We Jive June -- We Live Soon

The first is to join my 13 year old daughter, Caitlyn, and me as we run Couch to 5k this summer. Caitlyn is training for cross country in the fall, hoping to be able to solidly run a 5k in under 20 minutes by the time school starts. I am coming with her because the program, on http://coolrunning.com/ seems gradual enough to accommodate even my pushing-40 heft. We'll be running around 7:30-8 a.m. in Fostoria. You can do it in your place, at your time, on your station.

The second challenge is 30 days to boosting our local economy, through little things one person can do to make a difference.

Thirty days of Jivin' June -- thirty days of life -- thirty days that you can make a difference. See you Monday.

1 - Rent out a room in your home, or swap space on your property for gardening, carpentry, child or elder care, or another venture. The average size of a family home has grown nearly 1,000 square feet in the last 25 years. Do you need every inch of that space?

2 - Buy less so you can buy higher quality. Check out places like Iowa Lakes Organic Market where a growing number of items on the shelves come from local growers and producers. Buy from companies that "internalize" costs by passing on to you the cost of reducing carbon footprints, providing living wages, and producing organically. The global companies are passing along to you the cost of astronomical executive bonuses anyway, so why not absorb the rising cost of goods by doing more good?

3 -- Move your money to local banks that support the local economy.

4 - Pay off debts. Try life without credit cards.

5 - Downsize your home and shrink your mortgage.

6 - Fix the mower, vacuum cleaner, radio and car, rather than throwing them away. Mend clothing or give it away on freecycle.org. There is an underutilized Spencer chapter.

7 - Invest with passion -- if you have money, know where it is and what it's up to. Invest in tangible things like a prepaid college education or a piece of land.

8 - Shorten the supply chain -- buy from local suppliers and growers, at the farmer's markets, the fair and local stores.

9 - Support other people's local economies by urging your congressional representative to cancel debt to poor countries. See http://jubileeusa.org/

10 - Find a place, put down roots, and stay put. Turn of the TV and Internet on warm summer nights and get to know your neighbors.

11 - Support local green businesses, including the ones that will fill the new green development in Spencer. Insulate your house, upgrade your windows and install solar elements.

12 - Form a dinner club and trade off cooking and serving or go potluck.

13 - Barter when you can. See my January 29 blog for more on this.

14 - Cooperate with co-workers to make a difference at work. Perhaps you can purchase fair trade coffee, change to energy efficient lighting and carpool.

15 - Start a common security club in your neighborhood, club or faith community. http://commonsecurityclub.org/ This is a topic for my next blog so I'd love to hear your ideas.

16 - Bring generations together. Learn from elders; stay young with youngsters.

17 - Pool funds with a group of friends for green projects, home repairs or emergencies.

18 - Have home work parties -- each month go to a different program to complete a greening project, work in a garden, or do some maintenance. One such party everyone can get involved with is the Fuller Center for Housing -- Iowa Lakes Memorial Blitz Repair in late August.

19 - Reduce homelessness by offering vacant farm or vacation homes as affordable housing and repairing abandoned homes so they're available for those in need. Also see http://fullercenteriowalakes.blogspot.co...

20 - Create a space at a Farmer's Market to exchange or sell clothing, electronics, games, CDs, plants, seeds, compost and books. Offer barter point currency so people can also exchange services like garden tilling, photography or prepared dinners.

21 - Reach out to groups that are helping in the crisis, from Love Spencer to Jobs with Justice http://jobswithjustice.org/ to Right to the City http://righttothecity.org/

22 - Link up people needing new job skills with people who could offer apprenticeships.

23 - Start a time dollar program to link needs and offerings, the time starved and the time free.

24 - Use public land for community gardens, business incubators, and community land trusts.

25 - Hold on to local businesses we already have. Help retiring entrepreneurs sell to locals, and support locally based businesses.

26 - Create a car/truck share.

27 - Create a chapter of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, and support SPACE -- Spencer Alliance for a Creative Economy -- to create local assets we can build on.

28 -- Support community banks and credit unions.

29 -- Do an inventory to find out what you really have that you don't need. Cans in your cupboard that won't get used, clothes in your closet that are durable and in good shape, luggage, appliances, housewares, and donate them to someone in need.

30 - Hold a weekly dinner for the hungry, maybe expanding on the monthly one at Grace United Methodist in Spencer. Ask those who attend to help serve food at future dinners, because the opportunity to give back is very important to everyone's dignity.