It’s a new year and I just got a new calendar.  As I jot down dates for up-coming events I get all tingly with excitement.   Grab a pencil and add these to yours.

One of the first things I wrote on it was the Jan. 9th gathering in Anacortes of the Cool Community Teams.  I’ve been writing about my experience with this campaign and how over 100 households participated in the Cool Community challenge.  These households joined a team of people who aimed to cut thier carbon footprint by at least 5,000 pounds in just 2 months using the book the Low Carbon Diet as their guide.  That’s particularly challenging over the holidays when we travel more, shop more, trash more and use more energy to heat our homes and light up our dark landscape with holiday cheer.  But even though they haven’t gotten a complete tally, the Skagit County Cool Community Campaign has already dropped over 600,000 pounds of carbon on the Low Carbon Diet!  I’m hoping we do this on Whidbey in 2010.  If you’re interested please call me at 279-4762 or visit: http://www.skagitbeattheheat.org/

There’s another wonderful event planned for February 6th.  Sound Waters is a very successful conference put on by the WSU Beach Watchers.  It fills up the Coupeville High School with over 500 people from on and off the island.  This is their 15th year and the line up is phenomenal.  You can choose between classes on birds or bats, kelp or kayaking, plastics or pioneers, renewable energy, rain gardens, recycling, compost, climate change or dozens of other topics.  It’s not to be missed.  For more information and on-line registration visit: www.beachwatchers.wsu.edu/soundwaters

On March 20th there’s the Whidbey Gardening Workshop at the Coupeville High School.  For anyone interested in growing anything, this is the place to be.  There will be classes on rain gardens, native plants, noxious weeds, pruning, planting, soils and how to encourage, and in some cases discourage wildlife.  Visit: http://www.island.wsu.edu/Gardening/WGW.html

On April 23-25 Oak Harbor hosts the Holland Happening with a parade and street fair, carnival rides and other special events to celebrate spring.  The tulips are blooming in the Skagit Valley and we all shake off winter and get some sun on our cheeks.  Visit: http://oakharborchamber.com/calendar-of-events/

The 3rd annual North Whidbey Green Living Fair will be held on May 8th at the Oak Harbor campus of Skagit Valley College.  The theme for this year’s fair is Clean Energy and Andy Wappler will be the keynote speaker.  Theme rooms feature displays and information on Recycling, Gardening, Green Building and Fitness.  Outside the Like2Bike campaign will feature a kid’s bike rodeo, beater bike give-away and a bike repair and maintenance clinic.  For more information or to join our volunteer crew email: carolyn.batchelor@skagit.edu

June 4-5 is the Relay for Life event when people walk around the track at North Whidbey Middle School for 24 hours.  Cancer doesn’t sleep, so why should we?  Everyone knows someone who has struggled with cancer. This event raises money to help support them, fund research, and provide treatment.  You can sign up to walk a lap or make a contribution.  Visit:  http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=21944 for more information.

July just seems too far away right now but I’d also like to mention the  Sustainable Living Workshops that take place at Oak Harbor City Hall each 2nd Tuesday from 5:30-6:30.  We’ll have speakers (in this order starting in Feb.) on Energy Efficiency in older homes, Water Conservation, Rain Barrels, Renewable Energy, Orcas and Puget Sound water qualtiy, Growing Food for the Hungry, Responsible Yard Care, Island Biking, Returning Salmon, Recycling at School and Work, and Preserving Key Habitat on North Whidbey.  These seminars are free and open to the public.  They will also air on our local government access channel 10 for a month after.  For more information visit: http://www.oakharbor.org/ or call 279-4762.