The APPLE Center for Sustainable Living Opening set for June 27th


June 26, 2009 - Have you ever wondered how a person actually makes the
transition from buying bottled water to always carrying their own water bottle?
Or how they went from buying food in traditional outlets to growing their own
vegetable garden? What about finally getting around to doing that home energy
audit or creating your own compost bin? Nevada City is opening The APPLE Center
for Sustainable Living to help citizens explore the answers to these questions
and many more as it guides them on their journey to lead a more sustainable
lifestyle.

The brand new APPLE Center, located in downtown Nevada City at 412 Commercial
Street, is hosting an opening to invite the community to see how the Center
itself will go through the process of becoming a sustainable physical space. The
Executive Director, Mali Dyck, will be a hosting a Green Business Brainstorming
session at the Center on Saturday from 9-10am for local businesses and then the
Center opens to the general public from 10am-1pm.

The APPLE Center will provide programs and services that increase the
sustainability and resilience of our community. The Center will act as a
physical and virtual community hub where residents and visitors can gather to
learn, collaborate, and share information to get more people to shop locally,
eat locally, and invest locally.

The Center will house a resource library where members can check out books,
DVD's, "How To" fact sheets on a variety of sustainable topics, and other
materials including tools for gardening. Educational programming will include
workshops by local experts on topics such as composting, edible gardening, and
solar energy. Green economy programs will offer assistance to local businesses
that want to expand in a sustainable manner. Community projects such as shared
edible gardens, fruit tree gleaning, and energy saving programs will be
sponsored by the Center in an effort to assist with the coordination of existing
community efforts.

The idea for a sustainability center emerged from the Community Congress Meeting
hosted by Nevada City on Dec. 1st, 2008. Since then, the all-volunteer sub-group
has been meeting regularly to develop a business plan, secure start up funding
from the Private Industry Council, and gather the necessary resources and
support to make it happen so quickly. The Center would not be opening its doors
this June if it weren't for the efforts of Reinette Senum, Mali Dyck, the APPLE
Board, and our funding partners at the Private Industry Council.

So now is your chance to make the leap into a more sustainable lifestyle. You
can get involved by volunteering time at the Center, donating professional
services or materials to the Center, or simply filling out the online survey at
apple-nc.org to help establish the Center programming. The Center is the latest
project from the well-known, local non-profit APPLE, Alliance for a
Post-Petroleum Local Economy. It will be open regular hours beginning in August.
For more information, email info@... or visit us online at
http://applecenter.org