editor@yourmonthlypaper.com
August 2012 Lafayette’s New Community Garde rden
Serving the Lafayette Community
By Fran Miller Lafayette’s new community garden will one day provide a harvest bounty to those who water, plant, mulch and nurture but the promise of sun-ripened produce is not necessarily the garden’s allure. Perhaps the most enticing aspect of the garden, located on Mt. Diablo Blvd. across from the Lafayette Reservoir, is the sense of community that is engendered amongst its membership of fifty individuals and/or families, each of whom commit to a minimum two hours per week of service.
Trust In Education volunteer Grace Magney, a resident of Kabul, Afghanistan, shares her solar cooking expertise with villagers.
Trust in Education Brings Solar Ovens to Afghanistan By Fran Miller
Lafayette Community Garden members John Eaton, and Alice and Gary Stern, display the garden's first harvest.
The Lafayette Community Garden (LCG) members know that real community is more than sharing a similar address in the same town. Interdependence, hard work and cooperation – all aspects required for a successful community-based garden - are integral components in bringing people together. While LCG member Peggy Magilen definitely looks forward to the tomatoes, zucchini, watermelon, and Lafayette Community Garden entrance. lettuces that will be soon be her due in exchange for soiled fingernails and a slight sunburn, she is far more motivated by the positive mental health aspects of working in a team of like-minded people. “We all spend so much time secluded in our own
See Garden continued on page 20
Local Postal Customer
PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Permit 21 Lafayette, CA
ECRWSS
Solar power aficionado Jack Howell was enjoying his morning coffee at the Lafayette Peet’s about a year ago, when he made a serendipitous discovery which subsequently resulted in a cooperative arrangement which has served to increase the quality of many lives, half a world away. Howell took notice of the mylar bags in which Peet’s packs its whole beans. Mylar, an expensive material, is the key ingredient in the making of solar ovens. Howell had joined forces with Budd MacKenzie and his Trust in Education program (TIE) in introducing the use of solar ovens to the citizens of Afghanistan. A quick conversation with Peets’ manager, in which Howell explained the Solar Oven Project, has since led to a cooperative mylar donation arrangement between TIE and Peet’s locations in Lafayette, Pleasant Hill and Alamo, enabling TIE to send 950 solar ovens to Kabul. Most will be distributed to families living in refugee camps in and around Kabul. Many in Lafayette are familiar with Budd MacKenzie and his Trust in Education program, initiated in 2003 as a pro-active effort to help the victims of wars waged in Afghanistan. He felt that his friends and neighbors could rally around the ideology that all children deserve an education and a building in which to be educated. They raised $60,000, and a school was built in the village of Lalander. His grass-roots organization is now providing educational, economic, and health care assistance to ten villages in Afghanistan. TIE informs and enlists
See Solar continued on page 8
Shakespeare for Kids For nearly 30 years Carol Upshaw’s Shakespeare for Kids for Renaissance Study, aka Shakespeare Camp, has been held in Lafayette. Pictured are campers singing “Here's Good Luck to Will Shakespeare! Good luck to the ‘Barley Mow!’” To learn more about the Shakespeare program, visit shakespeareforkids.us.
Volume V I- Number 8 3000F DANVILLE BLVD #117 ALAMO, CA 94507 Telephone (925) 405-6397 Fax (925) 406-0547 editor@yourmonthlypaper.com Alisa Corstorphine ~ Publisher The opinions expressed herein belong to the writers, and do not necessarily reflect that of Lafayette Today. Lafayette Today is not responsible for the content of any of the advertising herein, nor does publication imply endorsement.