Grow Berlin Green Launches Campaign at Spring Celebration
Berlin, Maryland, April 11, 2009 — Grow Berlin Green (GBG), launched the campaign to promote conservation and environmental protection in Berlin with an information booth, rain barrel raffle and re-usable shopping bag giveaway at Saturday’s Spring Celebration event.
GBG’s booth offered general information about the campaign goals and plans, and educational materials about rain barrels, rain gardens and household conservation tips. Visitors to the booth could purchase chances to win a rain barrel to conserve water and curtail stormwater runoff, and received a free cloth shopping bag adorned with the GBG logo along with those of its partners, the Town of Berlin and its Main Street program.
“This is a great opportunity to introduce ourselves to the community and begin the process of educating citizens about the things we can do together to make our town a cleaner and greener place,” said GBG Program Director Steve Farr. Farr, who spent much of the day promenading up and down Main Street in a tree costume, indicated that this is but the first of many town events where the GBG campaign will work to spread its message of connecting the community through conservation.
“Our goal is to teach, not to preach,” Farr explained. “We want to spread information and some practical tools people can use to lead by example. That’s why we’re doing things like the rain barrel raffle and the bag giveaway.”
Distribution of the re-usable shopping bags will continue as long as supplies last and will include working with local merchants to encourage customers to use the bags as an alternative to disposable paper and plastic bags. “Giving the bags away is the easy part,” Farr said. “The bigger challenge is getting people to actually use the bags as part of their regular shopping routine.” GBG will be keeping an eye out for people using their bags and will award monthly prizes as part of the “Get Caught Using the Bag” promotion.
GBG had planned to hold its first community clean up event in the morning before the Spring Celebration, but had to postpone due to the early morning rainstorm. “We had the Mayor and several members of Town Council lined up to join our citizen volunteers in the De-Litter the Ditch event,” Farr explained, “but the heavy rain would have made ditch navigation a little too adventurous.” The clean up event will be rescheduled for sometime in the next several weeks.
Anyone interested in learning more about Grow Berlin Green and upcoming events should contact Steve Farr at 410-629-1538 or send an email to growberlingreen@hotmail.com.
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