I  Review Spring Events
Walk on the Wildside (Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge) this year was not as busy as in previous years, but our volunteers still found it a worthwhile event to attend.  Approximately 150 people stopped by and 80 kids participated in crafts at our table. A few people filled-out speaker requests forms, which John Brewer will follow-up.



Heifer |Volunteers  is a new site for Heifer volunteers.  Per Jill, “the purpose of the website is to streamline access to information for Heifer volunteers into one place, as well as provide an electronic platform for collecting information on the work that our community volunteers are doing…  In the future, this website will merge with Heifer's main database, and will become the main vehicle by which Heifer tracks the information and activities of our most valued and active community volunteers.”  When Jill visits us next, we’ll take up this topic; meanwhile, it’s worth a visit to look around.


We wondered whether our efforts on the campaigns last fall paid off in increased pledges to Heifer. At this point, we aren't sure yet. We don’t have the data corresponding to that time period. However, the group consensus was to participate again this year starting with the kickoff events and then as requests come in, we'll refer to last year's note to decide which to attend.


Those going on the week-long project visit in Ecuador will be taking photos and composing daily logs. On return these will be combined into presentations. Discussion suggested centering presentations around themes that the participants observe on their visit. We had a brief discussion on what those not going on the trip might want to learn. Questions: What do participants want to know about donors? What were the mechanics of establishing the various projects? Of course many more questions – and answers – will develop.

This past spring we tried developing a fundraiser with the assistance of student event planners. Reasons for discontinuing the planning effort were discussed in previous meetings. Susan Rumberg confirmed that the relationship with the Sac State faculty contact remains good and both parties are open to working together in the future. Susan R. sees that it is important to document the lessons learned from the experience and will prepare guidelines to benefit future collaboration efforts over the summer.

The fortunes of our group's fundraising effort, tallied at Team Heifer, have taken an upward turn.

Team Leader	$2,266.77	This includes an anonymous $1,000 donation with a match for Heifer Ecuador. Thank you to the anonymous benefactor!!!
Teresa Fung	$50.00	This reflects a matching gift and goes to Heifer Honduras.
Nifty Knitters	$40.00	Fantastic needle work!
FunRaiser	$1,658.00	This goes to show what a talent show can accomplish!
Grand Total	$4,134.77

Laurie Heller is working to enter Heifer’s film Twelve Stones into the 2014 Wild & Scenic Film Festival held in Nevada City organized by the South Yuba River Citizens League. The 2014 festival is scheduled for Jan 10 – 12. Great idea, Laurie! We hope the effort succeeds.

Discussion took place on the fit between Heifer themes and the Waldorf curriculum. John Brewer has a contact with the Waldorf system that he may pursue.  The group also discussed a brochure used in the past for elementary classroom visits. There was consensus to produce a new edition; John and Susan Sundell will prepare copy and Cheryl will update the design. The group will check the list of Heifer materials to see if such a new version already exists.

Volunteer hours via Google docs – Our time reporting system seems to be working well. John notes that a lead volunteer for any given event can input hours for everyone who participated.



Susan Sundell is looking for two missing items. If anyone knows their whereabouts, please let her know:
Ø  The Heifer vinyl banner, last seen at a Charitable Campaign event last fall
Ø  The kindergarten GERK kit

Food is on many of our minds. How it's grown. How to make it. Where to eat it. But don't forget what happens to it after you're done. Today is World Environment Day, as established by the United Nations Environment Programme. This year's theme is Eat.Think.Save, emphasizing reducing both food waste and food loss.

Each year 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted in the world. In the U.S., 30% of all food is thrown away each year. All the wasted food can certainly feed a lot of people. Wasting the raw resources used to produce the food is bad for the environment and for out growing population. We need to think about ways each of us can help to stem food waste and loss.

Read more discussions and see a video on food waste at Heifer International.

Here's a piece on food waste ties with water waste from NPR. Out of the 1.3 billion tons of food wasted worldwide, 45 trillion gallons of water is wasted. That's a LOT of water. Another reason to watch what we waste.