Congratulations to Tammy Trayer, sister #4170, who has been added to Project F.A.R.M (First-class American Rural Made). Tammy, one of our GirlGab bloggers, has been a Sisterhood member since May of 2012.
Tammy and her husband create homemade goat milk soaps, 100% soy candles, hand-forged metal art, horseshoe art, and leather items from their home in Idaho. And today, you have the opportunity to win some of their wares.
How’s your junk drawer? The one with an assortment of loose change, Gorilla Glue, golf balls, keys that open who knows what, and that old cell phone that no longer works but you can’t bear to toss it in the trash.
Well, I have a purpose for at least one of those clutter bombs.
It’s called …
What’s that again? Dialers For Dollar$?
And yes, the “s” is a “$.” Clever, right?
Dialers For Dollar$, hosted by Reverse Recycling, is a company that collects old or unused cell phones (in ANY condition) and recycles them properly so they don’t end up circling back around to bury us. According to Dialers For Dollar$, “Did you know that cell phones, on average, are used for less than 18 months before being replaced? In America alone, more than 140 million cell phones will end up in a landfill this year. It is estimated that there are over 500 million unwanted cell phones in junk drawers in the United States alone, with an average of 4 in every household.”
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons; Tomasz G. Sienicki
Dialers For Dollar$ has found a way to make recycling these devices a barrel of fun. Here’s how: You request a donation barrel for, say, your local coffee shop (once you’ve asked them for permission). You create some signage for the barrel and people drop in their old cell phones. (The barrel is only a 14” wide x 24” tall and can hold up to 15 gallons.) When the barrel’s full, you e-mail Dialers For Dollar$ and they send you a free shipping label for the original shipping box.
Dialers For Dollar$ offers $1.50/lb to the host location for all donated cell phones and personal handheld devices collected, and $.20/lb for all accessories such as chargers, ear buds, and batteries. Then, Reverse Recycling matches that amount to the charity of your choice. Another nice thing about this fundraiser is you can also choose to donate the full amount to your local charity. Many find the program to be a fun and easy way to give back to their community on a local level.
Thank you Dandelion House aka Beach Farmgirl aka Deb Bosworth aka Girl Genius for my handy-dandy glamper hamper. Me LUBS it!!!!!
Hitch your wagon to a star?
Well, fortunately for homeless pets in the southeastern U.S., they’re hitching their wagon to TWO stars named Chamblee and Lindsay Abernethy.
These soft-hearted sisters, originally from Georgia, both moved to Boulder, Colorado, last year—but neither could forget the plight of countless unwanted pets back home. Chamblee and Lindsay soon realized that the demand for adoptable pets in Colorado exceeded the number of strays in shelters.
Their experience growing up in the Southeast had been drastically different.
The girls grew up on a farm, where they learned the heartbreak of rescuing stray dogs and cats that were often dumped along their rural road. Chamblee channeled her empathy for abandoned pets into volunteer work for a local rescue group, and over the years, an idea began to bloom.
“I always had a vision of transporting pets from the Southeast to [Colorado],” she told Mother Nature News. “There’s a great demand and no surplus. I knew that if we could tap into transporting from the Southeast, that would be a pretty amazing thing.”
While in Lindsborg, Kansas, we watched a group of local high school students perform traditional Swedish dances in the local park.
Talk about a unique high school sport! Each year, the students travel to a new state and perform in a culminating show to raise money for a final trip they will take as seniors to Sweden.
The dances were really awesome and ranged from a sword dance (performed by the young men) to a sort of musical chairs, where an uneven number of dancers had to grab a partner, leaving one out. There was also a humorous “odd couple” dance (as seen below) and a dance imitating the act of weaving.
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Sherrilyn Askew!
Sherrilyn Askew (Sherri, #1350) has received a certificate of achievement in Cleaning Up for earning an Expert Level Recycling Merit Badge!
“I am continuing to recycle and am slowly converting moms in my daughter’s Girl Scout troop to recycle too. Since cardboard has a monetary value, I was able to get all the boxes from the cookie sales collected, baled, and sold, giving the proceeds to our troop. Any other cardboard brought in to me is also baled and sold, with the proceeds going to the troop. It is steadily catching on.
Since my brother and I got a baler, we have been baling our cardboard and selling it, rather than filling up the landfill with it. Getting others to do the same is a challenge, but money does seem to make a difference, especially when someone else does the work. Using recycling as a fundraiser seems to encourage more people to practice it.”
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
