Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College
James “Pipe” Mustache Auditorium
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
FREE EVENT PUBLIC WELCOME!
12 pm Potluck
(please bring a dish to pass and your own plate/utensils)
12:15 pm Guest Speaker: Alison Kilday
Mobility Manager, Namekagon Transit
12:3o pm – Film: “Fuel”
2.15 pm Advocacy to Action! How do we make a difference in our community?
FUEL is an entertaining and comprehensive look at energy in America: a history of where we have been, our present predicament and a solution to our dependence on foreign oil. Josh Tickell’s stirring, radical and multi-award winning FUEL may be known by some as the ‘little energy documentary,’ but in truth, it’s a powerful portrait of America’s overwhelming addiction to, and reliance on, oil. Rousing and reactionary, this film will leave you feeling hopeful and inspired.” (111 minutes)
Sponsored by Happy Tonics, Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, Web of Learning Sustainable Living Institute and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
November 3, 2010, The GreenTeam at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, in Hayward, WI, hosted the first in the series of the II Annual Environmental Film Fest. There was a good turnout of instructors in science, natural resources and ethnobotany. The event was hosted by Happy Tonics, Inc, LCOOCC and the Sustainable Living Institute.
A film “Power of Community” showed how Cuba responded after the collapse of Russia in Cuba. The country had to face a loss of utilities and industry. Transportation came to a grinding halt. The people went from cars to bicycles, from inported food to growing their own as they suffered a loss of income and petroleum for energy. None the less, the people have something to teach the world. They brought back healthy small agriculture that is no longer dependent upon large agricultureal machines and pesticides and herbicides.
Healthy food is now abundant in Cuba and the soil has been improved by sustainable some agricultural and family garden practices. We can learn something from Cuba. The USA and the rest of the world are now experiencing rising food prices as the global food supply is becoming more expensive and fuel prices keep surging. In Wisconsin many communities are starting to raise their own food. Families are maintaining garden plants. Our small farmers are being respected for the job that they do to bring local food to our tables. I see this movement growing in northwest Wisconsin and I feel proud to live in a community that understands that our security comes from knowing who is growing our food and where we can buy local grown produce that is free of chemicals.
Teresa Depies, owner Springbrook Organic Dairy
Teresa Depies, owner of Springbrook Organic Dairy, was the speaker at the November 3rd event. She raised some interesting points. There are new pasture rules in relationship to how many cows can be in the pasture. It is based on waste management. Teresa raises Jersey cows. They are a smaller breed and have less of a waste management problem than other species of dairy cows. This is a Grade A farm. Teresa and her husband have been in the business since 1990. She is having success in distributing her milk to local grocery stores. I am proud that Dahlstrom’s Grocery Store in Shell Lake sells Springbrook organic milk.
When we buy from our local farmers we are supporting our own crops, dairy, poultry and grass-fed animals. This allows us to be prepared if we where to find ourselves in a “Food Security Situation.” Preparedness is readiness. The Green Team is busy at work networking a local food system into a viable way to purchase food.
Sierra White, intern from Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Community College
Welcome Sierra White, a LCOOCC student and environmental education intern of Happy Tonics, Inc. Sierra will be Happy Tonics representative at the monthly Environmental Film Fest. She will assist with marketing, advertising, and recruiting partners for a local food network. Sierra will also assist with a “Day Trip” itinery and partners with Happy Tonics Monarch Butterfly Habitat.
Join Happy Tonics, Inc., Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College and the Sustainable Living Institute for the first Annual Event (Nov. 2010 – May 2011). The program takes place on November 3, 2010. Hope you can join us from 12 noon – 2 p.m. Pot luck, film: Power of Community and Guest speaker.
Ryall, M. E. (2010, October 6). Happy Tonics September News. Washburn County Register, p. 10
Alex paying attention to learning to identify leaves
There was a Fall Youth Plant Science event at the Spooner Ag Research Station on Saturday October 2, 2010. Area 4-H youth and other youth were invited to attend the event. Happy Tonics is proud to announce that the Pines and Lake Girl Scout Troop of Shell Lake attended. The Girl Scout Troop had a container garden at Friendship Commons this past summer. Offering youth gardening opportunities is one way to jumpstart their interest in gardening.
Emily experiences pure joy as she catches a falling leaf
Kevin Schoessow, UW-Extension Spooner Area Agriculture Agent and UW-Extension Master Gardener Volunteers lead discussions and demonstrations on making compost, planting garlic, pruning grapes and raspberries and putting the garden to bed. There was a tour of the Spooner Ag Research Station Display gardens were youth learned about the “off the grid” drip irrigation system, powered by an airlift tech pump and windmill and the newly constructed hoop house for season extension. The girls learned something about seed saving and enjoyed tasting fresh fruit, vegetables and berries right from the garden.
Kevin showing a button bottom and a peanut shaped squash
Happy Tonics exhibited at the Lac Courte Oreilles Convention Center as part of the Wellness Fair and Farmers Market on September 30, 2010. The nonprofit organization is a member of the Green Team at the LCO Tribal College which sponsored the event. A pumpkin and squash display was on Exhibit. The plants are native to the Americas. A Three Sisters Garden (Corn, beans and squash) was grown in the habitat to teach visitors how heirloom organic crops may have been grown by Native Americans in the prairie of long ago. WOJB did a live interview of the Three Sisters Garden with Mary Ellen Ryall. Happy Tonics volunteer staff shucked Hidatsa beans and packaged organic herb tea and organic culinary herbs for their online Store at http://stores.ebay.com/HAPPY-TONICS
Happy Tonics received a Matching Gift from Hachette Book Group from Park Avenue, New York, as a match to the donation made by Erica Hohos of Worcester, Massachusetts. The donation will allow us to implement memory pavers around the large wild black cherry tree in the Memory Tree Grove. We will honor Happy Tonics members who have passed on with pavers. The nonprofit organization will invite the public to participate in this upcoming fundraiser. Citizens will be able to purchase an engraved paver in memory of their loved ones including family, friends and pets.
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