Fall 2013 Newsletter

Fundraiser - Party with a Purpose!

Our fall fundraiser in Seattle was a huge success and a whole lot of fun.  The planning committee is already calling it the first annual "Party with a Purpose”!  We are talking about going big next year so let us know if you want to be part of the team. RISE Now’s wonderful community of folks really came together and helped pull off a great party in under two weeks of planning. There was a delicious taco bar, good beer, lively music and lots of amazing people.  There is not enough bandwidth on all the internet to fully thank the many people involved, but you know who you are and should sleep better having been a part.  We would like to give a special thanks to the amorphous free-form group known to some as “the Professionals” for spreading the word, as well as a score of "Professional" individuals who helped out in many ways. Also, a big thanks to Skinny Phoenix for the food, the Webelos for the live music and DJ Tibor who all went above and beyond. If you were not able to come but still want to give, please visit our website. Read more about our upcoming winter projects below, then follow our progress and see what we have all made possible! Without your support none of it would have happened. 

Site of future Puerta Abierta playground

We will be headed back to Mexico and additionally to Guatemala, thanks to all your generous support,  to help build more recycled tire playgrounds right after the new year! RISE Now staff, volunteers and partner organizations will be in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, helping a children's library and learning center build a playground in their outdoor area. Puerta Abierta (Open Door) gives preschool and kindergarten age children creative learning opportunities through after school programs, reading hours, homework help and a traveling library. We are excited to contribute play elements and a mural to this wonderful place! Upon completion, we will return to Palenque, Mexico to visit our previous playground at Camino Real, reconnect with the community, and build more playgrounds in other locations. One site we are particularly looking forward to will be at a special needs school in town, whose current playground is falling apart and unusable due to its lack of durability. Tires are perfect for playgrounds because they last, even in tropical climates. Follow us on Facebook and on our website to help and to see what we accomplish!

Cordwood sauna complete!

We are pleased to announce our first natural building project is complete! During the early days of RISE Now, we spent 3 months building a timber frame and cordwood masonry sauna in Warner, NH. This fall, the interior finish work and artistry was completed! It was a great project in which a lot of people got their hands dirty. Much was learned from the experience not only about building but about organizing workshops as well.  Ken Gagnon of Two Girls Farm led a great timber frame workshop to build the bones of the structure, then we had a good ol’ barn raisin' party and about 10 people volunteered and helped out over the summer to get the walls filled in.  Thank you to everyone that participated and we hope you’ll get a chance to come enjoy the beautiful sauna, it works great! 

        We plan to offer more natural building workshops in the future, exploring many other green building techniques.   Get in touch with us if you have a project in mind and would like some help.  Natural buildings are beautiful, strong, healthy for the occupants and the environment but they do require a lot of labor, so we can help!  And in the process create community, spread knowledge, skills, empower people and have a lot of fun.  

         Finally, we are excited to share that RISE Now director Matt Cote, is adding more tools to our teams tool belt, already a fantastic carpenter he is doing a cob apprenticeship this winter in Mexico. Using cob instead of cement when building with cordwood reduces the footprint of a structure greatly. We hope to try that soon - anyone want a green built sauna at their home?

Compost Pile 

Compost Toilet

After completing the Permaculture Design Course at Maya Mountain Research Farm, RISE Now director Bret Ingold decided he should address his own basic foot print before going any further teaching sustainability to others. Last spring, with the help of Kristin Frasheski and Erika Hokanson, we installed a small solar voltaic system on our yurt, a rain water catchment system and a composting toilet system. They were all quite simple to construct and install, costing around $300 in total. On a side note, the logs you see leaning against our new two-bin compost pile are innoculated with Shiitake plugs given to us by D Acres farm. Next spring we should have lots of Shiitake mushrooms to eat!

Thanks for the support everyone!

We are a volunteer-run organization that puts all of its proceeds directly towards its projects. Every contribution makes a difference so consider making a donation today! Donors will now receive a special thank you gift in return for their help.

Interested in volunteering on one of our projects? Join us in Mexico!