We’re celebrating 15 Years of serving Central Kentucky!

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We want to hear your stories!

AmyBy: Amy Sohner
Bluegrass Greensource
Executive Director

2016 is Bluegrass Greensource’s 15th anniversary! We were founded in 2001 to empower the 20 counties in Central Kentucky to create a more sustainable environment. Whether positive changes are made through increasing recycling, making a residence more energy efficient, installing a rain barrel or rain garden, or something else, for 15 years we’ve worked to provide central Kentuckians the knowledge and know-how needed to impact their local environments.

Much has changed in the past 15 years. In 2010, we changed our name from Bluegrass PRIDE to Bluegrass Greensource, and unveiled a brand new logo that better captured the scope of our mission and services.  We strive daily to be a region-wide source for environmental education—particularly for preK-12 students—and direct outreach, all in an effort to build environmental literacy and connect people to the resources they need to lead more sustainable lives.

A core aspect of our work that  has remained central is the importance of the connections we make with individuals throughout Central Kentucky. Whether volunteering for a litter clean up, participating in a workshop at GreenFest, attending one of our rain barrel workshops, or participating in other activities, your engagement with us has been a key to our ongoing success.

And now we need your help!

As part of our 15th anniversary, we want to gather stories about your experiences working with us. What have been your most meaningful or rewarding moments working with Bluegrass Greensource? How have we helped support your efforts to become more sustainable? What would you like to see Bluegrass Greensource accomplish in the next 15 years? Click here to visit our Google form where you can share your stories! We will collect these stories and then share them throughout our 15th anniversary year in order to celebrate the important connections we have with our many friends and partners!

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Bluegrass Greensource Announces Grant from the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels

For Immediate Release
Contact: Mollie Harris, Communications Specialist
Phone: 859-266-1572
Email: mollie@bggreensource.org

Bluegrass Greensource Announces Grant from the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels

Bluegrass Greensource is the recipient of a 2016 grant provided by the Honorable Order of the Kentucky Colonels. This grant will provide for the purchase of new educational resources like animal pelts and skulls, books, and other materials that Greensource educators and many Central Kentucky teachers use to enhance classroom learning.

The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels is a non-profit 501(c)3 charitable organization of talented and capable men and women appointed by the Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky because of their service to the state. The Order acts as the Governor’s ambassadors of Kentucky’s heritage and rich history of arts and entertainment.

The primary objective of the Honorable Order is to support needy Kentucky charities and worthy Kentucky organizations by raising money from its membership to help these organizations who stand ready to help our citizens share in Kentucky’s boundless future. The order celebrates this mission and encourages and affirms its members in these efforts.

Bluegrass Greensource is a 15-year old nonprofit providing top-notch environmental education to 20 Central Kentucky counties. In 2015, Greensource reached 4,352 classes and 189,238 people on topics as diverse as waste reduction, water quality, energy efficiency, general sustainability, and urban forestry. In addition, they invested $70,000 in green infrastructure, helped Central Kentuckians install 37 rain gardens, and built 231 rain barrels.

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Green Check Launch: September 29, 2016

RobBy: Rob Gates
Outreach Specialist
Bluegrass Greensource

Beginning fall of 2016, a new program aimed at increasing business sustainability will launch throughout Lexington and Fayette County. The program, known as Green Check, will build upon the past successes of the Live Green Lexington Partner Program by highlighting businesses and organizations throughout Lexington/Fayette County that have made a commitment to sustainability and taken the next steps to integrate green principles into their core philosophies and practices.

Green-Check-Offical-Vertical-for-WebGreen Check is a program of the City of Lexington, developed and administered by Bluegrass Greensource, and is open to all businesses and organizations, regardless of size or type, within Fayette County.  Taking part in the program is simple, free and offers a wealth of benefits to members. Perspective members undergo a personal consultation with Bluegrass Greensource staff to complete a comprehensive sustainability scorecard covering a wide array of sustainable initiatives and policies. Through this process, members identify green initiatives already in place as well as recognize potential opportunities to increase sustainability. Members then work closely with Bluegrass Greensource to set goals, timelines, and identify useful resources to make these opportunities a reality.

After completing the process and accomplishing a baseline score, participating businesses/organizations enter the program as Green Check Members. Those that go above and beyond and reach established benchmark scores will be recognized for their efforts with special premiere membership levels (Bronze, Silver, and Gold) and will be entitled to additional promotion and benefits.

Over the past year, eight businesses of various types and sizes have take part in the Green Check Pilot program. These businesses (Ross Tarrant Architects, Trane, Lexmark, Good Foods Co-Op, Bullhorn Creative, and Habitat for Humanity) have helped shape the program and will represent the inaugural class of Green Check Members.

An official launch party will be held at Ross Tarrant Architects on Thursday, September 29 at 3:30 pm to recognize these pilot businesses and celebrate the launch of this exciting new program! For more information, please contact GreenCheck@lexingtonky.gov.

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Back to School with Bluegrass Greensource!

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By: Pattie Stivender
Bluegrass Greensource
Education Director

Another school year has begun!  Our education staff are keeping busy planning and scheduling with schools in our service area, and we have many exciting programs in the works for the 2016-2017 school year!

Recycling
In Fayette County, we will be working hard with the LiveGreenLexington Recycle Challenge. Arlington Elementary, Harrison Elementary and William Wells Brown Elementary will be challenging their communities to increase residential curbside recycling by 50%. Everywhere, we will continue our efforts in waste reduction education in classrooms through such hands on activities as waste audits. Recycling education is a priority in other counties as well— classrooms in Anderson, Boyle, Franklin, Jessamine, and Lincoln Counties will have a waste reduction component to their classroom learning plans.

Water
Water quality education is crucial  in Central Kentucky. Our educators help students understand the effects of nonpoint source pollution and model ways that students and their families can reduce the impact of pollution on water. Whether we are teaching about stormwater runoff in the classroom or taking students to waterways near their schools to perform water quality tests, our curriculum is designed to reach students from kindergarten through high school.

Energy
Each school year, we brings activities to classrooms that instruct students about renewable energy resources, energy conservation, and more specific education about Kentucky’s energy resources. Our educators will be working with School Green Teams to monitor energy usage in schools and determine ways that schools can reduce consumption of energy resources.

Litter
In Garrard, Lincoln, and Jessamine Counties, our educators will work with schools to perform litter cleanups and guide students in creating litter maps that show litter hotspots. Students will learn how litter directly contributes to the quality of local water.

If you are interested in learning more about Bluegrass Greensource education opportunities, please reach out! You can email me directly at pattie@bggreensource.org, or call the office at 859-266-1572.

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Taking the Classroom to the Garden: Cassidy Elementary and Tates Creek High School

AshleyBy Ashley Bryant Cheney
Environmental Educator
Bluegrass Greensource

School gardens are the perfect classroom, a living laboratory full of knowledge. As Environmental Educators, we are always excited about getting out in the school garden. These gardens are a perfect place to teach students about plant life cycles, compost piles, pollinators, soil composition, native and nonnative plants, and a host of other important environmental topics.

An increase in outdoor activity not only improves a student’s understanding of the environment, it has also been show to improve concentration, reduce obesity, improve nutrition, and even raise test scores. In a study conducted among 630 students at an elementary school in Kentucky, among grades 1-6, students’ test scores improved by 25% in science, 21% in reading, and 40% in social studies after integrating a school garden into the curricula (National Wildlife Federation, 2010).

School gardens, like environmental education, aren’t just for science. Gardens can be used to teach writing, math, social skills, and of course nutrition. For example, rain gauges can be used to teach measurement and volume, and students can calculate the amount of space needed for their plants while learning perimeter and area.

In the garden, we are able to connect students with real life examples of the concepts they are learning indoors. Earlier this month, I interviewed Kristi Fehr, Science Lab Teacher at Cassidy Elementary, about the value their school garden has brought to her teaching.

Last year at Cassidy Elementary, I led students on a water quality activity that introduced water runoff and taught them a few of the benefits of rain gardens. The garden at Cassidy Elementary combines a rain garden, raised beds, composting, and even a storm drain. For this activity, some students acted as water droplets while others acted as pollution. The pollution tried to tag the water droplets while travelling through the rain garden. Students were excited to participate in the activity and left with some key knowledge about water quality.

If you do not yet have a school garden or you have a school garden that is being underutilized, please contact Bluegrass Greensource, and an educator will be in touch with you to assist with your school gardening needs!

What it Takes: Installing a Rain Garden at Tates Creek High School

KaraBy Kara Sayles
Environmental Educator
Bluegrass Greensource

School Rain Gardens can add a lot to the aesthetics of the campus. They can also become the dreaded weedy spot that no one wants to be responsible for. The latter is not the case when we are talking about the rain garden on Tates Creek’s campus.

Elizabeth Inman, a Tates Creek High School Biology teacher, and Devan Robinson, a Tates Creek High School Green Team member, before the Rain garden installation.
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The Tates Creek High School Rain Garden, after one year of growth!

Elizabeth Inman, a Tates Creek High School Biology teacher, and  Devan Robinson, a Tates Creek High School Green Team member, are featured in the photo of the initial rain garden construction. The garden was renovated last year, as a project for the High School‘s Green Team. It is in a triangular median between Tates Creek Elementary, Middle and High Schools and is highly visible to anyone coming onto the campus. It is an ideal location for a rain garden because stormwater can easily percolate through the area from the sidewalk and parking lot. Adding the deep rooted native plants in the rain garden can help pull the stormwater into the ground and decrease runoff from the campus.

Over the summer, Mrs. Inman contacted Bluegrass Greensource about working in the garden.  We scheduled a day to weed and check on the newly established plants. Once the garden was weeded, we identified and labeled the native plants that had survived the winter.

Mrs. Inman, along with Green Team members, continually cared for the garden over the summer months. They also added weed cover and mulch. The garden looks wonderful!

She has additional plans for student involvement with the maintenance of garden and even plans on adding some garden art. She is a splendid model for what it takes in making a school garden successful; her determination, dedication and pride in her school’s campus have gone a long way to make this garden great!

If you are interested in installing a rain garden at your school, contact Bluegrass Greensource! We have educational resources available, and staff are happy to answer your questions!

Tips for Caring for your Rain Garden:

– Label plants to help identify young native plants from non-desirable species of weeds
– Use shredded hardwood mulch to prevent weeds and add nutrients to the rain garden
– Until the rain garden is established water the garden at least once per week
– Pull weeds as needed
– Remove dead plants as needed
– Add plants as needed
– Thin the garden to prevent crowding
– Check with local gardening groups to see when a native plant exchange is happening to thin crowding and add diversity to your garden
– Add art, benches, bird baths and more to add extra interest in your garden

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Green Waves Radio is on the Air!

GreenWaves-Logo_modified-radioGreen Waves Radio airs Fridays at 11:00 am on Lexington Community Radio

By: Chris Porter
Development Director
Bluegrass Greensource

The past year has seen the birth of one of Lexington’s newest, most exciting community resources – Lexington Community Radio. Operating two low-power stations (95.7/WLXL/El Pulso Latino and 93.9/WLXU) from the basement of the STEAM Academy, LCR exists for members of the Lexington community to create and broadcast the programs and content that they want to hear.

Bluegrass Greensource was excited to launch its own show on LCR in January. Called Green Waves Radio, this show is a weekly exploration of the people, organizations, and businesses that are working in different ways to strengthen Central Kentucky’s environment and make it more sustainable. None of the staff working on the program had prior experience working in a radio station, and so each person had to learn the basics of conducting a radio show live and in studio, running a sound board, and being on the microphone.

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Bluegrass Greensource Executive Director, Amy Sohner and Chris Porter, Development Director in the Lexington Community Radio studio.

Each Green Waves episode briefly reviews news stories related to environmental issues before diving into a long-form conversation with that week’s guest. The goal of the show is to raise the profile of the many environmental issues facing Central Kentucky while also working to promote the many good people who are making a difference in our community.

Lane Boldman, the Executive Director of the Kentucky Conservation Committee, was the show’s first guest, where she provided an overview of Kentucky’s 2016 Legislative Session from the environment’s perspective. Since then, we’ve had conversations with Tresine Logsdon about Fayette County Public Schools’ commitments to sustainability; Andrea Wilson Mueller from Inside Out Design of Frankfort and Roscoe Klausing and Dan Stever from the Klausing Group about sustainability in landscaping; Tyler Offerman and Will Cripps from a new business offering guided outdoor excursions at Home Place High Adventure; Amy Preske and Master Distiller Harlen Wheatley from Buffalo Trace about their new farm-to-bottle initiative; and Josh Bills from the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development about solar energy and its potential in Kentucky, among many other guests.

This August, GreenWaves is focusing on the practice of environmental education and have been talking with lead practitioners in this field. Our September lineup will focus on Lexington businesses who are leading the way in becoming more sustainable. If you live in Lexington and want to check out the show, tune in to 93.9/WLXU on Friday mornings from 11-12; if you live outside of Lexington, you can stream the show live via LCR’s website. We are also in the process of posting our past episodes as podcasts, so you will be able to stay up-to-date on any conversations you miss. Click here to subscribe to our podcast, and be notified as new episodes are available!

See you on airwaves!

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One Day and a BIG Impact, Thanks to Lucky’s Market!

ChrisBy: Chris Porter
Bluegrass Greensource
Development Director

On Wednesday, July 13th, Bluegrass Greensource was the nonprofit benefiting from Lucky’s Impact Day, a community program pioneered by one of the Lexington’s great new retailers, Lucky’s Market. In addition to providing access to affordable, organic food options, Lucky’s also invests heavily in the communities in which it operates. Bluegrass Greensource was excited and fortunate to benefit from Impact Day, and we will use the proceeds from this event to support our efforts to bring the science of water conservation, waste reduction, and energy efficiency to life in Central Kentucky classrooms.

In addition to receiving the funding from Impact Day, Bluegrass Greensource staff also had the opportunity to hang out at Lucky’s. This was a wonderful opportunity for us to meet new friends and introduce our work to those who don’t already know us, as well as reconnect with old friends who came out to say “hi” and take advantage of the store’s daily discounts and July’s local vendor fair. Throughout the day, we had staff on hand to share their expertise on sustainability, share resources, and connect with folks who were visiting from as far away as California or as close by as the University of Kentucky campus.

We also brought a beautiful rain barrel painted by Lexington artist Enrique Gonzalez to Lucky’s Impact Day and held a raffle. Huge congratulations to our lucky winner, Cibina Harris! During the evening hours, Pattie Stivender, our Education Director, led interested folks through a wonderful activity to make reusable shopping bags out of old t-shirts. We want to be sure to say a huge thank you to our friends at Lexington’s Habitat ReStore for donating the t-shirts that we used to make the reusable bags!

Thanks to everyone who came out to support Bluegrass Greensource on Impact Day, discuss their ideas for becoming more sustainable, pick up a t-shirt bag, or just to say hello. The day was a huge success and a reminder about how fortunate we are to live in and serve Central Kentucky. And, of course, our biggest thanks goes to Lucky’s Market for investing in our efforts to empower Central Kentucky to create a more sustainable environment through education and outreach – thank you for being such a wonderful community partner!

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Getting Outside with PokémonGo

By: Danny Woolums
Bluegrass Greensource
Environmental Educator

For many young adults like myself, PokémonGo has been the realization of a dream we’ve had since we were children. Becoming a Pokémon trainer and catching all 150 of the magical creatures excited me and my brother while we battled it out on our GameBoys. Almost 2 decades later, I get a text from my brother asking when are we going to meet up so he can show me all of his supposedly more powerful Pokémon.

Beyond the nostalgia that the app brings me, I have found it a truly rewarding experience. On a more professional note, as an environmental educator, I am pleased and interested in how this game invites individuals of all ages, including those who aren’t nature-inclined, to get outside and engage with their local environment in the quest to catch them all.

If you aren’t already familiar with this phenomenon sweeping the world, I recommend reading this article from USA Today. By interfacing with real world through Google, integrating local landmarks, and then using the camera on your phone, Niantic has engaged users with the world around them in a way they’ve never before experienced.

PokémonGo has been a fantastic tool of getting people outside and talking to one another. Perhaps you’ve driven past a city park and seen a far higher number of people congregated together anxiously staring at their phones followed by a moment of shared joy. I have walked by so many people who I make eye contact with, laugh, and then continue walking because we’ve just exchanged a knowing look that says we’re all on the hunt for a nearby Pikachu.

PokémonGo is not without its naysayers. Some may argue, how does this interface encourage social interaction and engagement with the local environment, when you’re staring at your phone? I would only point them towards several individuals and organizations who are harnessing the power of this global phenomenon to educate and do good work for the earth. There’s the guy from Reddit, who decided to also pick up litter in the parks he was walking in, and encouraged other users to do the same. That post has more than 5,000 views on the Reddit platform. Biologists are using the game as a research tool, and are encouraging users to submit upload photos of real animals they find to Twitter using the hashtag #pokeblitz, so that the online scientific community can identify wildlife the game players didn’t previously have knowledge about.

Above all, I think about all of the people who are outside despite the weather, ignoring their televisions, not blasting the A/C, not turning on the lights, and the people just really enjoying playing outside for the first time in years. We can lament and condemn all we want about what it means for us as a society that it takes a game to get us outside, and I’d be more than happy to engage in that conversation, but right now I see that there’s a bulbasaur nearby and I am about to go outside, enjoy some sun, and catch it. Maybe I’ll see you there.

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Blending Environmental Education and ESL at Lansdowne Elementary

AshleyBy: Ashley Bryant Cheney
Bluegrass Greensource
Environmental Educator

At Bluegrass Greensource, we love summer. It’s a time to take part in environmental educational activities outside of the walls of the classroom, to recharge, and reflect about the next year’s cycle of education programs. I’ve spent part of mine at Lansdowne Elementary School, helping, perhaps surprisingly, students with their ESL (English as a Second Language) Summer Camp.

Through the summer break, Lansdowne Elementary hosts students working on their English skills. The majority of the students are refugees from 4 countries, including Nepal, Syria, Iraq, and the Congo. In addition to refugee students, Lansdowne also invited Hispanic students from Mexico and Venezuela who needed the added language support.

You may be asking, what does Environmental Education have to do with ESL? Using Content-Based Instruction (CBI), Environmental Educators use environmental topics to help students develop the language skills they need to be successful: vocabulary, conversation, listening, and even writing skills. Incorporating environmental topics into language learning not only teaches students new words and concepts, but also helps cultivate a sense of personal responsibility that extends outside of the classroom. Many themes and topics can spark the interest of young language learners, but topics of environmental conservation and care stretch across all cultures.

Environmentally friendly actions naturally lend themselves to meaningful language use. While it may not appear that teaching recycling promotes language practice, discussions about basic recycling leads the class to discussions of the practical differences between materials (paper vs. paper towels) and shapes (plastic bottle vs. plastic cup). When students have the opportunity to put that knowledge into practice, they are more likely to remember the language they have learned just by walking to the recycling bin in their classroom.

Students at Lansdowne ESL Summer Camp have already learned the names of different materials (such as cardboard and plastic) associated with recycling, but they have also learned some other basic environmental concepts, including the parts and functions of trees and worms, how solar power works, animal habitats, and even the macroinvertebrates (which was a new word for everyone) living in our Kentucky rivers and streams.

My favorite part of this camp is how learning about the environment can help children feel more at home in a region that may feel strange or new to them. It’s my hope as an educator that these new language skills and concepts will empower them to make small changes in their everyday lives that have a big impact in our local environment.

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