Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska

Wanda's Diary Entries

Wednesday, October 5, 2005

Saturday before last, Frank, Henry, Bob Wells and I jumped in my Subaru and drove to the Green Festival in Washington DC. What an amazing collection of people and vendors. There were books for sale on sustainable building practices, how kids can build play structures from the scraps they find around them; there were indescribably delicious organic chocolate truffles to taste, veggie burgers and fair-trade coffee to sample. Representatives of worthwhile non-profit organizations were passing out literature.

The entire Green Festival—now in its second year—is a potpourri of wonderful ideas for those who wish to lead sustainable lives. Our good friend Alisa Gravitz, who is executive director of Coop America also serves on our SIMPLE LIVING National Advisory board, along with her able staff, has had a huge hand in starting this annual festival.

My only regret as a presenter on the main stage at 1 p.m. on Saturday was that by speaking I missed other speakers. However, walking around the booths at the Washington Convention Center, we picked up lots of useful literature and tips to inform our own lives as well as next season. For instance, displayed there was a variety of reusable cloth gift bags. What a wonderful, sustainable, decorative idea! We were surprised to meet up with a number of North Carolinians, including representatives of a group out of the Research Triangle that sells fair-trade coffee and promotes biodiesel fuel.

Perhaps the biggest thrill was running into some of the lovely people whom we’d met and interviewed earlier in the year for the second season of SIMPLE LIVING. What a delight it was to see Ann Zabaldo—a resident and articulate spokesperson for Takoma Village Cohousing (she was featured in the third show of the second season)—sitting on the front row of the main stage in her trusty wheelchair, listening to my presentation. Then, as we were leaving, we saw another resident of Takoma Village, Debbie Winsten, looking as bright and perky as the afternoon we’d interviewed her the previous January.