Colliding Worlds

Several of my worlds collided today in a good way.  There was the thread of my working world, there was the thread of my SEOPCO board member world, and there was the thread of my Irving School world.  All three of those threads were woven together into something pretty special.  I spent most of the day at the Whole Foods Market - River Forest Barrie Fest booth, plugging the upcoming 5% Day for the Irving Schoolyard Project.

While we spoke to the parents about shopping at our store on November 1st, when 5% of the day's proceeds will go for grass for the Irving playground, the kids worked on a craft project.  They traced their hands on old posters from the store.  The cutouts of the hands will become a new mural that will be displayed in the store's cafeteria later this fall.

As a SEOPCO board, we always try to have a "green" element to Barrie Fest.  This year's green project was pretty cool, and it came together because of my colliding worlds.
Earlier this year, Whole Foods in River Forest began a composting program in its store.  It's been part of my job to make sure my department is properly sorting its garbage and composting appropriate material (that's fancy-talk for part of my job is sorting garbage).  Anyway, as part of this project, I was able to go on a field trip to Land and Lakes' composting facility on the south side of Chicago to see where the compost goes once it leaves our store.  While touring that facility, I discovered that the compost from southwest Oak Park's pilot composting program also winds up there.  That's when the wheels in my brain started turning.
SEOPCO has had several "green" forums over the past few years, and we'd been thinking it was time to move our green activities out of the talking stages and into something more practical.  We thought it would be really great if we could give away some of the finished compost material that starts out as food and yard waste in southwest Oak Park.  Land and Lakes, in conjunction with Waste Management, graciously offered to donate quite literally a ton of the organic compost material for us to give away at Barrie Fest today.  Our Irvin Girl Scout troops helped shovel the dirt into bags so people could haul it away.

Honestly, I had no idea how much a ton really was, or how many bags it would take to dispense with all that organic soil supplement.  Would we run out in an hour, or would we have half-a-ton of leftovers?  Oh, the thoughts and concerns that go into a project like this when it's executed for the first time!
I learned that a ton of dirt fits nicely into the bed of a U-Haul pick-up truck, but the truck sits pretty low once the dirt's dropped in.  I found out that one case of eco-friendly garbage bags (donated by Whole Foods) wasn't nearly enough to bag a ton, especially since we had to double-bag because the bags were ripping under weight of two shovel's worth of material.  The girls filled about 70 bags and the truck was not even half empty.  I panicked a little (How in the world am I going to get all the rest of this out of the back of this truck?), but I shouldn't have worried.
People in Oak Park (at least in the southeast quadrant) really love to garden, and they were downright giddy to get free compost.  This group is also resourceful, and many brought their own bags or wagons to haul away the compost.
When it was all said and done, the truck was about three-fourths empty.  My friend and fellow SEOPCO board member, Michelle C-R, had the brilliant idea of giving any remaining compost to Irving School for its garden project.

The Irving Garden Ladies were thrilled to get a pile of high-quality, organic compost, and we dumped all that was left at the edge of the garden, where it will rest comfortably until the harvest is complete.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my community?