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Highlands Today

Free Seminar To Teach Residents How To 'Go Green'

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By JIM KONKOLY

Highlands Today

Published: August 26, 2008

SEBRING - As of Monday morning, there were 17 companies signed up as vendors that will not only display their products but also give away "goodies" and "freebies" at Highlands County's first day-long, open-to-the-public, seminar on "going green."

Titled "Home Owners: Think Green and Save Money," the seminar will feature eight guest speakers giving homeowners tips on how to substitute "green" products or services for conventional ones, and save money.

Put together by the Highlands County Extension Office, the event will run from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6, at the Highlands County Agri-Civic Center on George Boulevard, off US 27 just south of Sebring and just north of State Roads 98 and 66.

John Alleyne, director of the extension office, said he expects two dozen or more vendors, as more vendors were signing up throughout the day Monday.

Besides the speakers and the displays and the "freebies," the event also will include a free lunch for everybody attending the seminar.

Topics covered in the presentations run the gamut from saving money through solar power to saving water to planting yards that don't need to be watered and don't need chemical fertilizers, to using all kinds of "green" or environmentally household products.

The extension service said everybody is welcome to attend all or part of the program and to enjoy a free lunch. The agency's only request, Alleyne said, is that people who plan to attend call the extension office at 863-402-6540 for reservations.

"Everybody is welcome, whether they call or not," Alleyne said. "The reason we are asking people to call is so that we know how many chairs to set up and how much food to order for the free lunch."
Alleyne is hoping the seminar will help people think outside the box.

"We're going to ask them to think not as if they were an expert on the different topics will be talking about, but to think as a citizen who is impacted by the world around you," he said.

"Our second objective is to get people to know how they can help save the environment around them and save money at the same time. And we're going to ask them to learn how to do this by doing three things at the seminar: Listen, learn, and think."

The third objective, Alleyne said, was developed by the six-person Highlands County Extension Sustainability Committee, which is putting on the Sept. 6 event and also is planning a series of similar day-long workshops, with one in October and another tentatively planned for late December.

"The third objective," Alleyne said, "is to ask people to think critically as they hear the presentations or talk with the vendors, as to how each topic affects them. And this is on everything that will be talked about, from solar energy to insulation in (home) building blocks to saving money by putting in the right plants."

Also, Alleyne said, people attending the various presentations will be challenged to take a "green" project of their choosing.

Tentatively, the extension service is planning an all-day workshop on agricultural sustainability for some time in late October. That workshop, also free and open to the public, will feature a world renowned expert on bio fuels who will come here from Ireland.

"This is just the first in a series of seminars on the whole issue of sustainability and what it means to individuals living here in Highlands County," Alleyne said.

Jim Konkoly can be reached at 863-386-5855 or e-mail jkonkoly@highlandstoday.com

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