Over the past year, I've tried to find a community niche for myself and for my business. By that I mean that I really want to find an area of need to which I can make a contribution. Of course, there are any number of options out there, any number of people and organizations that can use assistance. I've been involved in various community efforts over the years, from arts groups (Second Street Gallery, Piedmont Council for the Arts, and The Very Special Arts Festival) to Habitat for Humanity. At some point along the line, though, I moved away from active involement in the community (except the checkbook type, which we've continued, of course), and now that I've been away from it for awhile, I'm missing it. So, it's time again... It's time to put myself out there, and I've spent the last year thinking about things, attending programs, reading/watching/paying attention.
I've developed an interest in the LOCAL movement, whether it's about food, about protecting our environment, or taking the time to discover all the great opportunities we have here locally. Not only does this fit beautifully with my LOCAL real estate business, but it also happens to be something for which my husband, Stephen, is developing a passion as well.
My first order of business? I am focusing on sustainability. How can Stephen and I begin reducing our effect on the environment. Well, a little bit of research and couple of phone calls later, and we are the proud owners of a FREE fifty gallon barrel that we will be converting to a rain barrel. Once we've gotten the first one up and going, our plan is to hook several together and use them for watering our gardens.
My goal? As we, two busy salespeople, find our way along this path, I will be sharing our efforts. At some point, I would love to create a way to assist others in following a similar path. In the meantime, I immediately have one group to thank...
The Pepsi Cola Bottling Company of Virginia is incredibly generous, providing these barrels for FREE. In fact, they provide all of the barrels for the City of Charlottesville's Rain-Barrel-Making workshops.
There is some work involved in making one of these barrels rain-ready, and you need to purchase some parts to put it all together. Both the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County offer rebates which defray a portion of the cost of your rain barrels. More on that in a future post...
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