Through several windy and rainy Friday nights, AFFEW braved the elements to display its new signs and handouts for FNL participants. This event is more popular than ever, and is a teeming combination of tourist visitors, teens hanging out and resident families out for a good time, good eats and interesting things to see and do. AFFEW would like to up its fundraising focus during next year’s FNL, so if you have any ideas for local food and fare to sell to visitors, proceeds to help the Mason County environment, please let us know. And of course, if you’d like to work the booth, your help is always welcome!

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AFFEW and volunteers completed four extensive Beach Sweeps during Summer 2009. These efforts are part of a Lake Michigan-wide campaign of thousands of volunteers to clean up nearly 200 miles of shoreline.

Local territory cleaned included the State Park lakefront, sections along Lakeshore Drive, and Stearns Park and Beach between the two piers, in downtown Ludington.

Julia Chambers, who leads the Beach Sweep efforts and organized volunteers, reports that the last Sweep on Sept 19 netted over 1200 cigarette butts, 57 balloons, over 1000+ food wrappers, 10 automobile tires, 53 cigar tips and lots of miscellaneous trash. The assorted debris is testimony to the fact that these Beach Sweeps are very important to the continuing health and beauty of our Lake Michigan shoreline. For tips on what you can do while you are enjoying the lake, go to  http://www.greatlakesbeachsweep.com/ or to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyWHnq-L28g to see and hear Julia’s advice.

• October 6 – The Revolution Starts at Home (A look at the damage done by garbage, what can be done to reduce waste)
• Oct. 13 - Respect Yo Mama: Here Comes the Recycle Man (For ages 10+, helps inspire enthusiasm/action for recycling), and Energy Conservation (how to make small changes in our lives to make big changes for the planet)
• October 20 – For the Price of a Cup of Coffee (short on price of convenience, follows lifecycle of paper cup) Minimum Impact: Take Only Photos, Leave Only Footprints (ways to minimize impact while enjoying outdoors) The Cost of Cool: Youth, Consumption & the Environment (examining over-consumption effects)
• October 27 – Ryan’s Well (The story of a young boy who raised thousands of dollars to help build a well for a remote community in Uganda)

Outgoing Board President Sidney Shaw

Sidney Shaw will leave the AFFEW board for the upcoming 2010-2012 term, and AFFEW is soliciting prospective candidates for the open seat who can serve two years. Nomination forms and position description can be found on the AFFEW website.  Area residents with a commitment to the environment, time for once-monthly meetings and for appointment to at least one special committee are welcome to apply. Please call one of the current board members to get the ball rolling.

AFFEW Board President Shaw has been affiliated with the organization for ten years. He has been instrumental in the revitalization of the county-wide Household Battery Recycling Program, led AFFEW’s successful grant-writing initiatives, and has been a tireless advocate and leader for expanded environmental protection efforts. His vision and drive have been key to our results.

We thank Sidney for his dedicated service and hope to see him back on the board in the future.

Board meetings are usually on the third Thursday of the month, and convene at the By The Way coffeehouse on Ludington Avenue. Members and supporters are welcome.

Plaza Cafe will cater our event again this year.

Please join AFFEW members and supporters on October 15 for the 19^th annual meeting, dinner and officer election. Social hour begins at 6pm, and the brief election of Board Members will occur at 6:30. Dinner follows at 7pm, with House Representative Dan Scripps as keynote speaker. Rep. Scripps will speak on state and regional challenges and legislative initiatives to help the Great Lakes, alternative energy development and green jobs formation.

If you’re interested in serving on the AFFEW Board, we have one seat open and encourage you to contact us for nomination details. But please hurry, as we need to get all prospective board members’ bios and forms organized well before the event. See further info in the box below.

AFFEW is taking more steps this year to make the Annual Meeting a Carbon-Free event. We encourage all attendees to carpool and will award a prize to the group that manages to carpool the most participants in one car! If you bike to the event, you are also eligible for prizes! We will recycle the minimal paper used, use china instead of disposable plates, only distribute enviro-friendly handouts and purchase Carbon Credits to offset the unavoidable waste.

Mason County’s annual Independence Day Parade always provides a unique opportunity to further the AFFEW mission of informing and involving the community in local environmental protection efforts. Led by Board Chair Sidney Shaw and Member Heidi Moloney, AFFEW created a new float for this year’s parade and launched AFFEW’s new Adopt-A-Bucket campaign to solicit donations that will spread battery recycling beyond the seven locations already served by AFFEW’s efforts and funding.

Thousands of parade-goers watched as ten AFFEW members “biked” the float and pushed two giant battery mock-ups and two baby strollers with donation buckets down Ludington Avenue. AFFEW encouraged viewers to donate $55.00 to underwrite the cost of recycling the contents of a 10-gallon bucket, which would be placed at a location of their choosing – thus motivating area residents and visitors to recycle even more household batteries and keep them out of landfills.

Thanks to the generosity of AFFEW grant organizations like the Mason County Community Foundation and Dow Chemical, AFFEW has provided 7 drop-off buckets for household battery recycling throughout the past year.

Existing recycling buckets can be found at the Ludington and Scottville libraries, West Shore Community College, Evergreen and Briggs Hardware, Mason County Central Middle School, the United Methodist Church and Peoples’ Church.

The supplementary sponsorship campaign was started because of the many requests which have come in for additional locations beyond what grant funds can support. We have received contributions from five new sponsors, including

Ludington Peoples’ Church, Ludington Garden Club, Bonnie Pfefferle, Marsha and Ron Maluchnik, Barb Sytsma, and Kathryn and David Spitler.

AFFEW also gratefully acknowledges the generous efforts of Lynne and Larry Gaylord, and Deb and Fred Cooper in helping us to create the new July 4th float.

Welcome to the AFFEW Blog, where you can get the latest newsletters and event information on the Mason County Michigan environmental education and action group called A Few Friend for the Environment of the World (A.F.F.E.W.). You can also get lots of great information at our website, www.affew.org.