Tickled pink!

I'm tooting my own horn here, just a little, but I'm also tooting the horn of a wonderful program run by the City of Edmonton. On Wednesday night, there was a volunteer appreciation gathering of Master Composter/Recycler volunteers for the City of Edmonton's Waste Management Services, and yours truly received the 2012 Innovation award. It's the best "trophy" I've ever seen, because it's actually useful! A pretty bouquet of flowers with a "keeper" of a solid crystal vase (plaque on the bottom), so now I'll be able to bring in my delphiniums in the spring without having my cheap little vases tipping over all the time. Thanks, you wonderful people at Waste Management Services!

I'm really tickled pink, because I didn't do much, honestly. The innovation award was given to me mainly because of a song that came to me as my final project during my MC/R course in 2007. If you haven't seen it before, beware -- it's a bit of an earworm!

It's kind of taken on a life of its own as a video, having about 20,000 views on YouTube. The YouTube experience showed me that it's possible to share ideas with people I wouldn't ordinarily meet via the internet, so I should give the Waste Management people an award for indirectly inspiring this blog, too!

"Do I need it?" has also gotten me return invitations to give a little welcoming address to all the MC/R course grads for the last five years, something I have really enjoyed, because I get revved up again with all their enthusiasm. Getting the award on Wednesday was a surprise, because my imbalance over the past year has curtailed my ability to spread the composting/recycling message on a larger scale. No trade show or community displays for me -- I have a hard time keeping my balance in crowds. Even so, the fine people at Waste Management gave me credit just for posting moodlings about composting and grasscycling!

Overall, being a Master Composter/Recycler volunteer has been great fun, because I've met a lot of like-minded people who are not only concerned about our planet's health, but who take steps in their lives to address environmental issues. Even better than receiving the award on Wednesday (with a bunch of more deserving people) was having a staff member tell me, "Maria, when you gave your speech to the grads in May and you said that waste is a social justice issue, that really hit home for me."

Master Composter/Recyclers "get" the Voluntary Simplicity thing more than most, though they may not call it that. I'll be sure to keep hanging out with them!

If you want to know more about the joys of the MC/R program, you'll find a link to it here, and a past moodling about it here. Please consider joining the MC/R Program, or something like it where you live. If you're in the Edmonton area, watch this space for more details in the spring!