Newsletter

Competition “Can” Increase Recycling

 Public and private school students in Fayette County collected more than 146,000 aluminum cans for recycling during this year’s Recycle-Bowl. In terms of weight, students collected 4,180 pounds of aluminum beverage cans for the contest.

The competition challenged schools in Fayette County to collect and recycle as many aluminum beverage cans as possible from October 21 – November 15. Students from 19 Fayette County schools competed to see which schools could collect the most cans for recycling. This is the eighth consecutive year Lexington schools have participated in an aluminum can recycling competition.

Wise Recycling, Central Kentucky Fiber, the Keep Lexington Beautiful Commission, and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government’s Division of Waste Management contributed monetary prizes to reward the schools. Additionally, schools were paid by the pound for the cans they recycled through Wise Recycling and Baker Iron and Metal.

The schools that collected and recycled the highest number of cans per student in their respective size category received $750 each. The six schools that collected the most cans regardless of their student size category received $450 each. Schools were eligible to receive only one monetary prize.

The winning schools and the prizes they earned are:

1st place winners: 
Lexington Family Care Center, $750 
Russell Cave Elementary, $750 
Wellington Elementary, $750 

Other winners: 
Ashland Elementary, $450 
Cardinal Valley Elementary, $450 
Christ the King School, $450 
Lexington Universal Academy, $450 
Montessori Middle School, $450 
Sayre School, $450 

Greensource Brings STEM Education to Schools

Too often students struggle to see ‘real world’ applications of Science, Technology, Energy and Math (STEM) but through Bluegrass Greensource’s hands on activities in area classrooms, students are able to understand and relate.  Our classroom activities encourage students to explore, question, analyze and even create products used in their everyday lives.

Thanks to a grant funded by the Department of Energy Development and Independence (DEDI), Bluegrass Greensource was able to help local students better understand STEM by teaching them about coal  (it’s history, economy, and environmental impacts) and about alternatives energy sources. 

Recently, students at Lincoln County Middle School explored and analyzed alternative energy sources while conducting a Wind Turbine Lab.  With this activity, students reviewed designs of a typical windmill and its blades.  Students were then asked to brainstorm and design their own turbine blade. They examined and considered different shapes, sizes and material.   When their design was ready, students began assembling their wind turbine kit and building the blades.  Once assembled, students test how quickly the turbines rotate using a digital voltage meter. If needed, students are encouraged to go back to the drawing board and reconfigure their designs.   

As the students study and analyze their results, their hands-on Lab experience gives them a better understanding of STEM’s components and Greensource is able to capture students’ attention and help them learn how to apply this new found knowledge to their daily lives.

Talking about Green Jobs in Boyle County

Over 300 students from Danville City Schools attended the Bate Middle School College and Career Fair on December 19th and learned about green careers.  Bluegrass Greensource partnered with Bate Middle School and the Danville Career Pathways Coach to educate students about their college and career opportunities.  In addition to learning about different colleges and military opportunities, students also learned about green jobs and green businesses right here in Central Kentucky.

The goal of the Greensource’s Green Jobs Program is to educate guidance counselors and students about the growing green economy so that students will be pursue green careers. Green careers offer students well-paying jobs that also benefit the environment.  Our Green Jobs Program, funded by the Americorps VISTA, plans to partner with other schools to host career fairs where green jobs will be highlighted.

If you would like more information about our Green Jobs Program, please contact Ashley Bryant Cheney at vista@bggreensource.org or (859) 266-1572.

Ashley Bryant Cheney Joins Our Team

Greensource would like to welcome Ashley Bryant Cheney as our new Green Jobs Coordinator through Americorps VISTA.  Ashley grew up in rural Alabama and credits her rural upbringing and time spent on her grandparent’s farm with influencing her concerns for the environment. She moved to Knoxville, Tennessee to attend Carson-Newman University in 2004.  While in Tennessee, she worked at numerous non-profit organizations doing volunteer management, program development, and fundraising.  The time she spent living near the Smoky Mountains only furthered her love and appreciation of the natural world.

While attending Carson-Newman University and later the Eastern University in Philadelphia, Ashley researched issues related to environmental conservation, urban homesteading, and community gardening and served on the board of directors for Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center. She moved to Kentucky in July and is enjoying all that Lexington has to offer. 

Ashley is excited to be developing the new Green Jobs Program for Bluegrass Greensource and is looking forward to working with green businesses and area high schools to connect the young workforce with the growing green job market.  She is a great addition to our team!

Local Apartment: New Look, New Outlook for Recycling

 Many things are new at 100 Chevy Chase Apartment Homes- a new name, management, look, and now the shift to become a “greener” home for its residents. Located at 100 Lakeshore Drive the apartment homes just off Richmond Road are visibly different due to new paint and the placement of many blue Rosie recycling containers. Less visible are the changes inside the complex. With Community Manager Jason Whitehouse at the helm the complex is taking steps to become a greener apartment complex. Bluegrass Greensource and LFUCG were invited to their first holiday party on Dec. 19 to discuss recycling, energy efficiency, and water conservation with residents. Over 20 residents stopped by and learned about services offered to them and opportunities to live a bit greener in 2014.

Plans to create a comprehensive recycling program and the formation of a green team will begin in 2014 as more residents move into the complex. An October 2013 stream cleanup for the creek running alongside the Richmond Road side of the property was successful and future stream clean-ups are likely. Whitehouse hopes the space alongside the creek will be utilized by tenants looking to enjoy a bit of nature in the city instead of the creek merely existing as a backdrop. The creek affords the possibility for environmental education opportunities for young tenants like micro-invertebrate outdoor days and storm water education. These efforts will not only help the complex become greener, but will also build a sense of community with residents – something Whitehouse strongly supports.

Bluegrass Greensource is here to assist those seeking to create a recycling program or make their apartments greener.  Nearly every apartment complex has a group of residents interested in minimizing their ecological footprint. The key is finding this group of engaged, participatory residents and showing them how best to utilize their skills and time. Site specifics, resident participation, and the community’s desires are incorporated into any recycling program to maximize success. If you know of, or manage an apartment complex and would like to see changes to your recycling and green mission, contact us at Bluegrass Greensource for no-cost assistance (859)266-1572.

Become a Bluegrass Greensource Ambassador

Bluegrass Greensource Ambassadors serve as representatives of BG Greensource at assigned outreach and education events.  These may include community fairs and festivals, neighborhood events, farmers markets, watershed festivals, etc.  We are focusing on two main areas at this time:

Zero Waste team members to assist at outreach events.  This may include coordinating with event planners and/or assisting at events.

Children’s outreach events.  Volunteers will work with Bluegrass Greensource staff to offer educational activities geared toward children.

Volunteers must demonstrate an ability to conduct themselves in a professional manner, willingness to learn details of Bluegrass Greensource’s programs and educational activities, and comfort communicating with the general public.

Bluegrass Greensource Ambassadors will be expected to attend a mandatory training that will cover Bluegrass Greensource’s programs and educational activities.

Interested in volunteering?  For additional information please visit our website or contact:

Pattie Stivender
Volunteer Coordinator
Bluegrass Greensource
3120 Pimlico Pkwy, Ste 126
Lexington, KY 40517
859-266-1572
pattie@bgGreensource.org

Thank you for signing up to receive our newsletter.  If you have any questions or comments about this issue, please contact us at info@bggreensource.org.

Bluegrass Tomorrow Presents Greensource with Vision Award for Green/Sustainability

Posted Monday, November 4, 2013 on KyForward.com

The annual Bluegrass Tomorrow’s Vision Awards Breakfast included more than sticky buns on the menu. Awards were presented to Don Robinson, Ed Burtner, the Kentucky River Thorobred, Knox van Nagell, Bluegrass Greensource, Judy Clabes, the National Park Service’s Rivers Trails Conservation Assistance Program, Kyle Lake and Rebecca Barnes.

Robinson is owner of Winter Quarter Farm and is best known for breeding multiple Eclipse Award winner Zenyatta, the 2010 Horse of the Year. He won the 2013 Josephine Abercrombie Vision Award for his leadership as chairman of the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government Planning Commission which made the motion for a change of minimum lot acreage from 10 to 40 acres in agricultural areas.

Ed Burtner is the mayor of Winchester. He has been a major advocate for Bluegrass Station and the Bluegrass Army Depot and is active in many regional organizations and projects He received the Bluegrass Legacy Vision Award.

Other awards were presented for outstanding service to Bluegrass Tomorrow and the 18 surrounding counties to the Kentucky River Thorobred, a Kentucky State University floating laboratory; Knox van Nagell of the Fayette Alliance; Bluegrass Greensource; and a conservation program run by the National Park Service.

The special Robert Clay Award was also presented to Judy Clabes, publisher and editor of KYForward.com, as Bluegrass Tomorrow’s “most valuable” board member and the one who has done the most to improve the organization over the last year.

Passionate about the preservation and protection of precious Bluegrass soils and the equine/agricultural industry, Robinson is a director and past president of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners & Breeders Association, and the Fayette County Farm Bureau. He is currently chairman of the Fayette Alliance.

Burtner has been a board member of Bluegrass Tomorrow and the Bluegrass Area Development District. He has been very active in the United Way and the regional Public Policy Group facilitated by Commerce Lexington which advocates for many regional issues including education, drug abuse, the Kentucky River, the water supply and others.

KSU’s Kentucky River Thorobred floating laboratory is a unique 52-foot pontoon boat used for research on river ecology and environment, and was honored with the Education Vision Award.

Bluegrass Greensource (formerly PRIDE) won the Green/Sustainability Vision Award for its excellent and continued work in environmental education and sustainability.

Van Nagell of the Fayette Alliance was honored with the Equine/Agriculture Vision Award for her tireless work in protecting precious Bluegrass soils and advocacy on more than 65 major land use policies.

Russell Clark and Alison Bullock of National Park Service’s Rivers Trails Conservation Assistance Program won the Conservation/Preservation Vision Award for their work with the Kentucky River Water Trail Alliance and the Bluegrass Bike Hike Horseback Trails Alliance, important initiatives of Bluegrass Tomorrow.

Kyle Lake of Prosper Productions and Rebecca Barnes of Northwestern Mutual won Young Professionals Vision Awards for their tireless work with young professional organizations and projects in the region and promoting the Bluegrass Tomorrow philosophy of “developing an environment in the region where creative talent, young professionals, diversity and entrepreneurship will thrive.”

From Bluegrass Tomorrow

Franklin County Students Impact the Environment

Fourth grade students in Frankfort and Franklin County have been making a big impact in their environment.  As part of a project with Bluegrass Greensource and the Franklin County Solid Waste Administrator, students in seven city and county schools have had the opportunity to learn about litter in their classroom, and then applied that to their own environment. 

Students at Bridgeport Elementary, Collins Lane Elementary, Elkhorn Elementary, Good Shepherd School, Hearn Elementary, Peaks Mill Elementary and Second Street School all worked with a Bluegrass Greensource educator in their classroom to learn about pollution and how it affects our local environment.  Using an Enviroscape model to demonstrate a landscape, students first learned what a watershed is and what watershed they lived in.  Students then identified various types of point source and nonpoint source pollutants found within that watershed.  Using items to symbolize litter, animal waste, and oil from cars, students saw where those pollutants came from and where they can end up as stormwater and move through their watershed.  After identifying the various types of pollution in the environment, students then brainstormed best management practices, or ways they can reduce and clean up those pollutants. 

Following the classroom demonstration, students then met again with educators from Bluegrass Greensource to do a project on their school grounds.  Using the information they learned, the students made maps of their school grounds, and used the maps to track where they found litter, motor oil and stormdrains around their own school.  Students then put their best management practices into action and collected litter from their school grounds.  While doing the project, students were surprised to find more litter than they expected.  Students also became more aware of stormdrains and how stormwater affects their environment, and many classes chose to display their litter maps in their schools to educate other students and teachers about litter.

Bluegrass Greensource enjoyed this collaboration with Franklin County Public Schools, Frankfort Independent Schools, and Good Shepherd School.  Greensource is so proud of the impact these fourth grade students made in their community!    

Greensource Grants Make a Difference in Central Kentucky

Over the past three years, dozens of local governments, nonprofit organizations, and schools in Central Kentucky have implemented environmental education and improvement projects with the help of Bluegrass Greensource’s mini-grant program. Through a partnership with the Appalachian Regional Commission, Greensource was able to offer this grant program to seven counties in its service region – Clark, Estill, Garrard, Lincoln, Madison, Montgomery, and Powell. Since 2010, the mini-grant program has provided over $330,000 in funding for 61 projects, ranging from outdoor classrooms to cleanups to innovative demonstration projects. Unfortunately, funding for the grant program ended in August 2013, but Greensource has been able to fund some exciting projects in the past few years!

Madison County Conservation District constructed a fallen livestock composting pad at EKU’s Meadowbrook Farm. The composting facility is available for tours by student and professional groups, and its purpose is to provide farmers with an innovative, economical, and sustainable option for addressing the problem of fallen animal disposal.

Lower Howard’s Creek Nature and Heritage Preserve in Clark County cleared invasive plant species on a five acre section of the property and purchased signage in preparation for the opening of its first public nature trail. The 2.8 mile out-and-back John Holder Trail was dedicated in the spring of 2012.

Garrard County Fiscal Court developed a walking trail along Lancaster City Lake, and recently planted 900 native redbud and dogwood trees along the path.

Estill County Cooperative Extension District held a home composting workshop for 46 community members. Participants learned how to compost their kitchen and yard waste, and each household in attendance took home a free countertop compost bin.

EKU installed a 1.6 kWh expandable solar panel system on the roof of the New Science Building, along with a real-time energy production logging and display system that will allow students to monitor the system’s energy output.

Lincoln County 4H worked with Crab Orchard Elementary students to establish a garden behind the school. The garden club planted strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, beans, potatoes, corn, squash, and kiwi. The dedicated students met weekly over the summer to care for their plants and harvest their crops.

Some additional outcomes of the mini-grant program include:

• Development of 12 outdoor classrooms, school gardens, rain gardens, and educational wetlands
• Development of 1 city park on a former brownfield
• Energy efficiency upgrades in 15 public buildings, including schools and a local recycling center
• Installation of solar panels on 1 rural animal shelter
• Execution of 5 environmental education workshops for educators
• Cleanup and restoration of 1 illegal dumpsite
• Installation of recycling infrastructure at 7 marinas on Herrington Lake
• Purchase of materials for 1 local farmer’s market
• Installation of 5 water bottle refilling stations at Eastern Kentucky University

Bluegrass Greensource is proud to have been able to support these projects and many others. These projects are wonderful examples of the efforts that communities in central Kentucky have made to reduce their environmental impact in recent years!

Grant funding through this program is currently unavailable. For more information on past mini-grant projects, please contact Sandy@bgGreensource.org.

Energy Tour Energizes Teachers

“One of the best, educational, thought provoking tours I have taken in 25 years of teaching,” said one teacher after having participated in Bluegrass Greensource’s fourth annual energy tour, sponsored by the Kentucky Department for Energy Development and Independence.

Teachers from Central Kentucky joined BGGS for two days of touring sites related to renewable and nonrenewable energy.  The tour gave teachers firsthand experience with a variety of energy resources and facilities and deepened their knowledge of the content they are teaching for the Next Generation Standards.

Dr. Bruce Pratt of Eastern Kentucky University’s Center for Renewable and Alternative Fuel Technologies started the tour with an overview of energy sources used to produce electricity, and the pros and cons of each.  Harlan County High School was a popular stop on the tour with its renewable energy features.  The school has incorporated many high performance energy features, such as:  day lighting, geothermal HVAC, energy recovery units, low-E insulating glazing, occupancy sensors on lighting, high efficiency lighting, and light colored roofing.

Teachers also learned about coal extraction while touring TECO Coal in Hazard.  After a training session, teachers were taken into a deep mine shaft and had the opportunity to view the mining process firsthand.  The history and impact of the coal industry in Harlan County was highlighted during a Kentucky Coal Mine Museum tour led by retired miner Al Feher.

The tour is intended to broaden teachers’ knowledge of energy-related topics while providing a balanced and unbiased view of each resource.

During this school year, Greensource Educators will be working with each teacher who participated in the tour to offer energy lessons and plan energy related field trips for their students.  For more information, contact Pattie Stivender at pattie@bgGreensource.org.

Rain Garden Grant Deadline is November 18th.

As the weather gets cooler, rain gardens are starting to die back above ground. Yet under the ground, the roots are still very much alive, absorbing water and nutrients to help the plants survive the long winter ahead. Now we can sit back and dream of our rain gardens that will grow next spring and summer.

That is exactly what many homeowners that attended one of our recent rain garden workshops hosted in Jessamine, Scott, and Bourbon Counties will be doing this winter. Not only did participants of these workshops learn about rain gardens, but they were also encouraged to design a rain garden for their property and apply for a grant to help turn the design into a reality. All grant applications are due back to Kara Sayles at kara@bgGreensource.org by Monday, November 18^th. 

Our goal for the workshops was to help citizens create a successful rain garden in their yard that will thrive for years to come. The workshops showcased what rain gardens are, why they are beneficial, and how to construct one. They also included a hands-on component, led by local nursery professionals that involved planting a garden. These professionals are still available for consultations to our workshop participants on their rain garden design and/or show them which plants will work best for specific yard conditions. 

The workshops filled up quickly and were a huge success. We will be conducting a similar round of workshops in Woodford, Clark, and Madison Counties next Fall. We encourage residents of those counties to check back regularly for information about these workshops on our web page at www.BGgreensource.org/rain-gardens/.

We would like to give a huge thank you to the Kentucky Division of Water for supporting our rain garden program in these six counties.  We also thank the following organizations for partnering with us during this adventure: UK’s Agriculture Extension Offices, Springhouse Gardens, Shooting Star Nursery, Ruddles Mill Nursery, Eco Gro, CDP Engineers, and the Scott County Conservation District. Your help was crucial in making this round of workshops so successful!   

Students Learn About Water Conservation in Mercer County

Check out the article Kendra Peek, from The Advocate Messanger, wrote about a water conservation project we worked on in Mercer County with  8th graders from King Middle School.  Great example of community partners coming together and making things happen…

Thank you for your interest in our newsletter.  If you have any questions or comments about this issue, please contact us at info@bggreensource.org.

Sincerely,

Amy Sohner

Executive Director

Bluegrass Greensource