Category: Green Drinks - PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good

After Action Report - Green Drinks

8/5/2019

Green Drinks - After Action Report
for June & July

Fresh Deli - 421 W. River Drive, Davenport, Iowa

Environmental Forum

Green Drinks!

June

Flood waters had finally receded, so our June Green Drinks went on as scheduled. Karen Neder gave an excellent presentation on Terracycling and provided a wide range of materials that can be recycled from your kitchen, bathroom, office and more. Numerous companies have formed brigades and are recycling materials from their own production, as well as from competing brands. Terracycle Quad Cities is a company that collects and recycles thousands of products. Check out Karen’s Facebook page or go to the Terracycle Quad Cities website directly for a list of products. They range from snack bags to toothpaste tubes to juice pouches. The collection is stored and sorted at Trinity Lutheran Church in Moline and the proceeds go to the Blessings Preschool .

July

Our July Green Drinks had a good sized crowd of nearly 20 people. We chatted informally and got to know each other. We shared our concerns about climate change and local environmental issues. Representative attended from three presidential campaigns: Booker, Buttigieg, and O’Rourke, and they each shared details from their candidates’ environmental platform. Each campaign has been invited to attend, and may be at upcoming events. Check out www.greendrinks.org/IA/QuadCities for more details about our group. We meet at Fresh Deli from 5-7 pm on the last Thursday of each month.

Lori McCollum

Environmental Forum Meeting

6/24/2019

Environmental Forum Meeting - Monday, July 1st at 6:30 pm

Cobblestone Place, 1212 W 3rd Street, Davenport, IA (map)

The PACG Environmental Forum will meet on the first Monday of each month. We welcome newcomers to our Forum ~ this week’s topics include:

• The June 27, 2019 PACG Environmental Forum Green Drinks Gathering the last Thursday of every month from 5:00-7:00 pm. Join us for this networking opportunity at Fresh Deli at the Freight House (map).

• Meeting with Iowa and Illinois state legislators and federal representatives. Please bring a question you would like to ask your legislators https://votesmart.org/

• Earth Day 2020!!! Planning - Join us for this planning meeting!

Shirley Johnson

Next Green Drinks June 27, 2019

6/17/2019

Green Drinks - Thursday, June 27th from 5:00-7:00 pm

Fresh Deli at the Freight House
421 W River DR, Davenport, IA (map)

Environmental Forum

Our next Green Drinks event will be on Thursday, June 27th from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. Karen Neder from the Earth Keepers group at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Moline will share with us her recycling program with Terracycle - Quad Cities. You’ll be surprised at what all you can recycle and keep out of the landfill. Set a reminder on your smart phone calendar, so you don’t miss this event. See our Green Drinks - Quad Cities website for the next meeting days.

We’ve been discussing various environmental issues, and brainstorming what we need to do to raise awareness of climate change and to encourage everyone to vote. Come join us on the last Thursday of each month at Fresh Deli, from 5 pm to 7 pm.

Susan Leuthauser

Green Drinks After Action Report

6/17/2019

Green Drinks - After Action Report
The Last Thursdays - March through May

Fresh Deli at the Freight House in Davenport
Environmental Forum

March 28th -
We had an enthusiastic crowd for our first Green Drinks event. Everybody was excited to start this tradition in the QCA.

April 25th -
On a stormy evening, Tara Witherow shared how she turned her lawn into a garden with native plants, which provide food for native insects and birds. Under the Davenport Native Roots Program, when a yard contains more than 80% native plants, it no longer needs to be mowed. Doing so, Tara no long used lawn chemicals, which end up in our water; eliminated emissions from lawn care equipment; brought back biodiversity; provided food for the pollinators; and brought carbon back into the soil. The added benefits are the time and cost savings in lawn care. That sounds like a win-win. You can learn more about what Tara did to her lawn the following Quad City Times article ("Lawns are Wasted Space") or contact Tara on her Facebook page.

May 30th -
Flood water covered the parking lot in front of Fresh Deli, but Green Drinks went on as scheduled. Dawn Temple, Administrator of the Rock Island County Soil and Water Conservation District brought her bin of worms and food wastes, and shared with us her Vermicomposting experience. In the US, we each generate about 277 pounds of food waste a year and only 3% of that is composted. Vermicomposting uses red wiggler worms, available from the bait shop, to compost. These worms eat their own weight in food every day, and produce nutrient-rich compost in about 3 months. This is done in a well-ventilated, covered storage bin that is kept indoors. The system is amazingly clean and odorless. It would be a great activity for the young environmentalist. For more information contact Dawn Temple on her Facebook page.

Susan Leuthauser

Environmental Forum Meeting

5/28/2019

PACG Environmental Forum Meeting -
Monday, June 3rd at 6:30 pm

Cobblestone Place
1212 W 3rd Street, Davenport, IA (map)

The PACG Environmental Forum will meet on the first Monday of each month. We welcome newcomers to our Forum ~ this week’s topics include:

June 27, 2019 PACG Environmental Forum Green Drinks on the last-Thursday-of-the-month (5:00-7:00 p.m.) networking opportunity at Fresh Deli (map) at the Freight House.

Earth Day 2020!!! Planning the 50th anniversary

Meeting with Iowa and Illinois state legislatures and federal representatives. Please bring a question you would like to ask your legislator to our meeting Monday evening.

Voters deserve to know: Which candidates commit to acting on climate change as a "Day One" priority when in office. Whether presidential candidates support the Green New Deal or can offer their own climate plan that also meets the scale of the crisis.

Sixty-two percent of voters believe that the federal government should do more to address climate change. (Jennifer Marlon et al., "Yale Climate Opinion Maps 2018," Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.)

Join us for this planning meeting!

Shirley Johnson

Green Drinks Quad Cities in the Quad-City Times

3/22/2019

Environmental Forum's Green Drinks-Quad Cities in Local Press

Enviro-minded people invited to new group
from the Quad-City Times - March 20, 2019
Alma Gaul agaul@qctimes.com

Quad-Citians interested in the environment and conservation are invited to meet like-minded people Thursday, March 28, at the Fresh Deli restaurant at the Freight House, 421 W. River Drive, Davenport.

The gathering from 5-7 p.m. will be the first meeting of a group called Green Drinks Quad-Cities, a local affiliate of an international organization that was formed in London in 1989 and now has groups in 500 cities.

The purpose of Green Drinks is for people to get together, talk, exchange ideas about environmental issues, maybe even have fun and make new friends, said organizer Lori O'Dell McCollum, of Rock Island, representing Progressive Action for the Common Good, a Quad-City group that promotes community betterment and progressive values.

The Green Drinks group will meet the last Thursday of every month and is open to anyone.

While there are lots of environmental/conservation groups in the Quad-Cities, "most people don't know each other," McCollum said. "It will be a loosely formed networking group; it doesn't have a specific agenda," she said of Green Drinks. "We'll just wait and see what people want to do. A few groups are structured and have speakers. Every group seems to do something different."

To spread the word, McCollum is contacting a wide swath of entities in the public, private, nonprofit and educational sectors. This includes Sierra Club, Partners of Scott County Watersheds, Audubon Society, Earth Keepers, Niabi Zoo, Food Rescue, university Extension services, state departments of natural resources, The Nature Conservancy, Living Lands & Waters, Nahant Marsh, area colleges and others.

In Iowa, there are Green Drinks groups in Des Moines, Iowa City, Ames and elsewhere; in Illinois, groups have organized in the Chicago area as well as Peoria.

For more information, go to greendrinks.org, or email to McCollum at lori_mccollum@sbcglobal.net or Susan Leuthauser at swleuthauser@gmail.com.

Read the Article Online here

Environmental Forum Goals for 2019

2/12/2019

Environmental Forum 2019 Goals

Monthly Planning Meetings
First Mondays from 6:30 - 7:30 pm
Cobblestone Place
1212 W 3rd St
Davenport, IA (map)

We have identified our Goals for 2019 and they include the following events:

Green Drinks - Last Thursdays of the month through August, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm
Fresh Deli at the Freight House
421 W River DR, Davenport (map)

Beginning in March the PACG Environmental Forum will host a last-Thursday-of-the-month networking opportunity at Fresh Deli at the Freight House. This fun event is a must for anyone interested in protecting the environment! There is more information at the Green Drinks Quad Cities Facebook page.

Earth Day Events - Saturday, April 20th from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm
the Freight House
421 W River DR, Davenport (map)

PACG is partnering with the Farmer's Market on this outdoor celebration. Other groups are also participating. Our theme this year is Reducing Single Use Plastics, although there will be information and fun activities about so much more. Various speakers and displays will be on hand.

On Wednesday, April 17th, the yearly Earth Day Celebration, St Ambrose University will have a screening of "From Paris to Pittsburg," an important movie on Climate Change. This will be shown at the Rogalski Center from 7 to 9 pm.

In addition, these are ongoing issues we are working on:

Meeting with Iowa and Illinois state legislatures and federal representatives. We will listen and share our concerns about environmental issues.
Expanding our networking to local colleges, specifically their environmental groups, professors teaching courses in environmental science, and administrative staff who control the college's energy systems.

Join us for Green Drinks!

2/6/2019

PACG Presents GREEN DRINKS Quad Cities

Thursday, February 28th from 5:00 - 7:00 pm
Fresh Deli
421 W River Dr
Davenport (map)

Get together with like minded people to talk about issues involving the environment. Come to network, socialize, and great discussions all while having drinks!

We will meet the last Thursday of the month from 5:00 - 7:00pm.