Wrap-up Reporting

Greetings Good Greeners of Beijing and Beyond,

I'm writing to first of all wish you a happy 08-08-08! Hooray, to all the awesome people that contribute to this stellar city! You made it!

Yes, I am positive. That is a part of being green. (Which of course is never easy, just as the Muppet sage frog, Kermit, so eloquently sang).

I've got some GREAT GREEN news for everyone. Thanks to all the tireless efforts, support, and love from all of the folks involved in GtB, we were able to pull-off a marathon of events from July 11-18, have lots of fun, learn a little, share a little, grow a little, and even raise some funds a little.

The Green Garage Sale hosted at Club Yu Gong Yi Shan (July 11-15) and Club Obiwan (July 16-August 3) ended up raking in 1,195 RMB for the Hua Dan Sichuan Earthquake Relief Theater Project for kids. You can find the latest details on this very cool project here: www.hua-dan.org

Currently I'm working on a plan to head down to Wenchuan and check out what Hua Dan has been up to. If anyone else is down for the ride, please let me know. I also plan to get the scoop on what those Green Long Marchers accompolished there this year. They were also raising funds and awareness at GtB (and throughout the month of August) to help ease the suffering of the Sichuan environmental disaster victims.

As far as the Green Garage Sale goes, we learned what we already thought was the case -- Beijingers are full of good stuff!! Enough good stuff to keep a 2nd Hand Store stocked full of lovely merchandise, to be exact. GtB ended up with more than its 1 week event series could handle and finally closed GGS efforts last Sunday. In the end, the remaining boxes full of clothes, jewelry, books, DVDs, and knick knacks went to Mr. Zhang (ph: 010 8401 2500), who runs a local community health/donation center in Dongcheng District.

GtB also raised money for the China Environment and Sustainable Development Reference and Research Centre (aka CESDRRC) this year-- only to find out that the center is running just fine without us!! In fact, when I visited them after Greening the Beige on July 22nd, they were in the middle of judging the national environmental art contest involving Chinese public school students from all across the country. While I was there, we talked about showing some of the entries from this annual, 3-year running, competition at GtB ' 09.

We also discussed possible homes for Doug Lewis' installation "The Bottle Project", which was made of more than 600 used plastic bottles Canadian International School students collected. Ms. Chen Yao, director of CESDRRC activities, referred me to the nature reserve at www.milupark.org.cn. Plans to continue showing "The Bottle Project" at Milu Park will soon be underway, hopefully by mid-Fall this year.

Although GtB was ready to contribute 1,951 RMB to CESDRRC, Ms. Chen suggested I hold onto the money. Instead she invited the GtB Team to attend a CSR seminar that the center will host in September and present a short introduction to GtB plans for 2009. It was an offer GtB can't afford to refuse. Thank you, Ms. Chen, and see you next month!

One of the exciting new additions to GtB events this year was our Green Dinner Auction on July 17th. Hosted at Club Obiwan, the kitchen of adventure served up some tasty green delights! (Which my recently strict vegetarian palate thoroughly appreciated as did my more carnivious green associates).

Ben Zhang sold prizes to the highest bidders and helped GtB raise 3,031 RMB for Hua Dan's Sichuan Project and 1,591 RMB for CESDRRC. Special thanks to all of the artists and companies that contributed prizes for the auction. (I personally can't wait to get my "Happy Landing" massage at Dragonfly and start my private Chinese lessons back up at Frontiers.)

In other news, I've been contacted by several members from schools, organizations, and companies that would like to collaborate and partner with Greening the Beige for future endeavors. This is lovely and exciting. As GtB enters into its 3rd year, the plan is to keen our green vision and keep strengthening the growing green culture of Beijing. We love this place! And we love the planet!

It's all about green love, people.

Are you with me?

If you haven't yet registered as a member of Greening the Beige, please do so here on the website. This will allow you to post events, comments, news, etc., and connect with Beijing's green community of artists and activists.

We cannot fully function without YOUR GREEN CONTRIBUTIONS. So, please, by all means, join us.

Keep Greening the Beige and hope to see you soon!

~Green Lady Cxxx