Sustainable Broomfield has had an eventful summer!
Due to the impacts felt by COVID-19, we anticipated having to hold all our meetings online, but on June 22, we had 28 people participate in our outdoor meeting with masks and appropriate social distancing under the pergola at the Brunner Farmhouse.
The large turnout was likely due to an article published in the Broomfield Enterprise about the new Sustainable Broomfield Compost Club.
Compost Club Updates
Once people sign up for the Compost Club, they learn the rules and receive a 5-gallon bucket to collect their compostable scraps. When their bucket is full, they drop it off at the Broomfield Crescent Grange and take an empty one back home. Volunteers empty the buckets into the Grange’s compost bins, clean out the buckets, and properly mix and maintain the compost. When this compost is finished “cooking” it will be used in the Grange’s Community Garden.
In one month we signed up over 40 people to our Compost Club! If you are interested in joining, please email Brianna at Sustainablebroomfield@gmail.com.
In addition to the Compost Club program, Brianna taught a Backyard Composting Class at the Crescent Grange, with over 30 people in attendance! Everything discussed that day can be found in the Composting Section on our Resources Page.
With all of the publicity and great meeting attendance, we signed up a bunch of new members, as well as a few volunteers.
Our Awesome Members and Volunteers
A number of Compost Club participants volunteered to help us manage the buckets and compost for the program. Jessica Slattery has made some great improvements to our website and started our SB Blog Page. Our social media presence will also be getting a boost with help from George Valdovinos.
On “Weeding Wednesday” we had ten people come and help weed our garden at the Brunner Farmhouse. We stayed weeding until it was too dark to see!
Besides having amazing volunteers, we welcomed some great speakers to all of our summer meetings.
Summer Speakers
In June, David Gustin, a member of the city’s Advisory Committee on Environmental Sustainability (ACES), shared his vision to start an Ambassador Program designed to integrate members of low income and minority communities into the environmental discussions happening in Broomfield.
We also heard from John Kinsey, a professor at Front Range Community College, about how his institution and students might be able to help us with future projects.
At our July meeting, we heard from the County CSU Extension Director and Horticulture Agent, Sarah Schweig, about native alternatives to common landscape plants.
Another member of ACES, Catherine Drumheller, also gave us a great briefing on what ACES has been working on in 2020.
Climate Action Challenge
Finally, Joan Gregerson, founder of the Green Team Academy, wrapped up our July Meeting with a short introduction to her latest initiative, the 2020 International Climate Action Challenge. The goal of this project is to get 1,000 eco-projects launched worldwide in 90 days. Joan will be presenting more info about this initiative and helping our group to brainstorm challenge ideas at our August 24 meeting.
Looking Forward to Fall
We plan to kick-off our fall speaker series on September 28th with Hunter Lovins, a co-author of the book A Finer Future: Creating an Economy in Service to Life, as our featured speaker. I’m sure we will learn a lot, and we hope to have some great plans to share with you in the next newsletter!