6 APRIL/MAY 2009 www.crwmagazine.com
ISSUE 43, VOlUmE 8, NUmBER 1 apRIl/maY 2009 pUBlISHERS Diane Raaum, Doug Solinger EdITOR Betty Christiansen dESIgNER Renee Chrz, Innovative Graphics, LLC maRKETINg aCCOUNT REpRESENTaTIVES Carol Schank Melissa Hanson Claire Ristow-Seib wEB maSTER Mader Web Design LLC pHOTOgRapHY atypikstudio Janet Mootz Photography dISTRIBUTION Citywide Marketing Services, L.L.C. <strong>Coulee</strong> <strong>Region</strong> <strong>Women</strong> is published six times per year by <strong>Coulee</strong> <strong>Region</strong> Communications, L.L.C. 816 2nd Avenue S., Suite 600, Onalaska, WI 54650. Subscriptions available for $17.95 per year (six issues). Send check to the address above. All unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. <strong>Coulee</strong> <strong>Region</strong> <strong>Women</strong> assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. ©2009 <strong>Coulee</strong> <strong>Region</strong> Communications, L.L.C. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. <strong>Coulee</strong> <strong>Region</strong> <strong>Women</strong> magazine does not necessarily endorse the claims or contents of advertising or editorial materials. Printed at Midwest Litho, Rochester, MN. Printed in the U.S.A. For advertising information call 608-783-5395 www.crwmagazine.com info@crwmagazine.com wE waNT TO HEaR FROm YOU! Send comments, suggestions, ideas or original recipes to: <strong>Coulee</strong> <strong>Region</strong> <strong>Women</strong> Editor, 816 2nd Ave. S., Suite 600, Onalaska, WI 54650. E-mail: editor@crwmagazine.com CONTRIBUTED PHOTO FROm THE EdITOR Betty Christiansen recently discovered a new way to go green: Add a little Ivy to your life. Her daughter, Ivy Grace Miles, was born February 28, joining Betty, her husband, Andrew, and her son, Eliot, in a very lively household. It’s not always easy going green. I first tried when I was newly out on my own, living in an old Victorian house in St. Paul. My apartment was on the second floor, with a back porch among the trees and birds and squirrels. I had decided to grow my own vegetables alongside the parking lot, and I’d read in an “urban gardening” book that I could make my own compost by collecting food scraps in a black plastic bag and leaving it outside over winter to do its thing. With idealistic intentions, I filled that garbage bag and set it on the porch, envisioning rich black compost gracing my garden come spring. Instead, the squirrels dug in, my neighbors complained and I got a scolding from my landlord. While many of us embrace the idea of “going green,” we often feel bewildered about how to go about it. We hear talk of green job creation on a national scale, or the staggering cost of outfitting a home for solar power, or just how big that floating island of garbage in the Pacific Ocean is, and we wonder whether anything we do makes an impact at all. What we need to believe in—again—is something that many of our grandparents lived by, but they never would have called it “sustainable living” or “reducing the carbon footprint.” It was a philosophy built on living simply: being thrifty, making do with what you have, finding a new use for something rather than throwing it away and—yes—planting that little garden in the backyard. This issue of <strong>Coulee</strong> <strong>Region</strong> <strong>Women</strong> encourages us to go “Back to Green” with a number of easy and practical ideas that, bit by bit, build a better future for the earth and for our children. In addition, you’ll meet women who are instrumental in going green in all its aspects—from putting La Crosse on the map as an eco-municipality, to supplying the <strong>Coulee</strong> <strong>Region</strong> with healthy, local food, to ensuring that the “green” we bring home stays with us—or even grows—in a difficult economy. Visit our Web site, www.crwmagazine.com, and you’ll find even more, including book reviews and how-to’s for making your own cleaning supplies. No, going green isn’t always easy. But it’s worthwhile, satisfying—and often, even fun. www.crwmagazine.com APRIL/MAY 2009 7
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