This April 22 is the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day and our Cool Davis 10th anniversary is coming in June. We had planned to celebrate with you in person but COVID-19 and our shelter in place directive has fundamentally changed pretty much everything. Those events and parties and celebrations we were planning, are at best reframed, moving online, or postponed.

We are all suddenly living our lives very differently, and this may last for several months to a year, changing our behavior and work for years to come. Those unable to work from home are feeling the struggles of even higher energy bills and fuel costs possibly without income to compensate.

Most distressing, however, is the knowledge that some in our community may not survive this epidemic. So how, in this time of COVID-19, do we stand strong in our place on this planet and live life together?

New ways of connecting across society

Despite the challenges, we see some silver linings in the haze of this unprecedented time. Collectively, we are identifying new ways of connecting across society. Many of the practices we are learning at home right now could serve us well as in the face of climate crisis. For those of us able to shift to more efficient telework, less travel, and more time with family, we may be discovering a better way of living. We must stand strong, now and following the pandemic, to choose — as a community — what positive parts of this crisis we want to retain as the new normal.

Cool Davis is here to support both our response to the current dynamic and planning for a recovery that supports community members as well as the climate.

For more on the Cool Davis perspective on our current shelter-in-place world and links to critical community resources, visit our executive director and staff post on COVID-19 and how we’re working through it.

Community resilience working group

In our current April newsletter, we welcome our most recent working group under the Cool Davis Coalition, READ-Y, which stands for Resilient Embodied Action Davis-Yolo. READ-Y has been planning since last fall to focus on strengthening our social and emotional response to climate impacts, such as wildfire, flood, and heat, and other trauma causing events.

Professionals with backgrounds in ACEs (adverse childhood events) and trauma informed care, plan to bring expert training to individuals and community organizations in Davis. Their hope is to increase our community capacity to face events like the one we are facing now, with practiced compassion and care and through people practicing healthy, regulated responses together.

Staff refocusing on household energy and saving you money

Cool Davis staff and volunteers are all currently well and working from home. We are readying ourselves to share information and resources with neighbors and friends online and in the Zoom Room. We are turning our work and attention to helping households with energy efficiency and conservation, as well as many other sustainable practices from our checklist.

The struggles of this moment prove even more concretely the value of energy efficiency, energy conservation, self-generated electricity (solar), riding bikes for transportation, and electric vehicles.

Our Coalition Steering group has decided to meet online weekly on Wednesdays for conversations, sharing organizational experiences and ideas coming from neighborhoods and households. Our Davis Electric Vehicle Association and Davis Futures Forum working groups are moving online as well; stay tuned for their announcements. COOL Cuisine is planning online meetups and activities for plant-based eating and recipe sharing. Visit the COOL Cuisine website or Facebook page and join their Meetup.

And stay tuned for some creative ways our volunteers, staff, and other community organizations will recognize #EarthDay2020.

With good sense, strength, compassion, and love for each other, our communities, and our planet, there is no reason that we can’t “Live Cool” in the time of COVID-19.

In this 10th anniversary year

Despite the setbacks, Cool Davis will celebrate 10 years of work this year and we will recommit ourselves to continued action for the next 10. Cool Davis will continue to work with households across our community to promote cost effective, “cool solutions” now more than ever in response to the economic challenges many in our community are facing. We want to help households make a 10-year plan (see the Cool Davis Checklist) to reduce their household footprints. If each household creates and implements a long-range plan, collectively we will reduce our community footprint.

Remember to give to local organizations working hard to keep our community safe and healthy. Don’t forget the organizations that provide us with the music, art, and entertainment that makes this such a unique community! They strengthen our hearts and health in a different way! Give now!

Join them and us on the Big Day of Giving May 7th  SAVE THE DATE! 

To all our staff, partners, volunteers, colleagues, friends, donors and supporters, thank you for your good will, your leadership, and kindness in this time. May your spring flowers be beautiful and gardens green. Be well, stay together, wash your hands, and Be Cool!  #LiveCoolDavis!

Sincerely,

Michael McCormick

President, Cool Davis Board of Directors

p.s. I would like to end by sharing a quote:

 

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”

– Maya Angelou