Cool Davis festival: fun for everyone

There are lots of reasons that people will come to the Cool Davis Festival this Sunday 2-5:30 at the Veterans Memorial Central.  But Festival organizers just hope people will come to have fun!

The children will lead the way!  Peregrine school will be returning with their popular interactive hands–on activities for kids in the courtyard of Fun at the Veteran Memorial Theater.

The courtyard will feature several activities including face painting, recycled paper folding, games led by Davis high school students and an outside stage with music, storytelling and yummy free samples from Dos Coyotes!  Children won’t want to miss Nature’s Theater’s original play, Junky’s Last Stand in the theater at 2:30.
Calculate your footprint!

For people who like to be rewarded for their energy conservation efforts and other folks who are curious about getting started – you can calculate your carbon foot print.   Cool California (www.coolcalifornia.org) will be on site to help festival goers do just that.  In fact, you will be able to count up what you are already doing and get credit for it at the Festival with tickets to enter a Free Festival Drawing!  Just ask for the Cool Davis Festival Checklist to get started!

Carbon Cafeteria

For Foodies and Fitness lovers you can check out the Carbon Cafeteria in CO2 Central (the Vets Center Multi-purpose Room) visit sections on food and fitness, or go outside and sample local food, sit in on a food demo in the demonstration room and collect all kinds of take home information like recipe books, carbon reduction trade-offs in diet choices, and information on the health benefits of transportation alternatives.  Of course there is also What’s On Your Plate? the free Food Panel presentation with lunch for sale on site beginning at 11:30.

“If we can make room for everyone’s effort, no matter how small, we will start to make progress toward the goal of carbon neutral by 2050!” Judy Moore

Cool Technology

If cool technology is your thing, then you have a lot of choices, from whole house fans, recirculation valves, rain barrels, and electric bikes.  Talk to owners of Electric Vehicles at the National Plug-in Day Show & Tell in the parking lot! Solar Cookers International and Solar power will be featured on site as well.

Save money and energy in your home

Looking to save money and improve your household energy, water conservation and waste reduction?  The Home Energy Assessment Village is made up of businesses certified to conduct home energy upgrades.  They will be on site to answer your questions.

If you missed them last month at the Farmers Market, Beutler Advanced Comfort and Home Energy Systems, Brower Mechanical, WellHome, and Greiner are back, and some are again offering free Home Energy Assessments.  Experts on water systems, HVAC, solar and transportation will all be featured in our Carbon Cafeteria in CO2 Central. Blue Thumb Water will answer questions about rain barrels and other water saving solutions.

Challenge yourself (and your kids!)

Got a competitive streak? Kids can challenge their mom & dad to join them at the Bike Rodeo.   Who knows the rules of the road better?  Got hand signals?  How are you at dodging that random pile of yard waste?  Davis Bicycles! will be on hand with the young folks from the Davis Bike Collective.  They will do safety and helmet checks and send you on to maneuver around the course.  For those who complete the course, a tasty bike- powered smoothie treat will be your reward!  For a little less serious competition go next door and ride a Wymsycle!

Win Prizes!

If you like to win prizes!  There are lots of ways to earn tickets for the free Cool Davis Drawing.  You can take the Cool Davis Pledge, collect tickets in the Carbon Footprint Game, Count CO2 reductions with Cool Davis Checklist, Walk, Bike or Take Public transit to the Festival, BYO water bottle, Volunteer at Cool Davis Day of Service, Make a donation to a Cool Davis Project.

Everyone will receive a follow-your-carbon footprint game as they enter the festival to collect tickets for the drawing for each question or activity they complete! Some of the Prizes include:  Allstar Plants from UC Arboretum, Cool Davis Date Package, Cool Davis Stuff, UC Davis FADS Bag, Restaurant Gift Certificates, ZipCar Memberships, Water Conservation Kit,  Bike Repair Certificate & Bike items, Soda Stream Soda Makers, and an Electric Lawn Mower.

And because Cool Davis is filling up the parking lot with all that fun – REMEMBER to WALK, BIKE or Take Public Transportation to the Vets Memorial!  Bring Your Own Water Bottle!

Philosophy of Fun

At its heart, the Cool Davis Initiative has a philosophy of fun!  According to Judy Moores one of Cool Davis’s founding members and Festival Co-Director,

“The information about climate change and the coming impacts can be daunting and sobering!  So we try to break it down into the little pieces of our daily habits and our daily lives.  By tackling these smaller pieces we can help each other and encourage each other to move forward to reduce our green house gas emissions.  A lot of little actions, on a daily basis, from many people, can add up quickly!

“We can have fun while we try these things out.  We can celebrate our successes, and laugh at our mistakes.   And if we can make room for everyone’s effort, no matter how small, we will start to make progress toward the goal of carbon neutral by 2050!”