Isthmus Green Day Saturday, April 16, 2011 Monona Terrace, 9 a.m.5 p.m. Madison, Wisconsin $5 admission
Want to get in free? Stop at the ticket desk if you fit any of these criteria...
- Take the bus. Bring your ticket or bus pass, and we'll give you a ticket.
- Ride your bike. Park it with the Saris Cycling Group/20by2020 Bike Valet on Olin Terrace, at the Monona Terrace entrance on Wilson Street. Show us your valet sticker for a free ticket.
- Donate to Goodwill at the event. Goodwill will collect your donations at the ticket desk and hand you a free ticket.
- Be a kid. Kids under 12 get in free.
Isthmus Green Day is back: More than one hundred exhibitors bring out the greenest ideas for your home, energy efficient transport for your commute, alternative medicine for your body, tantalizing treats for your tastebuds, and just about a zillion ways to otherwise green up your life.
It's fun for kids! The whole family can get wild and creative at the IsthmusParents.com Family Play Zone, presented with Aldo Leopold Nature Center, African Youth Outreach, Friends of the Zoo, and MSCR.
Please join us. This is the fourth annual Isthmus Green Day, and it's all about making a few smart choices and a few simple changes, to get a little bit greener and maybe help protect our planet for future generations.
Sun's so hot, can it really fry an egg?
10:00 a.m. -- Make-Your-Own Solar Cooker Workshop
Northeast Corner, near the Concessions in the Exhibit Hall
Learn how to harness the sun's energy to cook fresh food. Just think of the ways you can use this simple technology. Is your kitchen too hot in the summer? Are campfires prohibited in the park or on the beach? Watch how to make a collapsible cooker from cardboard and other materials. To make one of your own, registration is required. The cost is $10 and all materials will be supplied. Proceeds benefit Solar Cookers International. Register ahead of time by emailing solarcooks@gmail.com. On Green Day, visit Terra Source Chocolate booth to register, or to buy your own ready-made cooker.
Channel your energy from within
10:00 a.m. -- Self Healing & Personal Energy Awareness
Calvert Investment Stage in Lakeside Commons
Madison Intuitive Counselor and Energy Healer Tina Bensman presents a primer on personal energy, "in our world, our bodies, our thoughts and emotions." She will talk about how energy moves and how you can "conserve" your own energy and still be supportive to others.Bensman opened The Chakra House on West Lakeside Street in Madison as a space to become balanced physically, emotionally and spiritually. She believes everyone has natural intuitive gifts and can find them within to realize their potential. She teaches at the Institute of Intuitive Arts & Sciences, and writes a monthly advice column in Nature's Pathways magazine.
Real food comes from real people
10:30 a.m. -- Farm to Table: Growers Discussion
Isthmus Green Day Main Stage
Join a conversation with the people who get their hands in the soil and grow food. Bartlett Durand and Robert Pierce chat about what they do and what you can do to get closer to real, local food. As Pierce sees it, "People don't put value on farmers, or food, and what they see as food is not really food."An attorney by training, Durand is farm administrator for Black Earth Meats. He developed the Otter Creek Organic Farm brand through Local Choice Marketing, which helps artisan producers in the Spring Green area get products to market efficiently.Robert Pierce is the manager of the South Madison Farmers' Market, and has been farming organically in and around Madison since 1984. He runs the market five days a week in different locations to give residents access to fresh, real food. His favorite foods are "corn and potatoes." He is slated to be the farmer at Badger Rock charter school, where teaching kids about growing and preparing food will be a cornerstone. Rick Brooks will moderate the talk.
Saving energy pays back
11:00 a.m. -- Green Madison: Presented by Focus on Energy
Calvert Investment Stage in Lakeside Commons
Learn more about Green Madison, a new program that pairs Focus on Energy with City of Madison residents and businesses to reduce energy costs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and stimulate the local economy, through access to educational resources and financial incentives for improvements. Green Madison's low-interest loan program helps finance the projects that will yield large energy savings over time.Paul Grimyser is the residential program coordinator for Green Madison, where he brings expertise in sustainable program design and implementation. He previously worked on green initiatives for the City of Las Vegas.
City slickers, country folk
11:30 a.m. -- The Fabulous Beekman Boys
Isthmus Green Day Main Stage
The stars from Planet Green TV's series The Fabulous Beekman Boys share tales contrasting life in Manhattan with adventures on the Beekman farm in upstate New York where they live with 80 goats, 12 chickens, two pigs and a narcissistic llama. Dr. Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell are sophisticated city slickers turned accidental farmers who entertainingly evangelize the not-so-simple life. Ridge is a clinical physician who also holds an MBA in finance, management and strategy from New York University. His broad media experience includes regular appearances on The Martha Stewart Show as the in-house health expert.Kilmer-Purcell was raised in rural Wisconsin and moved to New York City in 1996. He worked as an advertising art director, moonlighting as an drag queen, a story he tells in his critically acclaimed memoir, I Am Not Myself These Days. His new book, The Bucolic Plague, is now in paperback.
Add values to adding value
1:00 p.m. -- Investing from the Heart
Calvert Investment Stage in Lakeside Commons
David McClellan and Mary Strickland will discuss how you can invest according to your values and work with advisors who share these values. McClellan and Strickland work with clients who want their money to achieve both personal and global goals. Calvert Investments is a leader in Sustainable and Responsible Investing and offers investors as wide a choice of SRI strategies as any investment management company in the United States.
Good food is good for all of us
1:30 p.m. -- Farm to Table: Stand Up for Healthy Kids!
Isthmus Green Day Main Stage
"We want to change school food," says Lisa Jacobson, who manages REAP's Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch program. Put simply, children cannot choose healthy foods or develop a taste for them if they are not offered healthy foods. Join a community conversation with Jacobson and others to take a look at what's happening in thehealthy food movement at school and at home. Participants include MUNCH's Jamie Domini (Madisonians United for Nutrition for Children's Health); Salud Garcia of Madison Families for Better Nutrition; Nancy Goyings who works with Middleton/Cross Plains schools. Sari Judge, Mama Madison blogger on IsthmusParents.com will moderate.
This is how it all works...
2:00 p.m. -- Renewable Energy 101
Calvert Investment Stage in Lakeside Commons
Take a crash course in efficient, clean, renewable energy when the good people from Midwest Renewable Energy highlight solar electric, small wind and solar thermal, including mounting options, system types, cost and incentives.
Sun's so hot, can it really fry an egg?
3:00 p.m. -- Make-Your-Own Solar Cooker Workshop
Northeast Corner, near the Concessions in the Exhibit Hall
Learn how to harness the sun's energy to cook fresh food. Just think of the ways you can use this simple technology. Is your kitchen too hot in the summer? Are campfires prohibited in the park or on the beach? Watch how to make a collapsible cooker from cardboard and other materials. To make one of your own, registration is required. The cost is $10 and all materials will be supplied. Proceeds benefit Solar Cookers International. Register ahead of time by emailing solarcooks@gmail.com. On Green Day, visit Terra Source Chocolate booth to register, or to buy your own ready-made cooker.
40% for the 40th: Can it be done?
3:00 p.m. -- Greener Faster Challenge Update
Calvert Investment Stage in Lakeside Commons
Sonya Newenhouse and Anne Nardi of EnAct and Madison Environmental Group check in with the Madison families who are in the midst of a yearlong challenge to reduce their eco-footprint. The goal is a 40-percent reduction from the Madison average in honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Participants are competing for prizes, including a new DreamBike, a year's supply of Organic Valley milk, a home energy audit, and a WaterSense low-flow toilet.Join the Q&A to discover how to go greener faster, in light of busy lives, money restraints, and changing habits. Sonya Newenhouse is founder and president of Madison Environmental Group. Anne Nardi is community relations manager for Madison Environmental Group and heads up EnAct as well as the transportation demand management program.
Let's try some beautiful dishes
3:30 p.m. -- Farm to Table: Madison Originals Chefs Present
Isthmus Green Day Main Stage
Madison Originals Restaurant Group strives to keep fresh, local ingredients on menus all over town, and here three of the group's top chefs show how it's done. Watch them cook then taste the delightful results. Blue Marlin's Tim Van Doren designs creative dishes from the freshest fish available. Brasserie V's Rob Grisham presents a seasonal, rustic European-inspired menu. Liliana's chef David Heide specializes in Creole cuisine, inspired by his love of New Orleans. Mmmmm... mouthwatering.
Creative fun for kids & parents
All Day -- IsthmusParents.com Family Play Zone
Center North, toward the back in the Exhibit Hall
The whole family can get wild and creative at the IsthmusParents.com Family Play Zone, presented with Aldo Leopold Nature Center, African Youth Outreach, Friends of the Zoo, and MSCR: Madison School and Community Recreation.