As part of a recent donation from the Freeman Corporation, Greener Vegas was very happy to have partnered with the Las Vegas Urban League to distribute 150 electric fans and over 1000 repurposed show bags into our senior community.

The fans, used only for a few days on a recent convention, were collected by Greener Vegas as part of our Repurpose AMERICA Program. On July 21^st the Las Vegas Urban League Director Ronald Evans and his staff passed out more than 80 of the 150 fans and bags to seniors who came to the Urban Leagues center at 2420 Martin Luther King Blvd as part of their daily distribution to needy.

During these hot summer months many low-income seniors are in dire need of additional cooling for their homes. These excellent fans are a welcome addition. The show bags (donated from the recent Infocomm 10 show) are also a handy item. The Urban league will continue to distribute these bags with the many other items they dispense to seniors 5 days a week.

Thank you to the Freeman Corporation, Infocomm, and the Las Vegas Urban League for partnering with Greener Vegas to make this summer just a little cooler for these deserving seniors.

To see more photos of this COOL event CLICK HERE

GV Judges diplay winning entries

Last month Greener Vegas concluded our first annual “What is Your Re-Purpose?” contest to several Clark County Schools. This project was created to help educate and promote creative solutions to our over abundance of waste in the Valley.

  Non-recyclable items collected by Greener Vegas were provided to local Clark County School District elementary and middle schools from the Greener Vegas Distribution Center. The project challenged students to utilize these items to find new and ingenious ways to repurpose them.  The items donated for use in this project were repurposed from various tradeshows including magnetic signs, vinyl banners, reusable show bags, convention badge holders, and foam-core boards.

The students were given the task to create and construct new and different uses for the donated items, and give an explanation of how they would like to see their entry used. The middle school classes also had the option of writing an essay to express their creativity instead of a constructed project.  The program is designed to give students a hands-on perspective about the amount of waste in Las Vegas, while challenging young minds to offer solutions to our every growing mound of refuse.

Over 500 students participated from Jerome Mack and Hyde Park Middle School, as well as Ms. Hutchinson’s Art Club from Lois Craig Elementary School, culminating in 15 very creative and ingenious entries.

Greener Vegas assembled a group of volunteer members in the community who are concerned with environmental sustainability to serve as judges.

Judges:

The three first prize winners in each of 3 categories were:

Thank you to the students, teachers, and schools for participating in this project. Also a big thank you to our judges, and a special thank you to our Greener Vegas Volunteer Christina Dodough, who planned, coordinated, and successfully extended this project into the community.

To read the full press release on this event CLICK HERE 

What do wooden shipping crates, a few bales of straw, and a couple of rolls of plastic tarp have in common? Would you believe… community gardens?

Where else but in Las Vegas would you find community gardens created from materials repurposed from the convention industry? But that’s exactly what Rhonda Killough, Program Director for Project Angel Faces, has decided to do.

By teaming up with Greener Vegas, Rhonda is able to take repurposed materials (like used shipping crates and booth materials donated by Mizco’s Cellular Innovations), and with her army of volunteers, transform them into raised garden beds; Large support pillars, once used as part of the booth structure, are being converted to compost bins; Bales of straw (samples from a landscape convention) will provide mulch; sheets of plastic, previously used to protect carpeted areas, become greenhouse covering; and grid-wall panels that have been used a few too many times, will now be used as shelving for trays of vegetables.

Talk about repurposing!

All of these materials were available to Project Angel Faces through the Greener Vegas Repurpose AMERICA program. Volunteers from both Project Angel Faces and Greener Vegas helped to deliver and unload this most recent donation to the site of these future gardens.

Project Angel Faces is a multifaceted social service organization working to improve quality of life in our community by providing fresh fruits and vegetables to our elders, youth and intellectually challenged citizens in need. We at Greener Vegas look forward to our continued partnership with Project Angel Faces.

For more info on Project Angel Faces go to: www.projectangelfaces.org

Greener Vegas enjoys a challenge.

If you (or your convention association or business) has materials you would like to see repurposed by Greener Vegas’ Repurpose AMERICA Program, please contact us at 702.431.8037 or email us at info@greenervegas.org

Donation to Cornerstone Christian Fellowship

Sometimes Greener Vegas receives donations of items that we are not quite sure HOW to repurpose. Case in point—a few months ago we received a donation of several pallets of “Cowboy” props. These included a mock covered wagon, saddles, old lanterns, boxes decorated to look like bales of hay, cattle skulls, etc.

Not knowing for sure how to place these items, we reached out into the community and through our network of members were contacted by a group from the Cornerstone Christian Fellowship Church. Each summer (this year on June 15^th-June 18^th) their members conduct the western themed “Saddle Ridge Ranch Vacation Bible School”

This event caters to approximately 250 kids ages 4 years-5th grade and over 100 volunteers! Daily 9am-12pm and then a big performance Fri night by all the kids from 6:30-7:30pm followed by a carnival…jump house, water slide, pie eating contest, seed spittin’ contest, and even horseshoes.

When one of the event organizers, Cristina Stretz, saw the photos of the cowboy props she contacted Greener Vegas immediately…”Was I dreaming or did someone send me an email saying you can donate western cowboy items to our church for Vacation Bible School??!!

It will be an answer to PRAYER if it is true!!”

Greener Vegas loves to answer prayers.

After Cristina and several volunteers picked up the materials from our distribution center, she wrote again…

“Greener Vegas’ generosity makes it possible to be decorating our main sanctuary, foyer, and several classrooms along with outside playground for Friday night carnival. 

We will be decorating the stage area with the wagon and many other props from Greener Vegas as part of a daily skit that our cowboys “Dusty” and “Rusty” will be performing in!”

The best part of this repurposing is that it doesn’t end after the event at Cornerstone. Following their event all of these items will be passed forward to the Foothill Baptist Church that will be picking up the props and using them for their Saddle Ridge Ranch later this year (and we hear that they will, in turn, be passing forward to yet a third church in New Mexico after that).

Stayed tuned for more on this repurposing project…

The Cornerstone Christian Fellowship has a membership of 750 and is located at 5825 W. Eldora Las Vegas, NV 89146, led by Pastor Greg Massanari.

Thank you to Eric and Cristina Stretz, Gunner and Tyler Power, and Jennifer Saunders (in photos) for taking time to repurpose these materials.

 The INTERBIKE International Trade Expo was held at the Sands Sept. 23-25. The show was a terrific success with higher than expected numbers and an upbeat crowd. Greener Vegas worked with Megan Lara of Nielsen Business Media to collect and reuse signage from the INTERBIKE expo. Many of the 3×8 signs through out the lobby were dated material with this years events and that material will be added to the materials that Greener Vegas will offer through our Repurpose AMERICA Program.

Greener Vegas, a 501(c) 3 Public Charity was named as the designated charity for INTERBIKE and received many wonderful donations. On Monday morning after the show, we had the pleasure of delivering 14 cases of Ice Cold SILK soymilk to the Ruby Thomas Parent Center. It was gratefully received and went in many directions in the community. We would like to thank all the vendors for their generosity and support of our programs. It is a goal of every nonprofit to reach a large targeted audience, Greener Vegas’ target is the community of Las Vegas. The donations from INTERBIKE will allow us to reach into the community and introduce the Greener Vegas’ Repurpose AMERICA Program in a very positive light. Thank you to the Interbike Association and the many exhibitors who donated items to us. We are working on creating a couple of contests that we will present to the community so that we can spread the goodies around. We will keep you advised of the progress and results.

On Friday July 31, Greener Vegas donated 1200 sq ft of carpet and pad to Habitat’s latest Las Vegas house. The carpet was originally used at a recent convention and with the impending move of the Freeman, Cheyenne warehouse was slated for the landfill. As part of Greener Vegas’ continuing efforts to help Freeman make the “greenest” move possible, Cynthia Stimple-Chief Operating Officer for GV reached out to Roger Cooper, Project Manager for Habitat for Humanity; to see if they would have use for this very nice grey carpet. Our timing was perfect as Habitat was just putting the last coat of paint on the house. The carpet is scheduled to be installed mid August.

Habitat for Humanity Las Vegas, Inc. is a non-profit Christian housing ministry organization that builds simple, decent, affordable houses with the help of countless people donating time, materials and funds. Each home is sold – at no profit through a 0% interest mortgage – to local working families who other wise might be forced to live in substandard housing. These families contribute “Sweat Equity” aiding in the labor and construction of their own home and the homes of other Habitat families. Through this unique partnership, Habitat for Humanity Las Vegas offers a hand up, not a hand out.
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Greener Vegas is happy to acknowledge that through the cooperation and support of Freeman and their exhibitors these easily repurposed materials will help make a house a home and will be used and enjoyed for many years to come. We would like to commend Freeman for seeking out more environmentally friendly and socially conscious alternatives to eliminating surplus materials. 

Thank You Freeman!

Participating stores and restaurants will prominently display Greener Vegas drop bins for depositing donations to the program. While the focus of the program is primarily copy paper, all donations of school supplies will be gladly accepted.

Last year’s program began in November 2008, when at the end of a convention, Greener Vegas caught 14 cases of copy paper destined for the landfill and donated them to a local school. This spurred the idea that many in the businesses community might be looking for a way to help with the economic challenges that the Clark County School District was facing. A challenge was issued by Greener Vegas for businesses and individuals to contribute to the program, and so the first “Paper for the Schools” Program collected 40 cases of copy paper and 140 rolls of art paper, and then redistributed the paper to over 28 schools and community programs.

This year CVS stores and Jason’s Delis will provide drop off locations for the public to contribute individual donations.
Jennifer Hilderbrand, District #6 store manager for CVS Stores contacted Greener Vegas with an interest in participating in the 2nd Annual “Paper for the Schools” Program. The program at CVS will start with the ‘Back to School Sales’ August 1st and run through September 30. The public is encouraged to support the “Paper for the Schools” Program while doing their own shopping with a simple donation to the education of the children in our community. “At CVS we aren’t just a business in the community we are a part of the community and as such we want to support efforts that make a difference”.
Genie Huff, Director of Marketing and Catering for Jason’s Delis, also contacted Greener Vegas. Jason’s had made a donation to our program last year, and this year wanted to do even more. All five Jason’s locations will have a drop box available for your donations from July 27th - August 20th.
Businesses interested in participating in the “Paper for the Schools” Program can contact Greener Vegas directly through their website www.greenervegas.org or call Cynthia Stimple at 702.431.8037.

This program is open to all donations of school supplies, copy paper, art paper.
We will also accept letterhead or logo paper from businesses that have had address changes or have closed. For more information see www.greenervegas.org/paper_2009.php

Cleared and repurposed! What's next?

lots of life left in this crate

In our continuing efforts to help facilitate the “greenest” possible move from the Freeman Cheyenne warehouse to its new location in Mojave Arizona, Greener Vegas has just finished clearing and empting 53 crates left from DTS Coast Management. The crates, filled with various materials left from an RV and Boat tradeshow sometime ago were destined for the landfill. The crates alone were a thing of beauty as they were all either made out of ¾” birch plywood or all one size with steel reinforced rails. Not materials that should be casually sent to the landfill as there is life left in their usefulness. And so, Greener Vegas worked with David Phillipi at the North West Career and Technical Academy to repurpose not only some of the materials; shelving and gridwalls, but also 14 of the crates. This was an enormous task as the metal shelving is very heavy and the crates huge, more than 7’ long. The gridwall is going into a store at the school that the students are designing and the crates will be used in various building projects throughout the school year. Ahern rentals partnered with Greener Vegas by delivering and donating the use of a 6’ tine forklift to facilitate the move.
Five of the birch crates, which were built like workshop storage cabinets, complete with special security locking systems, went to Mojave High School, where they will serve their purpose for many years to come.
Greener Vegas wishes to thank DTS Coast, Freeman and Ahern Rentals for working with us to make a difference with the environment and the community. As a 501(c)3 public charity we are dependent on your cooperation and support. We are happy to work with companies who practice Social Corporate Responsibility. Thank you.

Peaceful planning, Labyrinth Works!

The summer session at University of Nevada, Las Vegas offered students majoring in Hotel Management a month long program on event planning. The culmination of the session was held on Monday June 29, at The Springs Preserve when the students, led by Tetsu Sato presented the seminar-Peaceful Xeriscape - The Path of Labyrinth. Lectures were presented by horticulturist; Linn Mills and UNLV Professor Gael D Hancock.
For over 4,000 years labyrinths have been found in cultures throughout the globe and are used for reflection, stress relief and meditation. The workshop presented historical and creative ways to develop a personal labyrinth design that included using water conservation, desert adapted plants, and the layout and design of the labyrinth itself.
Attendees were greeted with welcome signs created using repurposed foam core board provided by Greener Vegas, who also supplied pens, paper, name badges and cups for the event. Tetsu Sato contacted GV for a few simple supplies that allowed a ‘professional and organized presentation at the seminar’. “We were happy to work with Greener Vegas as a focus of our green conservation efforts in our presentation. The supplies were very helpful. I hope that Greener Vegas will receive positive recognition as a result of working with our class.”
Our thanks to our partners; both business and convention partners, who send small and LARGE amounts of office supplies our way. They are always put to good use.
For more information on this event contact Tetsu Sato Hotel Management Major, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Supplies were provided by Greener Vegas’ Repurpose AMERICA Program

Thanks Skip for including Greener Vegas. It was a terrific event.