In a 2018 Community Survey, 72% of respondents said that the “small town feel” is one of the greatest strengths of the New Carlisle area. People living in this area are invested in their community and providing discussion on small steps everyone can take to improve the quality of life is of interest to them.
With this information, Library staff applied for and received a grant “Libraries Transforming Communities: Focus on Small and Rural Libraries” an initiative of the American Library Association (ALA) in collaboration with the Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL).
Our community conversation will start with the community reading a book about zero waste. We gave away copies of the books for adults: “101 Ways to go Zero Waste” by Kathryn Kellogg, for teens: “How to Change Everything” by Naomi Klein, and for kids: “Fly Guy Presents: Garbage and Recycling” by Tedd Arnold. Patrons could also pick up a reusable bag with the Library’s logo on it.
Everyone, whether you have read the book or not, is invited to attend our Community Conversation night on Thursday, September 23 at 6:00 pm where we will answer the question, “What can one individual or family do to have a positive impact on the environment and the community?” Everyone can join us as we discuss small steps we can take to head towards a zero waste goal of sending nothing to the landfill. Our community goal is to not to do this perfectly, but to decide, together, how we can make better daily choices.
The evening will have a couple of parts to it, starting with a break-out session for each age group to discuss their book. We will then meet as a large group to figure out the top ten daily activities and our top ten one-time activities to include in our Zero Waste challenge. These activities will be entered into a Beanstack challenge, and anyone in the community can participate in this challenge starting October 1.
Each daily activity is worth one point for every day that you do them, and each one-time activity is worth five points. When you reach point milestones, your points will earn badges with attached tickets to be entered for one of our awesome prize drawings! There will be two winners for each of our six prize kits! The kits are centered around products that are helpful in starting toward a zero waste lifestyle. Some of the kits include an indoor composter, steel water bottles, reusable bags, wool dryer balls, unpaper towels, and much more. We will end the night with a sweet treat provided by Carlisle Coffee and Sweets.
To learn more visit our website www.ncpl.lib.in.us