Greenbelt Labor Day Parade and the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival, September 7, 2015

Last year I participated in the annual Greenbelt Labor Day Parade for the first time and I still remembered that it was a very hot and humid day. I did it on behalf of the Greenbelt Cooperative Initiative, which is trying to start a few worker-owned cooperatives. (At the time I was tasked with potentially starting a thrift store. When I had problems with finding affordable space, the group suggested that I try running a flea market instead. I not only found difficulty with finding an open space that people can easily access by car or bike or walking, but I would’ve had to deal with two layers of bureaucracy–mainly filling out tons of paperwork on both the local and county levels. I was working on my own to begin with and starting a weekly flea market was way too daunting a task to do alone. Plus I’m dealing with other issues in my life so I decided to resign.)

So this year I didn’t have any parade-related responsibilities. There were a few groups who invited me to march with them but I ended up declining because the memories of the high heat and high humidity were still too fresh in my mind. So this year I brought a folding chair to the parade route and set it up in a shaded area. It wasn’t too bad in the shade at first but, by the end of the parade, the heat had shot up (it ultimately climbed to the high 80’s) so I was very happy that I didn’t participate this year.

The parade consisted of different types of participants. There’s, Solange Hess, who was named as this year’s Greenbelt’s Outstanding Citizen.

There are the police, firefighters, and military units (including ROTC). Some of them march carrying flags, some march playing musical instruments (like bagpipes), and some ride in the latest vehicles.

Then there were the beauty pageant winners. Not only were there people from the Miss Greenbelt pageant but there were also others from another pageant that took place in nearby College Park.

Then there are the various local businesses and community groups, such as the Greenbelt Elementary School PTA.

Greenbelt chapter of the Toastmasters.

Greenbelt Animal Control.

Local Girl Scouts troop.

Local Cub Scouts troop.

Greenbelt Boys and Girls Club.

The Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club.

The Greenbelt Interfaith Leaders Association.

The Mishkan Torah congregation.

Radio Communications.

The New Deal Cafe, which is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary.

The Greenbelt Theater and the Greenbelt Museum marched together.

The Greenbelt Food Bank.

The Greenbelt Arts Center

Wells Ice Rink, located in nearby College Park.

Members of the Greenbelt Climate Action Network (GCAN) and the Chesapeake Education, Arts, and Research Society (CHEARS) dressed up as butterflies and bees in order to raise awareness on the importance of pollinators. Other participants held signs announcing the various programs that GCAN and CHEARS run on a regular basis, such as the Greenbelt Time Bank, the Reel and Meal movie series, and various recycling programs.

There were even a fleet of electric cars in the parade, who were there to demonstrate green transportation.

There was a robot demonstration by members of the Eleanor Roosevelt High School Robotics Club.

Makerspace 125 had a float shaped like a steam engine in order to show its commitment to the STEAM movement.

St. George’s Episcopal Church of Glenn Dale, Maryland marched in the parade.

There was an anti-abortion group.

The local anti-poverty activist group RESULTS participated.

The Communication Workers of America made a statement about its ongoing negotiations with Verizon.

The National Park Service participated.

Even the local Sunoco gas station participated.

The local realtors, Town Center Realty & Associates, Inc.

Then there were the various performers who were intent on putting on a good show all along the parade route.

Since next year is an election year, the candidates running for public office were out in full force. There was Donna Edwards, who is running for Senator.

There was Chris Van Hollen, who is also running for Senator.

There was Paul Pinsky’s re-election campaign as Maryland State Senator.

There’s Brian Frosh, who’s running for Maryland State Attorney General.

There’s U.S. Congressman Steny Hoyer, who’s running for re-election.

There’s Congressman Hoyer’s rival, Kristin Beck, who hopes to unseat him in the Democratic Primaries next year.

There’s Maryland House Delegate Anne Healey, who’s running for re-election.

There’s Maryland House Delegate Alonzo T. Washington, who’s also running for re-election.

There’s Sydney J. Harrison, who’s running for re-election to the Prince George’s County’s Clerk of the Circuit Court.

There’s Angela Alsobrooks, who’s running for re-election as State’s Attorney for Prince George’s County.

There’s Todd M. Turner, who’s running for re-election to the Prince George’s County Council.

This trio of cars signified the end of the Greenbelt Labor Day Parade.

Once the parade ended at noon, the last day of the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival started. I hung around the festival grounds after the parade ended because I needed to pick up my watercolor that I submitted to the Art Show but I had to wait until that show formally ended at 4 p.m. So I basically ate lunch, did some web surfing with the laptop that I brought with me, and uploaded a bunch of photos on my various social media account. A craft show was held on that final day so I browsed that as well while I took these photos.

2014 Greenbelt Green Man Festival (May 10-11, 2014)

Even though I said last year that I would never sell my crafts at the Greenbelt Green Man Festival ever again, I still participated in this year’s festival in a very different capacity. For the past few months I’ve been active in a new group called the Greenbelt Cooperative Incubator and the idea is to bring green-oriented worker cooperatives to Greenbelt that would be jobs that actually paid a living wage. I’ve been doing it because 1) I like the concept and 2) I’m hoping to eventually snag a paying job that would be more steady than selling my original arts and crafts. (Even if it falls through, I’ll at least have something to put on my resume that may impress others that I’m capable of doing more than data entry, which is what I’ve done in the past.)

So I volunteered to sit for nearly two hours at the Greenbelt Cooperative Incubator table on the first day of the festival from 9-11:30 a.m. Actually working that table was way less stressful than last year when I had to haul my own stuff and be on duty for seven hours on both days no matter what the weather was. Table, chairs, and a canopy were provided and much it was set up by the time I arrived around 9 a.m.

When I arrived at the Greenbelt Cooperative Incubator table around 9 a.m. on the first day of the festival, this is what it looked like.

Things were relatively quiet for the first 20 minutes until another person came by the table with banner making supplies that she purchased during a shopping run to Staples and asked me to quickly create a banner.

So I spent the bulk of my time at the table laying out and sticking letters to the banner. Fortunately there weren’t a lot of people that early in the morning so I was able to cover the flyers so I could lay the banner out. The resulting banner wasn’t bad considering that I created it very quickly.

That banner hung from the canopy for the rest of the weekend until the festival ended.

By the time I finished working on the banner and hung it up, my shift at the Greenbelt Cooperative Incubator table ended. My shift also ended just in time for the start of the festival’s opening ceremony which included invoking the Green Man’s spirit at a small altar and a group of people dancing around a young mother holding her baby.

There was a display featuring live farm animals that was put up by Edie’s Place, which describes itself as “an eco-therapeutic farm”. It was also promoting a Farmers’ Market in nearby Glenn Dale that’s going on every Saturday from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

On the first day of the festival there were chickens.

The chickens were replaced by some ducklings on the second day of the festival.

Sharing the pen with the birds on both days of the festival were a pair of Nigerian dwarf goats.

 

You can tell that this year is the mid-term elections in many states throughout the United States, including Maryland. Heather Mizeur is running for Governor as an environmentalist and progressive Democrat. No matter what the election outcome will be, Heather Mizeur has already made history as the first openly lesbian to run for Maryland Governor.

 

I caught up with a friend of mine, Tina Van Pelt, who was selling her handcrafted fused glass jewelry through her studio Profusions of Glass. Here is some of her work that she had on sale during the Greenbelt Green Man Festival.

Here is the rest of the photos that I shot at the Greenbelt Green Man Festival. There was a lot of music and a lot of dancing. There were plenty of vendors selling food and handcrafted goodies of all kinds. There were children’s activities. There were educational tables. The first day was rainy and there weren’t a lot of people there. The second day was sunny and warm (which was perfect weather since the second day of the festival also fell on Mother’s Day). You can guess which photos I took on which days by looking at the sky and the pavement.

Blade Sharpening Event, Greenbelt, Maryland (November 9, 2013)

Last fall I helped two local groups —the Greenbelt Climate Action Network and Club 125—with the logistics of scheduling a blade sharpening event in Greenbelt, Maryland. It was originally supposed to be held sometime in 2012 (before I got involved in this) but things got delayed. It was revived in 2013 with the idea of scheduling it sometime in late July or early August. Except when I tried to scheduled something with the blade sharpener, he told me that his truck was in the repair shop and it would take several weeks before he can get his truck back. Then there were scheduling conflicts and delays so by the time I finally got a firm date, it was the first Saturday in November.

This blade sharpener sharpens blades on knives, garden tools, and push mowers. There were some trepidation some in the sponsoring group as to whether people would be willing to get the blades on their garden tools and push mowers sharpened so late in the year. (Yes, there are plenty of people in Greenbelt who use a push mower to mow their lawns. They tend to do it for environmental reasons.) There was a tremendous turnout. In fact, this event was such a hit that this event was repeated the following two Saturdays (November 16 and 23). I even paid to have my large kitchen knives and a pair of garden shears sharpened and he did such a great job. (In fact, he has done such great job on my kitchen knives that I have accidentally cut myself while washing them.)

John Vecchiarelli (also known as Mr. V) is one of the few blade sharpeners left in the Washington, DC area and he was the subject of this profile written by Washington Post columnist John Kelly just a seven months before this event. I took some photos of the first Saturday (November 9) he was here with my smartphone but it only has been recently that I got around to uploading them.

Mr. V arrived in his truck early Saturday morning. He worked out of the back of his truck so he could do blade sharpening jobs anywhere.

People lined up their push mowers so Mr. V could sharpen them in turn.

Mr. V’s truck was full of all kinds of hardware. He told me that some of the machines he uses for blade sharpening are 100 years old. It’s amazing to be able to still use a machine 100 years after it was originally manufactured.

Mr. V’s work not only drew customers but also plenty of onlookers who were fascinated with the blade sharpening work.

The three blade sharpening event was such a success that there are some people who are trying to get him to work at the weekly Greenbelt Farmers Market at least once or twice a month once spring arrives. I don’t know if that will happen but it would be nice if it did. Mr. V doesn’t have a website (he gets his business via word of mouth) but there are reviews posted on Angie’s List but they are viewable by members only.