The Beyond Coal Campaign’s next event in Madison is this Friday, October 12 at 6:00 pm at the Threshold on Atwood Ave. It’s a clean energy social called “Here Comes the Sun” and will have activities for participants of all ages. To find out more and to register, visit sc.org/HereComesTheSun
To help get us fired up for our next event, volunteer Søren Warland reflected on our last event…
The Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign made its presence known and engaged in meaningful community outreach at the Willy Street Fair on September 15th and 16th! On both days of the fair, we had a booth with a variety of educational materials to pass out to visitors, as well as stickers and buttons. The focus of our booth was to inform the citizens of Madison of the significant amount of coal-generated power used by our electricity provider, Madison Gas & Electric. 63% of MGE’s electricity comes from coal, which is twice the national average! Over the course of the weekend we were able to spread the word to more than 1,000 people about MGE to people at the fair, many of whom were not aware of this startling statistic about the city’s energy provider.
In addition to handing out materials, we also collected signatures for our petition to make MGE coal-free. This petition called for MGE to create a concrete plan to move to 100% energy. Many cities nationwide have a plan to transition to an entirely clean energy system, including Madison. MGE needs to live up to the demands of its consumers. We also had a photo booth at our Willy Street tent where visitors could take their picture holding up signs to proclaim their opposition to the continued use of burning coal for electricity.
Sunday had several exciting events in store with us. Earlier on in the morning we were able to march in the Willy St. Fair parade, which was a great way to get visibility for our group and its mission! The enthusiasm and dedication of so many of our members made our group an eye-catching part of the parade!
Then, we joined together with Madison’s Ragin’ Grannies to perform a flash mob twice! As we danced to a song with lyrics written by one of our very own members, event-goers watched as a coal plant wreaked havoc on our mob, until it was chased away by one of our Mother Earths. The flash mob was a great way to get people on the street to stop and ask questions about what we were doing, and made for a fun educational activity. See the video of our flash mob on Facebook and Twitter!
We at the Sierra Club hope to have more opportunities to engage with the citizens of Madison in the future!