The Center for Sustainable Living

We wanted to formally introduce you all to Ryan Doyle. Ryan will be a senior at St. Olaf College in the fall. He will be an intern with the Center for Sustainable Living this summer as part of St. Olaf College’s “Leaders for Social Change” program. Now before you think he’s going to be busy filing away papers in an office or “just getting his feet wet” in a non-profit organization, we’ve gone about his internship in.. well.. quite a different way.

From now until August 1, Ryan will be taking on projects completely of his choosing related to his passions for sustainability, public policy, ways to “make things easier” for folks to live sustainably, and also spending valuable “unstructured time” in nature! You could call it a “self-designed sustainability camp” of sorts. All of his research and projects will go forward with him on his path of leadership, and he will share it all through his own blog and through our organization.
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Northfield is the town of “blogs” these days! A ‘blog – short for web log, is an ongoing diary or journal on the web, but most of you know that already.

Here are some interesting local blogs that we thought we’d highlight that have a sustainability or grassroots community organizing “bent” to them. This list is not inclusive, so if you have others, please share them with everyone in the comments!

• Living in Northfield is a blog by Marcea Frasier, who takes long bike rides, works at Valley Creek Community Farm, makes her own soap, and home schools her children.
• Olivia Frey, our secretary for CSL, has a new blog called Make/Do, where she shares insights and sustainable tips about living more simply. Every post she has a “make/do” tip!
• In Penelopedia, Penny Hilleman talks about her adventures in gardening, bird watching, finding abandoned wasp nests, and living lightly in the world.
• Bruce Anderson hosts a blog on his site, Sustainable Community Solutions. He’s been very busy organizing folks around the issue of cohousing in Northfield.
• Bill Ostrem’s blog, Northern Letter, discusses topics of sustainability, bicycling, energy, and climate change.
• Scott Schumacher (yours truly), has moved his blog to a new site entitled A River Between, where he speaks about unschooling, holistic healing, sustainable living, and raising a more natural dog, Junebug.

If there are more blogs out there, please let us know! We hope you enjoy peeking into the lives of a few Northfielders who are taking steps to live a more sustainable life.

A small gathering of neighbors and friends are beginning to organize a group, the Friends of Lashbrook Park, to help maintain and enhance this park, which sits on the northwest corner of Northfield. If you are interested in joining these efforts to build Lashbrook Park into it’s full original vision as a passive prairie park, you are invited to attend the first of many organizing meetings!

Friends of Lashbrook Park Meeting
2pm, Sunday June 8
Just Food Co-op Community Room
516 South Water Street
Northfield, MN