TGE Open House at Dansko – What a Blast!

  We’re declaring the Three Groves Ecovillage Open House at Dansko a smashing success with almost 100 people in attendance. It was great to see so many old friends, and even more new faces. While I could wax poetically about how great I think it was, I think I’ll let Howard, one of our guests Saturday do it instead. In case you didn’t see his comment on the Invite, he wrote:

 “What a well organized, friendly and informative event! I especially liked Sandy's definition of sustainability: "a state of perpetual vitality supported by resources local to a place". His brief history of the world presentation gave the background to his point that if everyone in the world consumed the resources of Americans today, we'd need three more planets just to accommodate the population today. He did a nice job of showing how we need more good examples, such as ecovillages, for society to look to model more responsible development and consumption patterns. Sandy described how the costs have to be looked at in a broader context than just actual construction. He and Anthony did a nice job explaining how you may pay more for the unit initially, but with the goal of Net Zero Energy, it adds up to considerable savings in the long run. I was also interested when Sandy announced that his company will be starting a bank for mortgage lending to ecovillagers.

“Anthony gave an impressive description of the Three Groves Ecovillage project. Questions were answered honestly based on where the project is currently at. Add to that the great Dansko hospitality and tasty food and beverage, and it was a very impressive outreach event with a good turnout. We'll certainly be back to learn more.”

Special thanks to:
-    All the great folks at Dansko who helped with set-up, AV, food preparation and making sure the Open House ran smoothly. We didn’t even get to meet the ones hiding in the kitchen until the very end.
-    Twelves Grill for the delicious kettle chips, and platters of cheeses and hors d’oevres.
-    The Perfect Cup Café for the cookies, scones, muffins, and of course, the coffee.
-    All the friends of Three Groves for getting the word out, coming early, staying late, and putting in the extra mile to make this happen.
-    All of our guests. You asked great, thoughtful questions.
-    Howard, for unknowingly writing this blog entry, and for standing in last minute for a Q&A Panelist who had to leave before we got to the Q&A part.