Olivet Christian Church Disciples of Christ Sustainable Living Committee

Friday, June 10, 2016

Governor's 100 Missouri Miles

According to the flyer:

Missouri has been recognized as the "Best Trails State" in America. From neighborhood greenways to back country hiking trails, Missouri is crisscrossed by thousands of miles of spectacular trails to accommodate a wide variety of activities and interests. To celebrate this distinction and encourage Missourians to take advantage of Missouri’s award-winning trails, Governor Jay Nixon and First Lady Georganne Nixon are inviting Missourians to join them as they complete “100 Missouri Miles” of physical activity on Missouri trails this calendar year. The Governor’s 100 Missouri Miles Challenge is a great way to get healthy and have fun while exploring Missouri’s great outdoors. Whether you run, walk, bike, paddle, or roll, everyone can participate!

At this website you can see how many miles Governor Nixon and First Lady have walked, sign up to begin logging your miles, see what others are doing, and so much more!

https://100missourimiles.com/

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

June Sustainability Challenge

~JUNE CHALLENGE~

The June challenge is to start composting, it's the perfect time of year! This month in the OCN we highlighted how to get started composting and you can find the expanded information here on the blog: http://occsustainable.blogspot.com/2016/05/june-sustainability-article-expanded.html. In that extended article at the bottom you can find 3 great resources that can help take you through step by step how to get started. You can get started simply by just using an old ice cream container! For those of you that already have a composting system in place that’s great too, if you perhaps are having issues with it (smell-which it should have, not heating up, lots of insects, etc.) there is great trouble shooting information.

For everyone just send us photos of your systems if you want to get in the photo as well or perhaps photos of how you have used your compost we would love to see it! You might see it featured next month or you might be the proud new owner of a geobin composter which is the PRIZE FOR JUNE RAFFLE (see photo below)! Please send photos and names no later than July 1st to kaitlynwintersbradley@gmail.com.

Geobin composter- PRIZE FOR JUNE RAFFLE!

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Clary-Shy Park and the Columbia Farmers Market Design Voting

We have been asked to pass along the following information, and here you can have your say in the design for the future farmers market.

Please take some time to check out the designs for the Farmers Market/Urban Agriculture Park that the MU Architecture students put together. They are really impressive!!

The Ozark Mountain Daredevils design, one of four that you can vote on.

The MU Architectural Studies students finished their design work on Clary-Shy Park and the Columbia Farmers Market, and we are looking forward to taking what we have learned into the next phases of design. The final student projects are now posted online. Please see their work and fill out a quick survey https://studio2market.wordpress.com/give-feedback-online/. This survey will ask you to rank and comment on the four different park designs. We appreciate your feedback!

Questions? Contact Instructor Laura Cole: colelb@missouri.edu

May Monthly Challenge Winners

Each month we challenge you all to do something new. For May the challenge was to: Go outside and visit one of the hundreds of natural areas around mid-Missouri. This could have been a trail, conservation area, state park, city park, or anywhere in between!

This month the winner was

Shawn and Jason Keel!

These boys visited Runge Nature Center in Jefferson City, Missouri.

The boys playing on a trail at Runge Nature Center (Photo Credit: Tracy Keel)

Having fun on the turtle at Runge Nature Center (Photo Credit: Tracy Keel)

Congratulations to our winners! They won their very own Missouri State Park Centennial Passport book. This allows them the opportunity to travel around the state to visit a few or all of the 88 state parks and historic sites before Oct. 31, 2017. There are many different prizes associated with this book and hundreds of memories. If you would like your own book or more information about the program visit https://mostateparks.com/passport

You could be our winner next month, stay tuned for the June monthly challenge!

Honorable mention:

Karen and Kaitlyn Bradley who traveled to Ha Ha Tonka State Park and pictured is the 12th largest in the state. (Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Bradley)

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
Albert Einstein

Friday, May 27, 2016

June Sustainability Article Expanded

Good News for Planet Earth – Composting … ‘Black Gold’ for the Garden

Sustainable Living Steering Committee …. with special thanks to Bob Broz

Church Work Day

This past Sunday we held a work day at our church. The youth worked along with many wonderful adults and children working hand in hand while learning from each other. We have two beautiful raised beds that we planted many beautiful flowers, fruits, and veggies that we will be able to enjoy as the summer goes on! Enjoy the photos and as the summer progresses we will try and post some updates!

Getting some of our pots filled with flowers and vegetables- peppers and tomatoes.

Getting the raised beds planted with small and big hands alike working side by side, a great way to teach the next generation!

Trying to figure out what they were planting!

Some flowers that were almost taller than he was!

Many hands make light work, our wonderful watering crew!

One of the raised beds after we were finished filled with many fragrant flowers and even yummy strawberries!

We want to give a huge shout out to the Cub Scout Pack 990. We could not have finished all the mulching without the help of the young men of Pack 990 and their families. Also huge kudos to the Olivet Crew that came out to help, especially to Marilyn and Dennis Bettenhausen, and Anne Crousore for selecting and growing all of the wonderful vegetables and flowers! We appreciate everyone’s hard work this past Sunday- helping to plant flowers, strawberries, tomatoes, and peppers in our raised beds, weeding and mulching other flower beds and mulching trees!

See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.

~Song of Solomon 2: 11-12

Field Trip: Runge Nature Center

On April 17^th Olivet had 14 participants on the Runge Nature Center field trip. For some folks this was their first visit to this wonderful area, while others were seasoned veterans. We started out the morning on one of the shorter trails on a guided walk learning a bit more about the local flora and fauna, and completed a child friendly scavenger hunt using our eyes only finding things from worms, turkeys, deer, and everything in between! We also used our senses to hear, touch, and smell many other things. Once the ‘guided’ walk was completed we each went our separate ways with many enjoying the beautiful and interactive exhibits inside where they had a special focus on hummingbirds; others took longer hikes enjoying the beautiful forests, marshes, glades, and fire tower. After our time with nature's beauty we took a quick detour to Central Dairy to enjoy some refreshing ice cream on our way home!

Touring the garden at Runge with their focus on native plants, herbs, and vegetables. (Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Bradley)

Newly emerged buckeye flowers in the forest understory. (Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Bradley)

A few of the many white tailed deer that consider Runge home. (Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Bradley)

Wild turkeys that are seen almost every visit to Runge, this time of year they know they are safe on the conservation area. (Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Bradley)

A butterfly drinking from a dandelion, in early spring butterflies and bees rely on the nectar from dandelions until more flowers come up, but more and more these flowers are seen as a weed and eradicated leaving insects little to drink early in the spring. (Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Bradley)

A flowering dogwood, the Missouri state tree. (Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Bradley)

Group photo in front of Runge Nature Center. (Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Bradley)

Enjoying some Central Dairy ice cream! (Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Bradley)

To find out more about Runge Nature Center, visit http://mdc.mo.gov/regions/central/runge-nature-center and also look for Habitat Happenings, their bi-monthly newsletter that lists an amazing number of on- and off-site activities.

You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free margin, and even vagueness- perhaps ignorance, credulity- helps your enjoyment of these things.

~Walt Whitman

Olivet and the Disciples Green Chalice Ministry

Olivet has been actively engaged in caring for creation as a part of our ministry for the last several years. Many environmental and energy saving features were incorporated both in our current church building, constructed in the 1990’s, and in the more recent Music & Education addition.

The Green Chalice ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is designed to support and recognize Disciples congregations, like Olivet, who are working to become better stewards of creation. Green Chalice encourages us to review and expand our current environmental stewardship efforts in regard to our building and grounds, environmental practices, education and justice.

Becoming a Green Chalice congregation is a journey – it begins with commitment and education and continues as we work toward certification and achievement. In April 2015, the Olivet Board approved a proposal from the Sustainable Living Steering Committee, with concurrence of the Property Committee, that Olivet officially participate in the Green Chalice ministry, with the goal of becoming a Certified Green Chalice Congregation.

Commitment to the Green Chalice ministry begins with the formation of a congregational Creation Care Team, affirmation of the congregation’s intent to care for creation, and the making of three changes that help a congregation walk more gently on the earth.

~Olivet’s Sustainable Living Steering Committee serves as our Creation Care Team and offers several kinds of educational opportunities—outside speakers, tours, field trips and hands-on project—and encourages members and friends to participate in a wide variety of community environmental programs.

~On April 17, 2016, Earth Stewardship Sunday, the congregation will be invited to affirm our commitment to creation care here at home and also through participation in the Green Chalice Ministry, using The Alverna Covenant authored by the Disciples Task Force on Ecology at the Alverna Center, 1981.

~Olivet works toward walking more gently on the earth in a variety of ways. Programmable thermostats are installed throughout the building to reduce energy consumption. Mulching is used to help control weeds, reduce herbicide use and reduce water consumption. Recycling is encouraged and use of disposables has been reduced. For example, use of lovely cloth napkins made by members is just one way we reduce disposables and brighten our fellowship events. With help from the Property Committee, an energy assessment was conducted at the church building in May 2015 to help us recognize what positive steps had already been taken and where we could continue to make improvements.

As a Green Chalice congregation we are both encouraged and challenged to continue the journey of making positive changes that reduce adverse environmental impact and increase our ability to be good stewards of God’s creation.