Saturday morning began at the First Annual Denver County Fair. The fair was everything you might expect a fair to be, except with an urban twist. So instead of knitting and quilt making booths there were local artists with funky clothing and jewelry. Instead of farming and agricultural booths, there were urban gardening and sign ups for crop sharing -
Crop Sharing is a growing trend in cities. You can sign up to receive a portion of a farmer's share of crop for a given length of time - so for instance, an urbanites might sign up for a 6 month share during the months of July - December and the farmer would have 'drop off' points in the city where the customer could pick up their goods once each month. The goods consist of whatever is in season that month so it might include fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs or whatever else the farmer is able to provide that month - it's a really neat concept, and we haven't gotten on board yet, but have begun to consider our options.
We went with Dave and Kate Stone and really had a great time. The highlight of the county fair was Chris and Dave participating in the Pie Eating Contest. Oh my! They didn't win, but they certainly had their share of apple pie...
Ready, set, go!
This is Chris looking over at his competition!
Our time ended with Chris winning a carnival game, and a huge stuffed pug! We took this pug to Sarah's company picnic after the fair, and gave it to a coworker's daughter. It made her day!
After the fair and the company picnic, we caught a couple hours at the pool down the street, and then cleaned up for a date night with Dave and Kate. We went to a fundraiser for The Road to Hope (View Website Here)a non-profit organization raising funds to help children in Haiti. The mission of the organization is to implement sustainable projects that are not just "handouts for the poor" but actually tangible ways the community will grow and thrive because of the projects. For instance, the organization rebuilt a local orphanage after the earthquake annihilated the structure for the children. The organization also installed a $10,000 water filtration system for the orphanage so the children are able to drink clean water.
Chris had a great conversation with a board member of the organization and was able to share his insight about low-cost bio-sand water filtration systems. I know we were brought to this evening's event with purpose and intention, and it will be neat to see the way the Lord connects us with this organization. We're not sure yet what role we may play, or if we will have any involvement at all, but being at the event definitely peaked our interest and reminded us that there are ways we can get involved with positive, sustainable initiatives in the "real world," post-college life and post-SIFE.
Also, the event was being held at an art gallery, RedLine, that was featuring a really neat exhibit called "Design for the Other 90%" - the concept being:
“The majority of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services exclusively for the richest 10% of the world’s customers. Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90%.” —Dr. Paul Polak, International Development Enterprises
The exhibit displays new concepts low-cost solutions for everyday needs for people of poverty based around the themes of shelter - health - water - education - energy - transport. The exhibit was incredible, and we really enjoyed learning about all that is being made available to third world countries. View Website Here
Us outside the art gallery standing under a display of lighted globes, beautiful!
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