17th January, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Keep Austin Beautiful is having an organized cleanup of Lady Bird Lake the Saturday before Valentine’s Day. Here’s some info from their website:
It’s almost Valentine’s Day and what better way to show your love of Austin and Lady Bird Lake than by helping get it all spruced up in time for Valentine’s Day? Countless romantic walks, first kisses, and even proposals have happened at the lake and nothing says romance like Styrofoam floating on the water. Well not really, so let’s clean it up before the big day!
Volunteers will have a rewarding morning as they search high and low for every last bit of trash and get to know other lake enthusiasts. On-the-Water volunteers should be 16 or older and be comfortable around water.
Date: Saturday, February 12th
Time: 9am-11am
Location: all around Lady Bird Lake
Registration: CLICK HERE
Website: www.KeepAustinBeautiful.org/LadyBirdLake
Cleanup Sites Led by: Austin Standup Paddleboarders, Expedition School, Green Feet Fitness, Little Helping Hands, Surfrider Foundation
If you’d like to donate a prize for our fantastic volunteers please email Jessica@KeepAustinBeautiful.org
1st November, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
This weekend is the annual Settlement Home for Children annual garage sale at the Palmer Events Center. Friday admission is $5, but on Saturday and Sunday it’s free. It’s a nice way to support a local charity that does a lot of good work in the community, and also cut down on buying new items. 100% of the proceeds go to charity. There should be a ton of good stuff to buy. Check out this link for more information.
2nd August, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
This Thursday starting at 8PM is the Moonlight Margarita Run and Gala which benefits the Lady Bird Lake trial. The run is a 5K that starts near where the trail crosses Mopac, and the gala is held afterward at American Legion Hall. Entry for the run is $35 , for the gala it’s $65, and for both it’s $95. Proceeds from the night’s event go to The Trail Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to improve the trail around the lake. You can register here or check out more details. The Statesman notes that the events “help fund the upcoming $475,000 renovation of the very trailhead where the race starts — the busiest access point on the 10-mile crushed granite pathway” and that “work should start this fall and take about six months.”
2nd August, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 1 Comment
Last Friday I stopped by Recycled Reads, the bookstore of the City of Austin library, located on Burnet road. The store is a collection of books donated to the store to help the library raise money, and books that the library is taking out of circulation because they no longer need as many copies of that given book, or because a copy is no longer in good condition. It’s a great place to look for books that were popular a couple of years ago, as well as classics. For example, for recently published books, there were a lot of copies of “Lovely Bones” and “The Secret Life of Bees” and I expect in a year or so there will be a lot of copies of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” after the hype over that series dies down. And there were a lot of copies of all the great classics. I was really surprised by how nice the store was because I had assumed it would just be a warehouse with unsorted books. But it was set up very similarly to a library and the books had all been organized into categories (“fiction” “biographies”, “classics”, “religion”, “Texas”, “home and garden”, “science”, “young adult”, “children’s”, “sci-fi”, etc.) and there was also a “collector’s section” that had older books with a description of why the book was valuable (limited edition or signed by the author, for example), and there was a collection of old records as well. Within each category the books were organized alphabetically by author, again, just like the library, making it very easy to find everything. And all the hard cover books were $2 and paperbacks were $1, so it was a great deal too. On my way back from vacation I had purchased “Lovely Bones” at a bookstore for $9, but I could have had my choice of several copies of that book for $1 if I had waited.
I ended up buying four soft cover books. I usually like to check out books from the library, but sometimes depending on what’s going on, I may not be able to finish the book before it’s due back, so this is a nice way to pick up some books to have on hand for an extended period. If I like the books I bought, I’ll keep the copies, but if I’m not crazy about them I’ll donate them back. The library makes money, I get some cheap books, so everyone wins!
26th July, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Check out this local non-profit called the Green Corn Project, which I heard about on KUT today. Green Corn’s website explains that it is:
a grassroots, volunteer-run organization dedicated to helping Central Texans in need grow their own organic vegetables. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, GCP installs organic food gardens for elderly, low-income, and disabled community members as well as for elementary schools, community centers, and shelters in underserved areas of Austin. We turn unused land into garden beds that provide food, education, and a sense of accomplishment and pride for all involved in their creation and maintenance.Since 1998 GCP has helped more than 160 gardeners and their families claim—or reclaim—their gardening dreams. Our goal is to create lifelong gardeners, so we actively support our gardeners for two years through four growing seasons. Because we return to refurbish those beds for a total of four seasons, we have actually planted more than 640 seasonal gardens.
GCP has several fall volunteer opportunities that we will update you on once registration opens up – sounds like a very great organization!
23rd July, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
If you’ve been feeling a little helpless about the Gulf oil spill and want to do something to help, head on over to the benefit tonight at 6:00 at Hotel San Jose and Jo’s on South Congress to donate some money, eat some delicious food from Perla’s and Lambert’s, listen to Papa Mali and Lost Bayou Ramblers, and get educated about how you can help. The optional $10 cover charge and the $10 per plate shrimp boil proceeds will benefit the Greater New Orleans Foundation and the Gulf Restoration Network. Additionally, Texas State Rep. Mark Strama will be speaking about renewable energy policies in Texas, and Brandi Clark of EcoAustin will be discussing local volunteer opportunities and green energy resources in Austin. Sounds like a great time for a very important and timely cause.
