Come one, come all to celebrate 35 years of Durham's only locally owned organic grocery! Events include sampling of foods and drinks, performances by local musicians, kids' activities, and a biodiesel truck-full of information about actions YOU can take to reduce your ecological footprint and live in harmony with your local community. If you have ideas or expertise to share, please contact Sarah Palmer at (919) 286-1092 or email "mushiko_99@yahoo.com":mailto:mushiko_99@yahoo.com. We'll be starting at 10am and we will have the festival going until 8pm - come and join us in celebrating community!

Volunteers are needed to help the day run smoothly. Contact Sarah to see how you can help make this festival an event that will be attractive to our entire community. Do you cook? Yummy food samples needed for the
Community Sustainability Festival! Do you have a favorite recipe that you make from co-op ingredients? Would you be willing to make a big batch to donate for the Festival? Please contact Sarah at 286-1092 or
"mushiko_99@yahoo.com":mailto:mushiko_99@yahoo.com.

*We'll have a raffle and door prizes: locally produced products - crafts, soap, bread, T-shirts, jam, yummy food, ...*

*Performance Schedule*

* Music Explorium 10:30-11 and 12:15-12:45
* Jewelsong 11:30-12:00
* Alex Weiss 1:00-2:00
* The BilliTones with Billy & Toni Stevens 2:15 - 3:00
* Joe Woodson 3:30-4:15
* Jon Batson 4:30-5:15
* Robert Trowers and NCCU students music group 5:30-6:15.

*Kids' activities*

* Recycled Box City Construction
* Face Painting
* Sidewalk Decoration
* Fun, fun, fun and play

*Demos & Presentations*

* Ellerbee Creek - Demo: *Environmental Education*
* Leslie Pless - Lectures: *Sustainability and Slow Food*
* Sarah Palmer - Demo and Lecture: *Vermicomposting*
* ECO - Lecture: *Local suppliers*
* Bull City Biodiesel - Lecture/display: *Biofuels*
* Harbors Recyclery - Demo: *Bike Recyling*
* G.Kay Bishop - *Recycled Paper Decorations*
* Pesticide Education Project
* Kenneth Brown - *Simple Home Repairs*
* PAC 3 - *Community Policing*

h4. Festival Participants

*Artists*

* *Music Explorium Rhythm Circle Drum*, shake and jingle to fun rhythm games and community musical jams. No drumming experience necessary, just a smiling face and willing hands. Bring your own drums and hand percussion or borrow ours.
* *Jewelsong* is an eclectic women's vocal ensemble who share the joy of music through inspirational songs from many different spiritual traditions. Betsy Bickel, Farrunnissa Lila Rosa, Marilyn Grubbs, and Sofianna Sue-Anne Solem have been musicians most of their lives and have been singing together since 2002. They sing regularly at faith gatherings around the Triangle, at the Carrboro Music Festival, and have performed at the NC State Green Party Convention, the NC Dennis Kucinich rally, the "Surrounded By Light" benefit concert for Mark Malachi at the Carrboro ArtsCenter, and as part of the area-wide "Art and the Feminine Divine" project. Jewelsong was honored to be the featured guest artists at the "Passion of the Mother" ArtShine grand opening in 2004. They have composed and/or arranged most of their songs. "www.Jewelsong.net":www.Jewelsong.net
* *Alex Weiss & The Trilingual Conguera* - Interactive music & stories from Africa & The Americas.
* *Jon Batson* is a performing songwriter with several decades of experience, five original stage musicals and a string of album releases. Jon has performed at such unusual locations as the National Cathedral, the Grand Canyon and the Great Wall of China, as well as before the Kennedy family and the Vice Premier of China in a command performance. Jon wrote and recorded the official song for San Jacinto, California. His songs have appeared on Off-Hollywood (NBC Special), The Tonight Show and "Murder She Wrote". Jon is the recipient of the Religious Freedom Crusade Award and the Artists of a New Civilization Award. He recently won the Cape Fear Historical Society Short Story contest for the second year running. Recently Jon was included in Who's Who in America, here is the link to the "press release":http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/7/prweb414535.htm. You can find Jon's CDs and his songwriting journal, The Songwriter's Hook Book at "www.cdbaby.com":www.cdbaby.com, find his books and stories at "www.lulu.com/jonbatson":www.lulu.com/jonbatson and his home page is "www.jonbatson.com":www.jonbatson.com.
* *The BilliTones with Billy & Toni Stevens* As ambassadors of American culture and music, Billy and Toni Stevens have performed in over twenty-five countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Their musical programs educate while they entertain, demonstrating how social and cultural diversity contribute to American musics evolution. The duo, known as The BilliTones, recreates the sound of a whole band using five instruments between them, including synthesizers, harmonicas, and
percussion, as well as tight vocal harmonies. Compact and self-contained, they play classic tunes of the 50s through the 80s, including Motown, World Beat, rock n roll and rhythm n blues, for a variety of audiences, occasions, and venues. Billy and Tonis musical experience began during childhood when lessons on classical piano complemented their participation in chorus, glee club, and church choir. Inspired by rock n rollers of the 50s and 60s, Billy began playing blues and country harmonica while at Duke University, winning four championships at the Fiddlers Grove convention in Union Grove, North Carolina. As a founding member of the acoustic comedy trio, "Red Herring," the classic rock band, "Boney Maroney," and the urham nightspot, the Sallam Cultural Center, Billy has been intimately involved in the Triangle music scene from the 70's through the 90's. He began technology-driven solo performances in the early 80s, becoming a Modern-Day One-Man Band" with his custom array of keyboards, harmonicas, drum machines and effects. This made possible tours for the U.S. State Departments office of cultural affairs (formerly the United States Information Agency) and since 1986, Billy toured on their behalf to over fifty countries in the developing world. Toni joined Billy on stage in 1993, during a honeymoon tour of India, Syria and Jordan. Her lead and harmony vocals, as well as her balanced hand with a vocal harmonizer, contribute to the illusion of a much larger group. In addition, Tonis percussion instruments add a layer of human warmth to their pre-programmed drum tracks, the only part of their music that is not played live.

*Co-op Vendors*

* *Eastern Carolina Organics* (ECO) is a marketing and distribution service for local organic fruits and vegetables. We are a farmer-owned company that is helping rural organic family farmers access urban markets while maintaining NC farmland through environmentally-friendly agriculture, and enabling consumers (chefs, grocers and families) to support local, sustainable agriculture and their regional economies by purchasing fresh, high-quality organic produce.
* *Black River Farmstead* is a family-owned business producing goat's milk soap and various cheeses or chevre. Our 3" round soaps and decorative designs come either unscented or scented with cedar, chamomile, cucumber melon, gardenia, lavender, and rose geranium. Our web site " www.blackriverfarmstead.com": www.blackriverfarmstead.com shows the various designs available, including acorns, dolphins, fir trees, flowers, holiday designs, pine cones, and, of course, goats! Our cheese or chevre is also produced from our goat's milk and available as feta, plain chevre, dill and garlic, and herbes de provence, a blend of various herbs.

*Organizations*

* The *Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association* (ECWA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring Ellerbe Creek and its adjacent lands as an urban oasis for people and wildlife. Our vision is the creation of a necklace of green space bordering the creek from its headwaters near Cole Mill Road to Fall Lake. We are active in land acquisition and management; environmental education; plant, nature and bird walks; stream cleanups; stormwater management and habitat and stream restoration. ECWA currently manages three urban nature preserves in Durham: the 17-Acre Wood Preserve located along Ellerbe Creek between Indian Trail Park and Westover Park; the Glennstone Preserve, an 83-acre preserve located off Glenn School Road; and the Pearl Mill Preserve on South Ellerbe Creek, a 3-acre preserve located in the heart of Durham between Green and Urban Street. For more information, please visit us online at "www.ellerbecreek.org":www.ellerbecreek.org.
* The *Water for Energy and JusticeTeam* (TWEFJ) is a group of student interns who work together with *Clean Water for North Carolina* (CWFNC) to help preserve our energy and restore our waters. We are students from Hillside High School and were all selected out of the whole school to help save our environment. Some of the projects. TWEFJ were working on are stream restoration, weatherization, and the issues of Global Warming and Erosion. We have first started out restoring a stream at R.N. Harris Elementary School, then we moved on to bigger and better projects. After accomplishing these projects our goal is to get a sense of mind about the cost of destroying rivers, and streams, polluting water, and preserving energy. Our biggest goal is, however, to possibly get everyone to see how important it is to realize that if we keep hurting our environment, the temperatures will keep on rising, and we might put ourselves into extinction.
* *Durham People's Alliance* is a grassroots organization of Durham citizen-volunteers that works to improve life in our community. Since their founding in 1975, the People's Alliance has grown to be one of the most effective groups in the state working on progressive issues.
* *Clean Energy Durham* is a non-profit, volunteer organization that promotes energy conservation and the use of renewable energy throughout Durham County. It relies on volunteers to do this work. See "www.cleanenergydurham.org":www.cleanenergydurham.org for information about the group and for lots of resources on energy use.
* *Bull City Biodiesel* - A "biodiesel distribution project":http://bullcitybiodiesel.org in Durham, NC, of the "Forest Foundation":http://theforestfoundation.org and "Piedmont Biofuels":http://biofuels.coop.
* The mission of the *Durham Soil & Water Conservation District* is to
conserve, enhance and promote the natural resources of Durham County by providing technical assistance, environmental education information and economic incentives to County citizens and by exhibiting a diversified program to meet its changing needs. Visit the Durham Soil & Water Conservation District's booth to learn how you can make a difference in your environment and bring the kids by to play the "Wheel of Conservation" and test their natural resource knowledge.
* Jason Reyes is a project planner for *Greenways Incorporated*. He has a background in community and regional planning with a focus on conservation and active living by design. With Greenways Inc., Jason has worked on a variety of greenway, bicycle, pedestrian, and open space plans. Currently, his main projects include the Mountains-to-Sea Trail Master Plan for Johnston County, NC, the Durham County Bicycle Master Plan, and the Holly Springs Pedestrian Transportation Plan.
* *SEEDS* - South Eastern Efforts Developing Sustainable Spaces, Inc. SEEDS encourages respect for life, for earth and for each other. We help individuals, neighborhoods and communities grow together through gardening, gathering and education. The SEEDS sections will include some hands on materials about what makes soil, live toads from a section called "Animals of the Garden" and our Food Jeopardy Board.
* The *Department of Water Management* will offer its popular showerhead exchange and sale from 10am to 2pm. City of Durham Water Customers will be able to exchange their old, water-wasting showerheads for new water-efficient ones (2.0 gallons per minute). We will also make the showerheads available for to customers for just $3.00 if they are unable to make an exchange at that time. We'll also provide information on water conservation, water quality, and pertinent information about the Department of Water Management. The City's Website is "www.durhamnc.gov":www.durhamnc.gov.
* The *Code Green Coalition* is a collaborative group of individuals, designers, business owners, and Executive Directors of non-profits who share a mission
to: Raise awareness of the personal and collective benefits of living sustainably and encourage ecologically and socially conscious choices by Triangle residents. To accomplish its mission, Code Green sponsors: Speakers addressing sustainability-related topics, a bi-monthly documentary video series, and the publication of the Triangle Green Guide, your local source for sustainable living
* *SURGE* - Students United for a Responsible Global Environment.

h4. Below and attached is the Press Release, please distribute widely!

The Durham Food Co-op is sponsoring a Community Sustainability Festival on Saturday, September 23, 2006 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The festival will take place inside and outside the co-op, which is located in the culturally diverse West End Community.

As we all become more aware of the bad news-- conflict between people, and destruction of our natural environment--we need to become more aware of the good news--individuals and organizations that are creating meaningful positive change in the world. Right here in the Triangle, people are taking action. From bio-diesel vehicles to locally-grown produce to solar-powered music amplifiers, festival presenters will share their successes and help visitors learn what they can do to reduce their ecological footprint and live more sustainably. Several groups of local teens have been invited to explain how they are helping their neighbors become more aware to "Think Globally and Act Locally." Other topics include:

* composting with earthworms
* establishing neighborhood associations
* learning how to do home repairs
* exploring healthy eating habits for kids and teens
* conserving resources in your home
* making decorations with recycled paper
* learning about the Slow Food Movement
* understanding organic, local, and sustainable agriculture

Local musicians will entertain throughout the day; there will be a variety of kids' activities; and of course, we will have samples of delicious food and drinks sold at the co-op, some of it produced locally.

Come join the movement for a better world. The Community Sustainability Festival takes place at the Durham Food Co-op on Saturday, September 23, 2006, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. For further information, please contact Sarah Palmer at (919) 286-1092, (919) 225-0466 (cell), or send an email to "mushiko_99@yahoo.com":mailto:mushiko_99@yahoo.com.