A special thank you to Tim Reedy, State Farm Insurance, of Spooner, WI, for voting for our cause. To the countless anonymous voters, we are grateful that you are supporting our grant proposal.
Happy Tonics collaborates with Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Community College to teach that we need to grow local and native crops to support biodiversity of plants and pollinators during climate change. Please Sign up and VOTE for Climate Change Native Habitat and Community Gardens Shell Lake grant proposal at Brighter Planet at http://brighterplanet.com/project_fund_projects/100 Your votes may help decide if we are able to secure funding for the Morph Your Mind Environmental Education Program that reaches far and wide to bring Indigenous wisdom of sustainability to the public.
Beautiful corn silks that add flavoring and nutrients to soup.
The Lac Courte Oreilles OJibwe Community College(LCOOCC) Sustainable Living Institute in partnership with the LCO Green Team, Happy Tonics Butterfly Sanctuary, and LCOOCC Library are bringing an Environmental Film Festival to LCO!
February 18th Event in the Auditorium includes:
Luncheon: Prepared by LCO Elders Association, Student Center $5 – serving starts at 11:30 a.m.
Noon: Speaker: Mary Ellen Ryall, Happy Tonics Butterfly Sanctuary Executive Director. Topic: Role of biodiversity of native corn and reasons why native crops best survive climate change.
12:15pm Film: “King Corn”
1:45pm Community Discussion: Advocacy to Action!
Native dent, flour, flint, popcorn and sweet corn
Almost everything Americans eat contains corn: high fructose corn syrup, corn-fed meat, and corn-based processed foods are the staples of the modern diet. Ready for an adventure and alarmed by signs of their generation’s bulging waistlines, college friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis know where to go investigate.
Eighty years ago, Ian and Curt’s great-grandfathers lived just a few miles apart, in the same rural county in northern Iowa. Now their great-grandsons are returning with a mission: they will plant an acre of corn, follow their harvest into the world, and attempt to understand what they—and all of us—are really made of. Visit the movie link to learn more at http://www.kingcorn.net/
What a great weekend. Thank you one and all for voting on our grant proposal at Brighter Planet. Happy Tonics now qualifies for another chance at the brass ring in the future because we got 100 VOTES. The nonprofit realizes that we are up against some pretty stiff competition. New Orleans is in the lead with their grant proposal. Winning the Super Bowl Sunday was a wonderful success. Well done Saints.
Good news! February 8, the Washburn County Public Property and Land Sales Committee granted Happy Tonics permission to plant a raised bed garden at Friendship Commons, the senior center, in the summer of 2010.
Libby loves being a butterfly
Girl Scout Troop Number 4392 (MN, WI Lakes and Pines) will plant, grow and maintain the garden. Seniors will be partners in this intergenerational activity. A grant from Leopold Education Project and Pheasants Forever are funding the project. Happy Tonics believes that all sustainability projects are accomplished from the ground up. A community that can feed itself is sustainable.
The garden will be a teaching garden. We teach through the monarch butterfly who is the canary in the coal mine. What happens to the butterfly can happen to us.
Even a little grant is a big thing to a small nonprofit. We volunteer for Happy Tonics. Won’t you help us spread our wings to teach others to adapt to climate change?
We offer the Morph Your Mind Environmental Education Program. Our classes, events and two native wildflower and butterfly gardens are nature’s outdoor classrooms where we teach others about the importance of native crops and plants as native host and nectar sources for the monarch butterfly and other pollinators. The natural landscape supports life. Monoculture and invasive species are replacing native habitat. Native habitat is the only habitat can withstands drought conditions and climate change.
Please help pump up the votes. Please Sign up AND VOTE for the Climate Change Native Habitat and Community Garden Shell Lake grant proposal at Brighter Planet at http://brighterplanet.com/project_fund_projects/100
Happy Tonics wants to thank Donna Barnes-Haesemeyer, Mayor of Shell Lake, for her VOTE. The Mayor and I took part in The Natural Step for Communities – How Cities and Town can Change to Sustainable Practices in 2008. I am proud to announce that Shell Lake is a sustainable city.
Local grown food Famers Market
The mayor has implemented many initiatives to help the city start a Farmers Market, promote community gardens, improve wetlands and increase native habitat. She is proactive in environmental advocacy work.
Personally I am proud to live in this small community where so many are trying to protect the lake from invasive species. We have the cleanest lake in Washburn County and perhaps throughout many areas in Wisconsin. The Shoreline Protection Committee is reestablishing native habitat at 13 public access areas around the lake.
The campground with aged cottonwood tree and lake
Native black-eyed Susan at Native Wildflower and Butterfly Garden.
Happy Tonics implemented a Native Wildflower and Butterfly Garden on city land. Now we are trying to raise funds through Brighter Planet to maintain the habitat and help the community with community gardens.
Let me tell you way. Washburn County will shortly be impacted by 8,000 more people who have been taken off the unemployment benefits roll. This means that food pantries need to gear up to address an ever increasing crisis in food security for citizens.
A community that can feed itself is sustainable. You are allowed three votes and we are asking for your help. Please sign up and VOTE for the Climate Change Native Habitat and Community Garden Shell Lake grant proposal at Brighter Planet at http://brighterplanet.com/project_fund_projects/100
Thank you for VOTING and proving you care.
Quote Source: Cassie McCrow wrote on Nick Vander Puy’s blog: “The genius of hunter-gatherers is that they must live as a part of nature rather than a manipulator of it – playing by nature’s rules, if you will. Part of that is the exchange – gratitude, relationship and respect (all good energies) for food, clothing and shelter.”
We are only 14 VOTES away from 100 VOTES. I know we can do it with your help. Please REGISTER AND VOTE for Climate Change Native Habitat and Community Garden Shell Lake at Brighter Planet at http://brighterplanet.com/project_fund_projects/100
for voting today. Be sure to check out our beautiful butterfly art wear created by Lindy Casey, owner of Salt of the Earth Press, at http://happytonics.org/store/store1.shtml
Lindy was kind enough to create butterfly product designed by artist and Happy Tonics member Kathy Maas at CafePress. All sales support Happy Tonics’ Monarch Butterfly Habitat and Morph Your Mind Environmental Education Programs.
Earth Friendly Water Bottle art by K. Maas
We will campaign over the weekend on the blogs to recruit, recruit, and recruit for your VOTES. Be happy voters where ever you are.
We’re almost there at 81 VOTES at 9:10 p.m. Only 19 more VOTES to go till we reach 100. Yeah Team! If you are watching the results and have voted once, you are entitled to two more votes. Each voter can vote three times. If you are new please REGISTER AND VOTE AT http://brighterplanet.com/project_fund_projects/100 for Climate Change Native Habitat and Community Garden Shell Lake.
Got Milkweed? Sign made by Matt with DNR Grant
Wild milkweed meadow Go Wild with Butterflies
I thought you might be interested in the DNR Monarch Butterfly Habitat that Happy Tonics has land use for a seasonal habitat. Just look at the milkweed. Native milkweed is the only host plant of the monarch butterfly and this meadow is full of milkweed. Here is a photo of our sign that Matt made last year with a small grant from the Spooner DNR.
Today we want to thank Paul DeMain, Editor of News from Indian Country, for voting and passing the word along. Please read Nick Vander Puy’s interview with Dawn White on the Importance of Water.
Happy Tonics is a co-sponsor of the Environmental Film Festival. We heard from Belinda Bowling, Owner Innkeeper, Casa Escondida Bed & Breakfast in Chimayo, New Mexico at http://www.casaescondida.com/
Sandy Stein and I had the pleasure of staying at the Casa when we were exhibiting at Tesuque Pueblo, New Mexico, in 2008. Facebook friend Amy Lou Jenkins, author of Every Natural Fact Five Seasons of Open Air Parenting also voted for our grant proposal. The book has not been released yet but can be pre-ordered. We like to make friends all along the way. So many individuals have emailed to say they have voted and we are deeply honored. You never know who your friends are until you need them.
Till tomorrow, keep up the good work. REGISTER AND VOTE for Happy Tonics. We love hearing from you.
I was facinated by Gladyce Nahbenayash’s talk at the Nibi Wabo (Water Ceremony) at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Community College’s January Water Film Fest Event. She spoke highly of Dr. Masaru Emoto, the author of revolutionary work on molecules of water affected by our thoughts, words and feelings.
The tribal college had a few of the titles in their library. I remembered seeing a You Tube video of frozen water crystals on Facebook recently. The video was blogged by Brian Nolan. It made me cry when I saw how water responds to love and gratitude.
Tia my dog and I used to swim in this beautiful clear lake
Such beautiful crystals, how could I have been so blind as to take water for granted. I turned the tap on and drank and didn’t even think to thank the water for the gift it was giving me. I was doing water ceremonies at the lake, near ponds etc. but I didn’t bring the message home.
Gladyce brought many of us back to reconnect with water not only at the beach but in our homes. The water is teaching us that we need to pay attention to her. Fresh drinking water is at stake all over the world and greedy privatization of water as a commodity is growing. Water is feminine and it is disrespectful to treat her in this way.
I thought you would enjoy the video. I am reading The Hidden Messages in Water and The Healing Power of Water by Dr. Emoto. The books and video are based on his scientific studies.
May we all appreciate the gift of life that water gives all living species.
Be happy insectamonarca friends where ever you are.
REGISTER AND VOTE FOR adapting to Climate Change Native Habitat and Community Garden. We have 68 votes as I write. I am pleased. Only 32 more votes and we’ll be at the 100 mark. This is a landmark because it means we’ll be in the running to apply again if we don’t reach our goal this time.
We have 12 more days to go and we are campaigning for our cause. Anything can happen. Just look what happened today. We received a grant for $250 from Leopold Education Project a Program of Pheasants Forever. This will help fund a raised bed garden for Girl Scout Troop 4362, Minnesota & Wisconsin Lakes and Pines in Shell Lake.
Expect the unexpected to happen in life. Things could change over the next 12 days. Happy Tonics could gain the notice of some large environmental group that can sway votes our way. One can only hope. Remember change has always come from the ground up. Here’s your chance to prove it. Thanks!
Thank you Crossroads Resource Center, MN; La Cruz Habitat Protection Project, Inc., TX; Destination Marketing Organization, WI; Yellow River Advertising and Design, WI; Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad, WI; Dyer Design, VA and countless individuals who are VOTING for our grant proposal at Brighter Planet.
Happy Tonics members Patti Gardner, PA; Cindy Dyer, VA and Janice Organ, WI voted. Friends on Facebook are voting AND writing on their wall to ask their friends to VOTE. Friends on MySpace are voting. It takes all of us to implement change in adapting to Climate Change.
We are counting on YOU!
Seed in time regenerates the Earth.
Happy Tonics is so appreciative to those who are helping us carry our sustainability work forward. Our Mission: Sanctuary for the Monarch Butterfly and Food Safety Issues.
Happy Tonics was a co-sponsor of the Environmental Film Festival and the movie Flow at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Community College on 28 January 2010 in Hayward, WI. Nick Vander Puy, News from Indian Country, interviewed Dawn White of the Sustainable Living Institute at the college. She spoke of the purity of the water at her home, the plight of the poor around the world with no access to clean drinking water, pollution of sand tar sites near Lake Superior and the women’s water ceremony that took place that day.
Happy Tonics is running fourth at 8:10 p.m. in the Feb. 1 – 15 VOTING period for Climate Change Native Habitat and Community Garden Shell Lake grant proposal with Brighter Planet at http://brighterplanet.com/project_fund_projects/100
Butterfly week host plant for monarch copyright Anna Martineau Merritt
Let’s face it some folks have big guns with bigger networks in larger cities with a bigger VOTER base. We’re in Northern Wisconsin with a population base in Shell Lake of little over 1,300 souls. Is it any wonder we are falling behind? Those of you who are watching the process can make a BIG DIFFERENCE. Please REGISTER and VOTE for Climate Change Native Habitat and Community Garden Shell Lake.
I feel honored when I learn who is a member of the Project Selection Team. To even think that our grant proposal is being considered makes me humble.
Gus Speth Member Project Selection Team Copyright Brighter Planet
Meet Gus Speth, Dean, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. From 1993 to 1999, Gus Speth served as administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and chair of the UN Development Group. Prior to this, he was founder and president of the World Resources Institute; professor of law at Georgetown University; chairman of the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality; and senior attorney and co-founder, Natural Resources Defense Council.
Dean Speth’s publications include “Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment”; “Worlds Apart: Globalization and the Environment”; and other journals and books.
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