We Baltimoreans are all proud of the healthy food initiatives launched by Baltimore City Public Schools through the spark of Tony Geraci, our food services director. Healthy lunches, schoolyard vegetable gardens, Seed to Table education about where food comes from, adventurous tastings for our kids…it’s a model that receives national press.

There’s a film in the making and with help from this Pepsi Challenge, perhaps it can be completed sooner. You can vote every day through March 31! Preview the film thus far and vote here.

The Baltimore Office of Sustainability just put up its new website.  Lots of information therein, structured to reflect the Sustainability Plan and its implementation.  Glad to be a link on the Education & Awareness page!

Wendy Brawer, Green Map’s founder is a Finalist in the competition for the We Media Change Maker award. If she wins the popular vote,  she gets a keynote speech slot at the We Media Conference in March. All Green Mappers worldwide will benefit from the exposure.  The better funded GMS central is, the faster they can develop the resources that support all our local efforts.  That is why I nominated her and why I hope you will help turn out the votes.*

Let’s see if through our international network of Green Mappers and map fans we can vault her to top vote-getter spot on the list of 24 finalists!  If each of us sends out a VOTE request to all our social media networks surely we can entice many 100s of people to support her nomination.

The winner is decided through public vote by FEBRUARY 3.  Friends, please help her win! AND pass this along to your networks.  Read about her activities and impact, then scroll down to the bottom of the sidebar, click VOTE, then click spot for Wendy Brawer, then click VOTE again…

*And with substantial support who knows what other ideas can grow from the creative, collaborative mind of Ms. Brawer.

Attended Greater Homewood Community Corporation’s 3rd Annual Neighborhood Institute on Saturday.  BGM’s new intern, Deborah Sharpe, and I set up an information table for Baltimore Green Map and our new project, the Waverly/Greenmount/Charles Village Green Map. (See President Obama smiling on our enterprise.)

The event provided opportunities to share the many examples of effective strategies for improving the health of our neighborhoods and showcased the education assets at Barclay and Margaret Brent Schools. We met some real powerhouses of local activism.  It’s the people involved that make the difference!

Deborah, a graphic design major at Towson University, will collaborate on youth mapping and design tools as her senior capstone project.  We are working with Barclay School and surrounding neighborhoods to feature information on local resources and success stories through Green Mapping in print and interactive media. Welcome, Deborah!

I came to found Baltimore Green Map through an interest in helping people locate resources and share information.  Here are two recent examples of mapmaking (not Green) that are inspirational:

First, in response to the  devastation in Haiti, the Ushahidi Project, a free and open source mapping platform, has created this Crisis Map. It’s a vehicle for helping people locate emergency medical needs, missing persons, etc. through aggregating various modes of crowd-sourcing to create a real time visualization for humanitarian workers and the public.

Second, the Bioneers Collaborative Project,  Dreaming New Mexico has created two beautiful and visionary maps depicting the state in 2020, addressing Food and Farming in a Foodsheds Map and NM’s energy future in Renewable Energy Map.

As a new experiment, BGM has created two moderated neighborhood-scale maps.  We are asking residents of Waverly/Greenmount /Charles Village to suggest additional sites in preparation for our mapping project this Spring with more structured youth and resident participation components:

A second map is being used to solicit input on Roland Park neighborhood’s Master Plan process. We’ve started the map with a few entries and are asking folks to identify significant elements that contribute to the livability of the community and should be maintained/protected/encouraged.   You can find the Roland Park & Environs Livability Map here.

Two opportunities to help create neighborhood maps. Please contribute by adding sites, pictures, and comments!

Ever since I was born, my extended family has participated in a tradition of holiday gift-giving.  As my mother is only one of eight siblings – all of whom have children, and many of whom have grandchildren – over the years the exchange has grown to somewhat ridiculous proportions.  At long last, and not a Christmas too soon, my entire family – with the possible exception of those members under the age of ten – has embraced the notion that the continued accumulation of material goods should no longer be an integral part of our holiday festivities.

However, there is still something to be said for the spirit of giving that the exchange of gifts represents.  After all, it would be unfair to deny that there are definitive elements of thoughtfulness and caring expressed in the act of giving a loved one a present. Perhaps it is for this reason that the tradition has endured for so many generations.  Since our environment is suffering in so many ways though, it is my hope that most reasonable people will be willing to make small changes in their everyday lives for the greater good of our planet.  This is precisely the reason why I am suggesting an alternative approach to exchanging gifts this year; one that preserves tradition, embraces the spirit of holiday generousity, and simultaneously conserves valuable natural resources and hard-earned income.

Two words:  Book swap.

Though it has most likely been done before, I am still proud to say that the idea was a product of my mother’s own invention, and was quickly and enthusiastically embraced by (almost) all of my extended family.  The premise is simple: everyone brings an old book that they feel someone else may enjoy reading, and in return receives a book themselves.  The odds are that even if they’ve been packed into a cardboard box and stashed up in a dusty attic, the vast majority of households have a few books lying around somewhere.  More than likely, there will be at least one novel or non-fiction piece tucked away somewhere that either influenced or entertained you at some point in your life.  I would argue that providing those closest to you with the opportunity to share in that experience can be far more meaningful than a new blender (and that’s coming from a guy who loves to blend!)

So if you’re feeling adventurous this holiday season, consider having each of your family members or friends pick a favorite book off the shelf to swap for a different one.  Regardless of whether you end up loving or hating the book you take home, at the very least you’ll have something to talk about next year.  And as an added bonus, you can take comfort in knowing that you did your part to help conserve natural resources by reusing instead of consuming, and saved some money in the process.  Besides, the opportunity to give a gift that could have a profound impact on somebody’s life, in my opinion, makes this traditional holiday alternative a no-brainer.

Cheers,
Brian

Wendy Brawer, Green Map Systems’s founding director, and Green Mappers from Indonesia, China, Sweden, and Denmark are making presentations in various forums surrounding the COP15 conference. Wendy is blogging about her experiences there as well. As GMS recently passed the “100 new projects in 2009″ mark, Green Mapmaking is on its way to becoming a global currency for travelers interested in sustainable living.

Wendy’s picture from Copenhagen shows the great illuminated globe topping the energy exhibits.

Here in Baltimore we are looking forward to instigating more global exchanges with young mapmakers as we undertake some youth mapping initiatives in 2010.

Do you know students who have made a difference in the environment in the past year?

Our Mid-Atlantic Office of the Environmental Protection Agency is looking for nominations for the 2009 President’s Environmental Youth Awards,  due December 31, 2009.  The Mid-Atlantic regional award winner will receive a plaque and a trip to an EPA-sponsored award ceremony in Washington, D.C.  All student participants, from each project application, will receive a certificate signed by the President honoring them  for their efforts to protect human health and the environment.

From the PEYA website:

Since 1971, EPA has sponsored the President’s Environmental Youth Awards (PEYA). The program recognizes young people across America for projects which demonstrate their commitment to the environment. Young people in all 50 states and the U.S. territories are invited to participate in the program.

Projects submitted in the past have covered a wide range of subject areas including recycling programs in schools and communities; construction of nature preserves; major tree planting programs; videos, skits, and newsletters created by students that focused on environmental issues; and environmental science projects. To be eligible to compete, a student or students, sponsored by an adult, must submit to their local EPA regional office evidence of a completed project as defined in the PEYA application, as well as a completed application.

Rules and applications can be viewed or downloaded from the EPA’s PEYA website.   Please contact Ellen Lucchetti at (215) 814-3287 or at: lucchetti.ellen@epa.gov if you have questions.

Think of it as the  ThanksGiving Giving Challenge.

First there’s the Give More; Get More Global Giving Challenge with its matching funding. Your donation will help Green Map System to grow and better serve the 100’s of Green Mapmakers worldwide:

The more donors, the better, giving whatever you can afford $5.  $10.  or much more.

and don’t forget to support your local Baltimore Green Map!  We have a link to paypal and instructions as to where to send a check on our website. Again, any amount much appreciated! Tax-deductible, too. Help us expand our outreach and mapping projects. We’re in the planning stages for some neighborhood-scale projects right now. And looking toward a reprint/update of the Jones Falls Trail map in 2010.

THANKSforGIVING!