New Elite Petes in Lee County!

Our first Lee County graduating class!

Elite Petes® continue to spread throughout North Carolina! Our most recent graduating class is in Lee County, thanks to a grant from the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice. The Elite Petes were trained how to run the Pete Street® Basic Energy Education and Hands On workshops. Their mad skills with rope caulk and outlet insulators are matched only by their enthusiasm for wanting to tell their neighbors how easy it is to save money (by saving energy) in their homes.

We look forward to having Kate Rumely, Patt Likes, Ruby Andrews, and Crystal Escobar helping their Lee County communities get more energy efficient! If you are interested in hosting a workshop in Sanford or want to become an Elite Pete yourself, please contact Patt Likes at Brick Capital Community Development Corporation, phone number (919) 775-2300 or at pattlks@live.com
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Other North Carolina Pete Street communities include the city of Asheville and Buncombe County, Towns of Chapel Hill & Carrboro, Halifax County, Greensboro, Siler City, Warren County, Wilson County and of course, Durham!

Celebration of 5 Years of Clean Energy Durham Volunteers Energizes Community

More than 135 volunteers and other Durham residents came together for an afternoon of recognition, energy quizzes and games, fabulous Durham delectables, bike blender smoothies and prizes to celebrate five years of Clean Energy Durham volunteers.

In five years, over 300 volunteers have taught their neighbors and shared hands-on energy savings knowledge to over 2,000 homes in neighborhoods throughout Durham.  While Clean Energy Durham designed the model, it is the terrific, community-minded, caring people of Durham who made this happen and continue to do so.

-Judy Kincaid, Executive Director

At the event, which was held at at BuildSense, a downtown Durham certified green design, construction, and renovation firm, awards and gifts were given to twelve volunteers for their special contributions:

• BILL TRIPLETT was awarded the ENERGY MENTOR AWARD
• DIANA PERONIS was awarded the SUPER SUPER TRAINER AWARD
• KAREN ANDERSON was awarded the ALMOST FULL-TIME VOLUNTEER AWARD
• CATHY STARKWEATHER was awarded the CREATIVE NEIGHBORHOOD LEADER award
• MELVIN WHITLEY was awarded the LEADERSHIP MENTOR award
• NINNA GAGNON was awarded the BICYCLE MENTOR award
• IRIS FISHER was awarded the NEIGHBORHOOD LEADER’S LEADER award
• MARK MUNDAY was awarded the SUPER SUPPORTER AWARD
• MATT GREENWOLFE, JOY GREENWOLFE, JIM GUDAITIS and ED COX were awarded the CLEAN ENERGY DURHAM FOUNDATION award for creating and being a member of the original group that eventually grew into Clean Energy Durham.

Tribute was also paid to Judy Kincaid, acknowledging her long-standing contributions to Durham and to helping Durham residents achieve energy savings.  She is retiring at the end of 2012.

Sponsors of the event included the following:  Mark Munday; BuildSense; The Herald Sun; Durham Catering; Judy Whisnant, Attorney At Law; Chuck and Jean Wilson; B & J Custom Printers; Common Ground Green Building Center; Craig and Patti Morrison; Steve Schewel and Lao Rubert; Reyn Bowman; Mike Freemark and Anne Slifkin; Clear Vue Glass; Jenny Warburg; Green Horizon; Southern Energy Management; and Rep. Paul Luebke and Carol Gallione.

See our media coverage on WUNC 91.5

Love Our Volunteers Event

Join us in celebrating and recognizing five years of Clean Energy Durham volunteers this Sunday, November 18^th, from 3-5 pm at Clean Energy Durham’s Love Our Volunteers Event—BuildSense/Studio B Architecture at 502 Rigsbee Avenue in Durham!  Free to invited Clean Energy Durham volunteers, and just $10 for everyone else. Admission includes fabulous food & drink and a raffle ticket for great prizes like gift certificates to local restaurants.  There will be silent auction items, bike blender smoothies, games, awards, and fun for the whole family.

Enjoy a Spring Cook-Out & Save Energy

Neighborhood get-togethers, cook-outs, or even simple walks around the community are easy, fun ways to get the most out of the spring season.  Regardless of how you enjoy spring, it’s the perfect opportunity to save energy.

Hosting a cook-out or inviting neighbors to a get-together is an easy way to enjoy the weather with friends and instill a sense of community in your neighborhood.  Though you’re having fun and enjoying the weather, did you know you’re also saving energy?  Cooking outdoors on the grill is a great way to keep the heat that the stove and oven creates outdoors instead of in your house, keeping your air conditioning from having to run and keeping your house more comfortable.   By spending time in your backyard cooking and hanging out, you’re saving energy and money, and keeping your home more comfortable—you can’t beat that!  So fire up that grill this Memorial Day weekend and save some energy!

-Caroline Wall, Clean Energy Durham volunteer

Clean Energy Durham Partners with Haliwa-Saponi Tribe in Warren County

The Haliwa-Saponi Tribe has been a helping hand to Halifax Electric Membership Corporation and Clean Energy Durham in Warren County.  The tribe has welcomed the energy-saving pilot program to its members and the community, who have benefited by learning how to save energy and money.

Energy Volunteer Lori Silver, who is a member of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe, helped facilitate a partnership with the tribe.  She took the 18-hour Clean Energy Durham training in how to teach Hands-On Workshops in no-cost and low-cost ways to save energy in the home.  After she taught the first workshop for the tribe, interest in this topic really took off.  Clean Energy Durham’s partnership with the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe has been a success—tribal members are excited about saving energy and money!

Rebecca

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Neighborhood Energy Retrofit Volunteers: Why They Did It

More than 100 Neighborhood Energy Retrofit volunteers helped to make this neighbor-to-neighbor program successful.  Below are reasons given by some of the volunteers for their extraordinary volunteer service.

• “I thought it was a good project, something to help me and my family.  It was community centered and everybody could learn about energy conservation and how to make their home more energy-efficient.”  Deborah Brame, Fisher Heights
• “I thought it was a good opportunity to improve my home and to show others how to make improvements to their home as well.”  Yulanda Horton, Fisher Heights
• “I volunteered because it seemed like a useful program and not too time consuming.  I also used to organize workshops in my job so it was something I knew how to do and it was an opportunity to meet people.”  Liz Sappenfield, Watts Hospital Hillandale
• “I support Clean Energy Durham and I saw it as a way to give back to Clean Energy Durham and I like my neighborhood and it was a way to give back to my neighborhood as well.”  Mary Wible-Brennan, Tuscaloosa Lakewood\Lakewood
• “It was interesting and I wanted to know more about the program.  There weren’t many people volunteering for the program and it didn’t seem all that hard.”  Erin Kennedy, Colonial Village
• “I am an environmental educator by profession.  This program gave me a chance to promote environmentally responsible decisions in my own community. It involved direct action, really doing things.”  Beth Cranford, Tuscaloosa Lakewood/Lakewood

Lenora

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Goodbye to Clif!

We often talk in the office about the Clean Energy Durham magic!  One way this manifests is in the exceptional volunteers that come to our door.  One of the best volunteers we have had the pleasure to work with has been Clif Crandell.  He just left on a hiking trip in Spain, and two weeks ago was his last day.  Clif volunteered many hours to our office over the last 6 months.  During his time here, Clif solved many problems, suggested creative solutions to others, made us laugh, and became a friend.  Thank you, Clif, for your commitment, your loyalty, and your energy.  We will miss you—have a great trip!

–From all of the Clean Energy Durham Staff

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Clean Energy Durham Neighborhood Energy Contagion

The Northeast Central Durham (NECD) Community Outreach Specialists for Clean Energy Durham, Vicki Sneed and Iris Fisher, have NECD neighbors talking to one another about ways to save energy. Vicki and Iris have partnered with their NECD neighbors to host in home workshops and to host one-hour Basic Energy Education (BEE) workshops. The one-hour workshops were a big hit with the NECD community so Clean Energy Durham gave the workshops “premier billing” during the community outreach activities. Clean Energy Durham was very pleased to see that the workshops spiraled into a web of neighbors teaching neighbors.

Twenty-nine residents attended either a Clean Energy Durham hands-on workshop hosted by one of their neighbors or a Clean Energy Durham Basic Energy Education workshop. After attending a workshop, eight attendees were so excited about the energy information they learned at the workshop that they branched out and taught fifty-two of their neighbors about saving energy! And that’s not all! Four of these fifty-two people who were taught energy tips by their neighbors went on to teach at least one more neighbor! Clean Energy Durham is excited about this burst of neighborhood energy contagion, all within a six-month period!

Lenora

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Northgate Park Volunteers Keep On Giving

Last week I was once again reminded of two of Clean Energy Durham’s core truths: (1) dedicated volunteers are at the heart of what we do, and (2) our volunteers are among Durham’s best people.

Two weeks ago we had planned to share our Basic Energy Education workshop at a Self-Help program in Southwest Central Durham.  Our volunteer trainer from that neighborhood who was going to lead that workshop was called away on a family emergency the night before the event.

When I received the news the next morning, I was confident that we at Clean Energy Durham had other reliable and trained volunteers who could present the workshop.  The question was whether anyone would be available and willing to fill in on 6 hours’ notice.  All of our staff resources were previously committed that evening.  I was delighted when the very first volunteers I asked, Sean and Sally of Northgate Park, gladly agreed to help us out.

By all accounts they did a fabulous job engaging the two dozen neighbors who attended the workshop.  They taught basic ways to save energy in their homes and had some fun along the way.  Thanks to Northgate Park for assembling such a committed group of volunteers who stepped in and effortlessly shared their knowledge with others.

Jenny

Neighborhood Energy Retrofit Volunteers Donate More Than 3,200 Hours

Clean Energy Durham applauds the goodwill and altruism exhibited by the Neighborhood Energy Retrofit Program (NERP) volunteers over the past year.  Volunteers from 13 neighborhoods donated 3,233 hours to promote the Clean Energy Durham neighborhood model.  The level of commitment demonstrated by NERP volunteers sets an extremely high standard for all of our neighborhood volunteer programs and Clean Energy Durham is very humbled to be the recipient of such generosity.  We at Clean Energy Durham cannot say “thank you” enough to our volunteers.  We truly appreciate you for your professionalism, creativity, caring, patience, perseverance, guidance, assistance, and all of the precious time you contributed to make the NERP program successful.  THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!

Lenora