Do you wonder what to do with all that paper in your house?  Are you concerned about identity theft?
Would you prefer to send all that shredded paper to a facility that will use it to make recycled paper rather than discarding it in our landfills?
The Pima County Sheriff's Department sponsors free-of-charge document shredding as a drive-thru service.
An attendant will come to your vehicle and transfer all documents for shredding to a bin. Shredding will be completed on-site before you leave.
Acceptable items for shredding are any personal documents that are loose, folded, stapled or in envelopes.

Shred-A-Thons are scheduled on Saturday mornings from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Upcoming dates and locations include:

• May 28th at the Pima County Fairgrounds – 11300 S. Houghton Rd.
• August 13th at Desert Winds Elementary School – 12675 W. Rudasill Rd.

Check out their website for more information:   http://pimasheriff.org/department-services/other-services/shred-a-thon/

Anu Pundari

By Maggie Lawrence

Imagine our beloved Catalina Mountains removed from our sight. Imagine giant earth-moving equipment going up Mt. Lemmon highway. Imagine the boulders, the trees, the homes sliding down the mountains into our valley. Imagine Sabino Canyon filled up with coal slurry and slurry running along Skyline Drive, then down Kolb and Craycroft and Swan and on around Pusch Ridge tearing up utility lines, sewer lines, and water lines. Imagine boulders bouncing down through the foothills followed by tons of rock and dirt. Imagine!

These catastrophies are happening in many countries and in our Appalachia Mountains. Mountaintop removal, the coal companies say, is the best way to get at the veins of coal running through the mountains of West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and other states of Appalachia range. Coal companies with little regard for the livelihood or the lives of the mostly impoverished mountain people bring in their gigantic earthmovers, scraping away top soil and trees, generally savingnone of these things, just pushing them aside, down the mountain into the valleys and streams. Polluting the mountainstreams, family and town wells, as well as the air. Imagine your life being uprooted as the mountain you live on is uprooted and removed! And think of the wildlife losing their homes and the migratory birds losing their flyway. Imagine!

Here's a place you can learn more and see how mountains have been devastated. www.ilovemountains.org

We want, and need, everyone at UUCT to get behind this effort to make an ecological difference in our personal lives, our community and in the world.

1. Establish a Green Sanctuary Program Committee. DONE
2. Conduct an environmental assessment.  IN PROGRESS

   Conducting an environmental assessment provides a snapshot of where our congregation stands with respect to our environmental behaviors. The assessment establishes the baseline or starting point for your congregation. The assessment has three parts:

   • the professional energy audit,
   • the congregational assessment (The congregational assessment will include an assessment of: Worship and Celebration; Lifespan Faith Development—adult and children's; Environmental Justice work; Sustainable Living—grounds, parking lot, location, transportation, facilities, kitchen, food, recycling/reuseables, office and cleaning supplies, energy use, investment policies, congregation policies, congregation committees, etc.)
   • a survey for individual congregant members that assesses our current green behaviors

    

3. Create an action plan. NEXT!

   With your input we will develop an action plan that may address some of the things highlighted in our environmental assessment and will support our strategic plan.  The action plan must include twelve different projects within the four focus areas: Worship and Celebration, Lifespan Faith Development, Sustainable Living, and Environmental Justice.  By Earth Day we’ll be looking for input as to what these projects could be—watch for ways to submit your ideas.

4. Apply for Green Sanctuary Candidacy.  Summer 2011
5. Review feedback from a Green Sanctuary review team.
6. Make appropriate modifications to your action plan.
7. Complete your action plan.
8. Apply for Green Sanctuary Accreditation.
9. Receive recognition as a Green Sanctuary.
10. Complete the re-accreditation process.