Planet, and most recently on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, where their staff facilitated the first ever green demolition in the show’s seven year history in just 15 hours. 

Prior to founding Buffalo ReUse, Michael founded the Buffalo Youth Corps to provide training and mentoring support for out-of school young adults, and has served as a founding educator for the Shackleton Schools and co-founder of the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities.  In addition, he has provided consulting support to numerous start up reuse efforts across the country.  Having recently left the staff of Buffalo ReUse, Michael will be working toward expanding building reuse and social entrepreneurial efforts nationwide, and will be dedicating more of his attention to the growth of the reuse industry as a strategy for green jobs creation and neighborhood redevelopment.  While most of Michael’s time is consumed brainstorming solutions, creating connections, and initiating ideas;  he takes time whenever possible to retreat to the wilderness, enjoys long paddles in Algonquin Park, and has a debilitating addiction to maple syrup. 

 

Check out the rad new poster design! Please feel free to save and repost on facebook, share with friends…etc…most importantly, leave us a comment letting us know what you think!

Poster Design by Katie Maillis - G2G Logo Design by Jean Engle

Poster for 2011 Festival can be seen here: http://www.greytogreenfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/G2G11_POSTER_11×17.pdf

and here: 2011 POSTER JPG file printable size (large file 8 MB)

2011 POSTER JPG file web-sized

facebook Profile-sized file JPG 2011 POSTER

Please click on the links above to find out more about this year’s featured speakers and schedule of events for the day!

More details about 3 Songs for Grey to Green and Vendors coming soon!

Be sure to follow up on your other favorite social/media networking sites (if you aren’t already!):

@greytogreen - twitter.com

Grey to Green Festival (Group) - facebook.com

Just announced! Steve Bosserman, who some of you may remember from Grey to Green’s panel discussion last year, will return to lead a series of informational sessions at the Unitarian Church.

Steve Bosserman, founder and president of Bosserman & Associates, Inc., specializes in strategic framing and organization design. Steve’s career started with 20 years of manufacturing experience ranging from the shop floor to senior management. In 1987, he started B&A in order to apply his expertise in the design and delivery of organization change and leadership development strategies with clientele in both for-profit and not-for-profit sectors across domestic and international arenas.

Over the past three years, Steve’s interest in social networking systems, processes, and tools has evolved into the development of sustainable local food systems as a platform for local economies–the foundation for social justice. This shift positioned him to be a Co-Principal Investigator on a three-year USDA-SCRI grant awarded in late 2008 to utilize social networking strategies in the advancement of local food systems. Furthermore, his work in the development of metrics for local food systems and evaluation criteria for localized investment portfolios led, in part, to a continued grant award from the Fund for Our Economic Future to The Ohio State University to catalyze business growth in Northeast Ohio. You can read more about Steve’s work on his blog at 

At this year’s festival (Saturday, September 11, 2010), Steve will be leading a series of FREE  Framework for a Local Economy discussions at the following times: 

 1:00 – 1:45pm - Business models for a local economy: Session 1

 
2:30 – 3:15pm - Business models for a local economy: Session 2 (repeated topic from the previous session)

3:45 – 4:30pm - Flow of resources to support business start-ups within a local economy

Note that this arrangement gives you enough time to take in the rest of the Grey to Green Festival – starting at 10 am with the introductions by Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams and local political figures, followed directly by the keynote address regarding Creating Sustainable Green Jobs in the Valley, and also including a variety of food vendors, local “green” businesses, children’s activities sponsored by Treez Please, and hours of live entertainment by local and regional performers who will be singing “3 Songs for Grey to Green”, which will be broadcast on local cable access  by Ohio Public Works.

The First Unitarian Universalist Church, located at 1105 Elm St., right across the street from the Grey to Green Festival and conveniently next to the Farmer’s Market, will be providing space in their gorgeous newly remodled multi-purpose room in the basement of the church. All are welcome to attend these FREE sessions!

Special thanks to this year’s newest sponsor of Grey to Green, The Youngstown Business Incubator!

 See you all on September 11, 2010 – and don’t forget to follow greytogreenfest at twitter.com and become a member of the Grey to Green Festival group on Facebook!

This year’s Grey to Green Festival will be held in Wick Park in Youngstown, Ohio, on Saturday, September 11, from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Whether you are a returning vendor or a first-timer, you will find great camaraderie, activity, and potential business at the Third Annual Grey to Green Festival.

As we prepare for this year’s event, we find it more pertinent than ever to seek out vendors who share an environmentally conscientious attitude. Your sales will reach a community that is well aware of the plight facing our planet – customers who are actively seeking alternative ways to conserve, reuse, and recycle the goods and services they utilize on a daily basis.

The Grey to Green Festival is annually visited by upwards of 500 people and receives heavy television, radio, and print media coverage. Past guests have included Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams, representatives from Congressman Tim Ryan’s office, House Representative Bob Hagan, members of Youngstown City Council, local and regional politicians, clergy, and community leaders, and Macarthur “Genius” Award recipient Will Allen, who spoke to last year’s crowd about urban farming.

New this year will be “Three Songs for Grey to Green,” a music festival featuring performances by dozens of local performing groups. Through innovative, collaborative efforts, we will be utilizing solar and wind energy sources to power this year’s new and improved entertainment area. The Grey to Green Festival also boasts a new collaborative partner this year in the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, which will add new focus and impact to the day’s events, with hopes for long-term community opportunities.

Live entertainment, children’s activities, natural and organic food choices, arts, crafts, and educational opportunities are only a few highlights of one of Northeast Ohio’s most unique and quickly growing earth-friendly festival.

Now is the time to get involved in the only festival in Ohio to celebrate the earth when it’s not Earth Month! We are dedicated to the belief that together, we can initiate positive change for our planet. Please refer to the attached Vendor and Exhibitor’s Form to pledge your participation in this year’s event. Note that there is a non-refundable $25 fee for all for-profit organizations participating.

We appreciate your support and loyalty, and we look forward to welcoming new participants! Please do not hesitate to contact Vendor Coordinator Debra Weaver (330-744-1748) or Festival Coordinator Brooke Slanina (330-718-5515) with any questions, concerns, or comments!

Thank you so much for your time and consideration. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Sincerely,
Brooke Slanina, Festival Coordinator
Debra Weaver, Vendor Coordinator

Download vendor form here