Josh Shear
Get Discounted Tickets to Buy Local Bash
The is coming up on Monday of next week – that's November 21 – after work at Benjamin's on Franklin (it used to be Ohm for those of you who have been here a few years; Styleen's Rhythm Palace for those who have been here a few more).
The event kicks off this year's Shift Your Shopping campaign, which aims to get you to think about shopping local for your holiday gifts. Buy Local week begins on Black Friday and continues throughout the following week at participating locally owned retailers.
Tickets for the event are $20, and include wine and beer from vendors, as well as some food.
It's a great party.
And here's how you can pay $15 for your tickets instead of $20.
- Like .
- Mention the Buy Local Bash on the wall.
Pretty easy, huh? It'd be pretty cool if you'd like , too, since they are the organization putting on the event.
See you Monday!
Why I’m working with the Future Fund
Most of us will never be philanthropists on the scale of . The foundation model – one in which one huge donation gets an endowment together and the interest pays out grants (while the foundation continues to solicit donations to add to the endowment) – is changing, Katherine Fulton explains in her 2007 TED talk.
Enter the , an affiliate fund of the (CNYCF).
One of the things the Community Foundation has done through the years is help people set up personal "funds" – when you see a memorials scholarship fund, or something like that, it starts with a $5,000 check and the CNYCF's 501(c)(3). But who among the young professionals out there – here, in the Syracuse area – is writing a $5,000 check to get something amazing started?
Not many people. So the CNYCF came up with this idea: Let's find 50 young people to donate $100, and that'll be good for a $5,000 grant every year to a local non-profit.
This group of young professionals first nominates a "cause category," such as nutrition or mentoring, then sends out a request for proposals (RFP). A committee narrows the field down to a dozen or so, and then everybody who donated (we call them members) gets to vet the semifinalists, narrowing the field down to three.
Site visits are set up for the three finalists; all members may attend, and then a final vote is held.
For the 2010-2011 grant season, the topic was nutrition, and we awarded $5,000 to help them with urban gardening throughout the city.
The Future Fund is an amazing group of people. I'd encourage you to come meet some of them October 13 at the kickoff event at .
Here is the first email of the season, so you can get a feel for what we do.
Greetings, Future Fund Members!Welcome to the 2011-2012 Future Fund grant-making season. We're extremely proud of what we've done over the past few years and can't wait to get moving on the new year!
Over the past few years, you – our members – have helped make Central New York an amazing place by funding programs that provide, among other things, youth mentoring, financial literacy, workforce development, and, most recently, nutrition and wellness. With that nutrition and wellness grant, we supported Syracuse Grows, which has graciously invited us to their Harvest Dinner, a potluck event, on Sept. 25 from 3:30-5:30pm at the Southwest Community Farm, 100 Bellevue Ave., Syracuse. If you plan to go, RSVP to syracusegrows@gmail.com.
Save the date! Our annual kickoff event is coming up Thursday, October 13 at 5:30pm. This is for members, families, friends, colleagues, and random strangers you think will enjoy a night of free hors d'oeuvres (and a cash bar). Keep an eye on your inbox in the coming weeks for the details.
Worth Watching: TED Fellow Katherine Fulton discusses the . It's a 12-minute lecture on the changing model of philanthropy – the future will not be the Bill Gateses and George Soroses of the world, it will be people like us. If you come across other interesting stories of philanthropy, send them to us at futurefundcny@gmail.com.
Happy giving!
The Future Fund Steering Committee--
The Future Fund of Central New York
c/o Central New York Community Foundation
431 East Fayette Street
Suite 100
Syracuse, NY 13202
Tel: 315-422-9538
futurefundcny@gmail.com
Access to capabilities, energy use and cities
I own a drill. I've used it to mount a stereo and iPod charger below a kitchen cabinet.
I also own a circular saw. It came with the drill. I've never used it.
I have a lot of other tools that I do use, though some of them (like my chainsaw and my ax) are going to see very limited use throughout their lives.
It's an example of waste that uses in that TED talk above. Most homeowners, he says, have a drill. The average drill sees between 6 and 20 minutes of use in its lifetime. There are maybe a dozen houses on my block. Over the next 25 years or so, we'll use a little over an hour of drilling time. Why do we own 12 drills?
I live 3.4 miles from work; that's less than an hour's walk. Eyeballing it, I'd say there's a little under a half-mile of sidewalk. Do I walk to work? Nope. I could use a little safety.
I live about a mile from a grocery store. I go often, since I tend to eat fresh foods that only last a day or two in the fridge. There are no sidewalks, and just about the entire trip is on a 40-mph road. I don't walk there, either.
In the next 30-40 years, Steffen estimates, some 8 billion people will live close to cities. We need to be smarter with how we build them. We also need to be smarter about how we choose where we live, and our use of energy, and our sharing (see also, drills).
Learn something. Build something. Create something. Advance us, don't just make more of us.
American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure
Yesterday, a few of us from volunteered at the American Diabetes Association's . Diabetes isn't one of my primary causes, but my is a national sponsor, so I had easy access to the organizers.
This is a really great event. Rather than a "simple" run or walk or ride, it's five rides – a 100-miler, a 62.5-miler, a 40-miler, a 25-miler and a 15-miler. It requires volunteers at many stages and a whole lot of planning.
From our perspective, it went as smoothly as we could imagine. We got bad directions to the rest stop we were supposed to run, but got there and set up before the first riders came in. We were missing some supplies, but our radio operator (yes, they have someone operating short-wave radios at each stop, in trail vehicles and at the home base) managed to get in touch with home base to get us the stuff we needed in time.
I didn't look up the numbers (the amount raised or the number of people involved), but it was impressive. If you're looking for a way to get involved, I highly recommend the event.
Dey Centennial Plaza
I got a tour recently of the Dey Centennial Plaza. It's a group of buildings at the corner of Salina and Jefferson streets in downtown Syracuse.
While the are nice – hardwood floors, marble counters, lots of space, and nice appliances (stainless faucets, electric stoves and refrigerators; some of the units have wine refrigerators and all of them have washer/dryers) – residents pay a little extra for the building security and good parking (the single bedroom units run between $950 and $1200, while the two-bedroom units are in the $1600 range).
The thing I'm excited about, though, is a local market coming to downtown.
It's going to be a 12,500-square foot grocery (much bigger than C.L. Evers, its downtown competition), and all the food is going to come from within 70 miles of Syracuse. There will be garage parking with the first hour free, and the store will be open until 8 p.m., so people shopping after work will have a place to go.
The plaza is a series of five formerly vacant buildings that are quite old. The developers have a great vision for it, and seem to be excited to be helping to shape downtown (the tour was given by Paramount Realty, which closed on the building near the end of 2009).
Visions of Utopia: Experiments in Sustainable Culture
This comes to me from .
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"Ordinary people with extraordinary visions tell their stories of living and working together to build a better world"
—Visions of Utopia
Come together at the Westcott Community Center during the Westcott Bulb Project Garden Extravaganza Saturday, October 2 at 11 a.m. to view this award winning documentary (The Communal Studies Association's Outstanding Project Award)and take part in a panel discussion with communitarians from around Syracuse (including Bread and Roses House, Common Place Land Trust, and the New Environment Association).
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"Visions of Utopia" (94 min.) is a great way to experience a sampling of community life "up close." You can see and hear community members tell their stories in their own words.
Part One includes: Profiles of seven diverse communities. Exploration of the "glue" that holds communities together. Honest revelations about what is working and what is not. A brief history of 2500 years of shared living.
The communities featured in Part One are as follows: Ananda Village (Nevada City CA) Breitenbush Hot Springs (Detroit OR) Camphill Special School (Glenmoore PA) Earthaven (Black Mountain NC) Nyland Glossary Link Cohousing (Lafayette CO) Purple Rose (San Francisco CA) Twin Oaks (Louisa VA)
This event is part of the Westcott Garden Extravaganza which includes: Free flower bulbs (for Westcott residents), view our award-winning film, purchase fresh vegetables, flowers and handspun yarn from Daily Harvest Farm's Farmers marketwww.dailyharvestfarm.com, enjoy live music by Larry Hoyt and Friends; buy handwoven baskets from Ghana ideal for organizing your garden tools or harvesting the fruits of your labor, from Bluetree Studios, purchase a pumpkin for your child, hyacinth and allium bulbs, earth-sourced jewelry and note cards from Songs of Earth and support the WCC Kid's Club bake and perennial plant sale/fundraiser.
Farmshed CNY
I had a chance last week to meet with Neil Brody Miller to talk about his new project, .
Farmshed is an iPhone app (I'm hoping there's an Android app in the future) that lets you see nearby farms, farmers markets and locally-owned restaurants. The download times are getting faster (it's a fairly large database), and Neil clued me in on a few upcoming changes, including organizing everything by distance (it's currently alphabetical) and further organizing what farms do (meat? veggies? organic?).
Neil met me at , and we chatted a bit about our backgrounds. He's an old (70s-era) punk with an entrepreneurial mentality, great ideas, and a love for all the stuff that's going on here. He particularly mentioned and the guy who introduced us, Marty Butts of .
Watch for more coming on Farmshed. If you're the iPhone sort, download the app (it's free). Here's a miniaturized version of the brochure:
The 2010 Trash Transformation Project
The following is a partial press release from .
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It is the pleasure of The Alchemical Nursery to present the commissioned artworks of the 2010 Trash Transformer Project!
The 8 artworks on exhibit represent the talents of 7 contemporary artists form the Central NY region, and include a diversity of methods including paint and ink on wood, mini and full size sculptures, and mixed media wall hangings. All contain salvaged or reused materials that make up at least 50% of the artwork itself, representing the insane practice of over-consumption and disposal that is taken for granted in modern society.
Each of the artworks is also being presented for auction through the silent auction process throughout the length of the traveling exhibit schedule. Bids have already been received at the debut exhibition. You can view the current high bids at the , and you can bid at any time by sending your name, telephone number, email address, and bid to info@alchemicalnursery.org.
Syracuse First Relaunches Website
Below is a press release from buy local movement . The organization celebrated its one year anniversary with a joint event with Dolce Vita, which debuted a local menu, and by launching a new website with a database of local businesses.
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June 4, 2010 Syracuse, NY – On this date one year ago Syracuse First was born. To celebrate, Executive Director and founder of SyracuseFirst Chris Fowler announces the launch of a new interactive website for the year-old nonprofit organization dedicated to keeping as much money in the local economy as possible by encouraging people to buy in their own backyard. Fowler worked closely with local design firm 2ndNature — designers of such sites as Everson.org and dinosaurbarbque.com — to develop the site so consumers can easily access information to help them identify and patronize local member businesses.
The local buying and sustainable economy movement began more than a decade ago in Boulder, CO. Rooted in the belief that buying from local businesses rather than national chains stimulates local economies, more than 25,000 small businesses around the country participate in some type of business alliance supporting local shopping. Currently there are over 130 businesses and organizations participating in SyracuseFirst.
At syracusefirst.org, site visitors can educate themselves on the many important reasons to buy local, discover independent local companies to do business with, and other resources to help spread the word about the importance of sustainable economies. Individuals can also take the "Think, Buy and Be Local Pledge," to confirm their intention of support for a sustainable localist lifestyle. Individual citizens, nonprofits, and businesses (which are required to reside and conduct business primarily in Onondaga County) can join the SyracuseFirst organization online at various levels depending on revenue level directly through the site.
Fowler grew up in the Syracuse area and following career in public policy established Syracuse First in the summer of 2009 after learning about the BALLE model. BALLE, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, is a national movement to promote socially responsible businesses and bring together independent small business owners, government officials, and community leaders. Fowler is the first to admit changing people’s buying habits is an uphill climb but cites statistics that state "just a 10% shift in market share from national or global businesses to locally owned independents would generate an additional $130 million in new economic activity in Onondaga County."
2ndNature is a founding member of Syracuse First and has donated hundreds of hours of creative direction and web development throughout several phases of the project in an effort to ensure that the organization has a suitable online platform. 2ndNature is an award-winning design studio founded in Syracuse in 2002 by Joel Fairbank and Sage Young specializing in user interface design and motion graphics.
For more information on Syracuse First, please contact Chris Fowler at 315.396.6418 or chris@syracusefirst.org
Launching Local: Dolce Vita to Debut Local Menu
, a restaurant with an eclectic menu I really enjoy, is going local for its food, and they'll be featuring many local beers and wines. They're launching their local menu at a private event for , with tickets available for $35 for Syracuse First members and $40 for non-members. Here is the invite.
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Dolce Vita has created a “Local Menu” and has offered to give Syracuse First members a first taste!
This private event will feature a three course menu of Local Cuisine with beef from Nancy Lorraine Hoffman, poultry from Crossman Farms, and vegetables from CNY farmer’s market.
Dolce Vita’s “Local Menu” is part of their one year anniversary celebration (also in June) called “We’ve taken you around the world, now we’re taking you the place you least expect.” Everything served as part of this menu has been produced locally within the CNY and Finger Lakes region.
“Launching Local” Details:
When: June 2, 2010. Happy Hour starts at 5:30, Dinner at 6:30
Where: Dolce Vita, 907 East Genesee Street, Syracuse NY 13210
Why: Living local, loving local, launching local!
Price: Tickets are $35 for Syracuse First members and $40 for non members.
*Price includes a three course meal, presentations of the menu, specials on local wines and beers, entertainment and raffles!
Tickets can be purchased with credit/debit card by calling Dolce Vita at 315-475-4700 or via cash or check at the Syracuse First Networking event on May 27th or at the restaurant.
Additional Info:
*Space is limited! Purchase your tickets today to be sure you can participate in this great event!
**Please note that gratuity is not included in the price and we encourage you to tip the hardworking Dolce Vita staff !