CT Clean Energy Corps

The CT Clean Energy Corps have answered the President’s Youth Sustainability Challenge to share how we are creating an America built to last!

After two weeks of brainstorming, filming, and video editing (thank you Kevin), the video is finally up on the website: http://youthsustainability.challenge.gov/submissions/8222-small-changes-....

Check out our video and vote for us! We're proud of our hard work and can't wait to show it off. Winning videos will be featured at the U.S. Center in Rio during the conference. Challenge winners also will be invited to the White House for a special event on sustainability leadership.

Please click on the link above to watch our video. Our goal is to get 500 votes by Sunday (6/8). Sign in through Facebook (or create an account) to vote and share with your friends!

The Clean Energy Corps traveled to Macedonia State Park to get in touch with nature. It was a beautiful weekend filled with adventure and wonder. We pulled off several ticks, but of course used the training we had received from SCA. Once again it was always enjoyable to get out of the office and understand the environment that our other brothers and sisters in SCA work in every day. (jeff)

Camping with the Clean Energy Corps was one of my favorite weekends since moving to the east coast. We packed up our tents and headed west to Macedonia Brook State Park. There is always so much going on in our office that it can become a pretty stressful place, sometimes and we get so caught up working together that we forget to have fun together. It was so great to have a whole weekend of just fun; camping, hiking, building fires, making s'mores, and enjoying the company of some great people. Thanks to the CTCEC for being such a fun and adventurous group, I can't wait for our next excursion! (stacy)

Camping with the Corps in Kent, CT was crazy cool. My favorite part was hiking a beautiful stretch of the Appalachian Trail. We relaxed on a tiny beach by the river (where Kayla almost got eaten by a snake) and explored a shelter. I also enjoyed watching Jeff get stuck on a log in the middle of a creek (and then finding an abandoned jacket by the water). I fell into the fire but that's another story. Great times! (bijal)

It was really nice to spend time outdoors with my co-workers, when so much of time is spent in an office. It was a very beautiful weekend to spend with such beautiful people. Also, I saw a watersnake swim. (kayla)

I often feel the one major missing component in our office environment is wildlife, and my favorite part of the weekend was observing/harrassing the snakes, salamanders, Crows of Unusual Size, and Connecticut campers that roamed the untamed wilderness of Kent. Luckily we didn't cross paths with any bears or mountain lions, or I may have gotten what was coming to me. (jenna)

The corps also went on a camping trip in Kent. The weekend blessed us with beautiful weather, food and conversation! I hope it is the first of many camping trips for us. (kate)

Camping is one of my favorite pastime activities and I thoroughly enjoyed hiking the AT trail and finding a river beach to hang out on. It was also really neat to find a shelter and read some of the entries of AT hikers. At the end of our trip we went over to Kent Falls, one of my favorite spots in Connecticut. Next time we will definitely have a picnic there. (chamae)

Trail building was a great day of hard work and team bonding. We built a switchback into a too steep section of the Mattabesset trail here in Connecticut, making a much more fun, and safer hike for visitors. The day included lots of rain, black snake sightings, rocks covering potentially infinitely deep holes, and a new appreciation for the hazel hoe. Overall it was a lot of fun and a nice change of pace to get outdoors and work in the environment we joined this program to protect. (stacy)

I have to admit, I was not mentally prepared for a 45 minute hike involving a 55 degree incline to get to our rerouting site. It was refreshing though to get out of the office and doing manual labor more reminiscent of the typical SCA Corps. It was really cool to work on one of only 11 designated National Scenic Trails in the US. I have never done trail-work before and found it exciting to learn how to make something I use on a regular basis. (chamae)

Trailbuilding with the Corps was an amazing experience. The walk up to our site was tough, but we made it! We split up into two groups to work on the Mattabasset Trail. Stacy and I carved and raked a scenic path, while Jenna, Kayla, and Jeff used McLeods and hoes to dig the trail. It rained, but that did not slow us down! (bijal)

We worked with Clare of the CT Trails Association to build a switchback into one of the many local trails. It was very rewarding to work in an outdoor setting and see the fruits of our labor at the end of the day. Even though it rained us out of our last hour of work we cleared over half of the trail. (jeff)

If we only get one day to pretend to be a real SCA crew, we better make the most of it. We may have gone a little overboard with the dead tree tossing, boulder rolling, and loose dirt stomping, but once the skies opened up and we were all drenched in mud, you'd be hard pressed to say we didn't look authentic. I definitely see the appeal of plowing through a grassy hilltop with a McLeod or wrenching some rocks out of the ground with your bare gloved hands and watching the Armadillidiidae scurry away. It's fun to engage in the occasional guilt-free destruction for conservation's sake. (jenna)

Team McLeod worked hard. One of us has absolutely no skills and the other couldn’t determine the proper angle for knee bends when working with her tool. We moved many a rock and sang a home-spun song about acorns. Overall, I'd call that a good day. (kayla)

This month we volunteered with Clare from the CT Trails Association to build a switchback on a trail in Wallingford. It was a really great change from working in the office setting and the perfect way for us to help the natural environment. It is great to know that people will be using a trail for years the we help to build. (kate)

Aside from the perfectly vertical hill that we had to hike in on, this was a pretty great experience. It was pretty awesome to think that we're building something that hundreds of hikers will likely use for years to come. It was also good to see what so many other corps in the SCA do on a daily basis - I'm not sure I could do it, so props to the folks that do! (erin)

You probably know about our free Neighbor to Neighbor Lighting! program, but what you may not know is as a fun incentive for early participants: the first 250 homes to complete a lighting visit were entered into a raffle to win an LED upgrade. One lucky family in East Hampton (that’s my town!) won, and this month Kate & I got to install about $1,100-worth of LED light bulbs in her home. The family was awesome and super excited about the opportunity, but probably not as excited at Kate & myself. The LEDs were beautiful! So warm & bright. They reminded Kate of something out of a futuristic movie. They were bright yellow and black in color, and because they were 90% more efficient than incandescents they had a pretty diesel heat sink. I also got to hang out of a window to install some exterior lighting – which we don’t get to do on regular lighting visits! It’s so exciting that we got to experience something that is going to be the way of the future. Get ready for the LEDs to start taking over!

Kate and Kayla

Last month I had the opportunity to volunteer with Journey Home, an organization founded with the mission to end homelessness in the greater Hartford area. I served with a group of volunteers for three days, doing data entry and helping to administer the Vulnerability Index survey to homeless individuals in Hartford. The Index was developed to identify those at greatest risk of premature death from remaining homeless, and to help them obtain necessary services based on this identification. More broadly, it provides general statistics on the homeless population in Hartford and in every community across the country where it is administered. I spent one evening at the Immaculate Conception Shelter in Hartford, interviewing the men who were housed there about their history of homelessness, medical and mental problems, substance abuse, and arrests. Despite the difficult subject matter, everyone I spoke to was friendly, forthcoming, and brought a sense of humor to the conversation I wasn’t expecting. I’m grateful I was able to take part in this initiative, and hope to spend more time working with and learning about Hartford’s homeless population.

To learn more about the innovative solutions Journey Home is finding for homelessness, visit their website at http://www.journeyhomect.org/index.html.

April was an exciting month because I coordinated the launch of two campaigns in Glastonbury for Relay for Life/American Cancer Society and the Interfaith community.

In college I participated in the Relay for life every year. It was always really fun, really exhausting, and a great way to make a difference and connect with my team. I’m so excited for this opportunity to participate in a new and different way here in Connecticut. We set up a fundraiser so that people can participate in our program and make a difference by having a $25 donation be made to the American Cancer Society in their honor. I am very hopeful that it will inspire people finally do something they’ve been thinking about (having a home energy assessment).

I am also very excited to launch what we behind the scenes refer to as a Lighting Blitz! I have met with many pastors, reverends, and rabbis this month in an effort to launch an Interfaith Stewardship Challenge in Glastonbury focused on upgrading to energy efficient light bulbs. I really enjoy working with the faith community, because everyone cares. They care about each other, they care about their community, and they care about the environment. Aside from the fact that everyone needs an OK from someone else in their church or synagogue, everyone I met with has been very kind and interested. I cannot wait for this campaign to launch!

May has been the month of volunteers so far.

Being the volunteer coordinator for the program, I have been working to make sure that the rest of the corps members are clear on what we are supposed to be doing with our volunteers and how to get them at our events. So far, I have really enjoyed the process - seeing my thoughts and ideas actually get organized put into action has been really great.

Additionally, we've had a lot of awesome volunteer involvement at events in Wethersfield. On May 10, we had a successful presentation at a senior housing community where I had two volunteers helping out. This weekend I went to a beautiful garden sale put on by the Men's Garden Club where I had another volunteer helping out.

I'm getting super excited to start bringing in more and more folks to help out with our events and to watch our plans come to fruition in so many of our communities!

-Erin.

April has been a great month for the Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge and passed very quickly. We were lucky to get some beautiful summer weather which is just making me more anxious for summer to begin. In Ridgefield I tabled at the Ridgefield Library Climate change talk, the Woodcock Nature Center and had a meeting with Rudy Marconi. I also worked on setting up a Ridgefield Open house with one of the members of Ridgefield's Action Committee for the Environment. She works as an efficient lighting designer so has the most up-to-date light bulbs and fixtures in her home. She also has geothermal and solar PV! I can't wait to see other people's reactions to her gorgeous and energy efficient home! In East Haddam we finally came to the conclusion that canvassing is the way to go. It seems that most people in this town are do-it-yourselfers and don't really like to venture out to town events. So our solution: come to them.

April was a busy month for Westport and Lebanon!

In Westport, we hosted a Coalition Partner Meeting (see the picture below). Jess and I gave a brief overview of the Westport Home Energy Challenge and then we split into smaller groups to campaign plan for each partner. In Lebanon, I tabled at the Lebanon Connecticut Business Association’s Meet Our Town Expo. The best part about April was meeting new people and connecting with organizations in our towns!

I can’t wait for these April showers to be over! I’m counting down the days ‘til summer. Check out the picture from Sherwood Island State Park.