Origami for Japan

The 9.0 earthquake affecting Japan on March the 11th had us all on a stand still. The consequences of the world's fifth-largest earthquake are devastating, not to mention the destruction from the tsunami that followed with waves as high as 10 meters that even reached the U.S. West coast! What's more the tsunami was travelling at around 800km/hour which is the normal cruising speed of a jetliner. More than 14,000 people were killed, houses and communities were destroyed and there was a nuclear crisis with the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Many people watch these events in horror, and few realise they can actually do something to help! These events may happen thousands of kilometers away but in the end we all call earth our home and we are all human. We can each make our contribution to help others in need just as we would wish others would do to us should we be in similar need.

So at Trinity, we made origami! The crane is the symbol of peace and hope. As part of our arts week and exhibition night at Trinity, we made over 100 paper cranes (which are quite fiddly!). With the crane we sold them for $1-2 each, thanks to some lovely shop owners and passers by along Hampden road in particular, and made $150 :) The money was then donate to the Red Cross Japan and Pacific appeal found at http://www.redcross.org.au/japan2011.htm

Thank you to all those who participated and help raise some funds for Japan's aid!

Pancake Day BBQ and World's Greatest Shave!

The end of week 2 of uni has flown by so fast! We had 2 awesome events this week which saw Trinity raise over $1000 for 2 awesome charities.

Tuesday the 8th of March was our annual Pancake Day bbq for the Uniting Care organisation which provides support for people in the community suffering abuse, emergency relief aid, assisting the elderly, youth mental health support and a range of other support networks locally. The Trinity RAs were busy shaking, flipping and distributing over 500 original, blueberry or choc chip pancakes to the residents. Those who had a sugar high were satisfied with a 3 hole mini golf course and giant twister in the East Quad next to the BBQ area. The best flipped pancake award had to go out to our Derry RA Phoebe who had mastered the art of pancake cooking! And the most inventive pancake to Cathy for forming love hearts and a turtle (which i thought looked like a man but either way was impressive!)

Phoebe and I had our try flipping the pancakes..

Even the mixture looked appetising!

Kiara was also quickly becoming a pro pancake cooker also...

Twister was tying residents ups in knots!

And Bronte was lucky enough to get one of Cathy's beautiful love heart pancakes :)

Only 2 days later on Thursday was our Worlds Greatest Shave event to raise money for the Leukaemia foundation for those affected with blood cancers.

We had 6 brave shavers on the night, they were all male but still had some good hair to shave! Tim, Greg, Lawson, Brady, Sam and Nick you guys are awesome. We had a great turn out to support those who shaved and raised nearly $800! Although I did not shave my own hair it was quite a challenge using clippers for the first time, i didn't tell my first shaver that but he probably guessed! But in my defense he did have thick curly hair and having clippers which did not work properly this was quite difficult... but we got their and they all looked really good with shaved heads all for a great cause too. My second guy's hair actually came off so quickly i was shocked! We put it down to his use of Pantene Pro-V and coconut oil :P

I cannot forget out brave guys who waxed their legs! Mims and Cathy were having a ball watching their faces as they waxed their legs, and when we came to even braver guys who waxed their stomach (snail) trails and chest hair there was quite a gathering to watch their facial expressions! I would have to give the bravest award for waxing to Monty who had a lovely patch of chest hair now gone which looked to be the most painful and reddest! Good on you Monty :)

Take Time and Cottesloe Coastcare

Tuesday the 22^nd of Feb saw Trinity’s first Community and environment events get underway during O-week! The two were Cottesloe rehabilitation with Coastcare and a visit to Take Time in Willeton.

Cottesloe proved to be a great morning as residents lended a helping hand out at Vlamingh memorial by watering tiny seedlings to assist revegetation of the site. Residents also became aware of the endangered Weedy sea dragon which is being protected in the WA coast. After some rewarding rehabilitation work a trip to the beach was soon to follow. All those who joined in bought back to college a positive vibe and a hope for more rehabilitation work in the near future.

At the same time other residents where smiling, laughing, talking, creating and playing with adults with ongoing functional disabilities. All those who attended this trip to Take Time had a rewarding experience, it was hard to tell whether the smiles on faces were bigger in the Take Time group or us playing with them. From Uno, cards, guess who, puzzles, dominoes and giant connect four to a group game of bingo, every game was thoroughly enjoyed. Everyone is looking forward to Take Time’s visit to Trinity in the not too distant future with the promise of another morning of enjoyment for all involved.

Getting ready for action

When it comes to computers and programs I am not the greatest, but I gave it a go :) For all the residents of Trinity College, here is a place where you can keep up to date with what community and environment events are happening around college especially under the 'Trinity events' page up the top. In the home page I will be blogging what I am learning about the environment and the community, updating you on our community and environment (C&E) meetings and how the events are going, ways we can get more involved in C&E inside the college and out, and if you have any requests, thoughts, ideas or general comments feel free to comment on what I write or else come visit me in bottom floor Cook 114, extension 514.

As a heads up Trinity will be starting up the C&E committee/group for anyone interested in getting more involved or bringing ideas to the table which you are more than welcome to join or simply come and have a listen. I love to bake so there will always be something sweet to keep our minds ticking over.

While the main events for trinity are so far listed until May these can change and more are likely to be added so keep an eye on them. Also we are working on making a community garden near the tennis court with flowers and vegetables when after all residents return in the next week. Keep this in mind as i would love to hear your thoughts on what you would like to put in the garden!

Throughout the year there are also various talks known as F-troop for anyone to attend. People talking include either residents or non-residents/people out in the local communities and have some great and inspiring stories to tell. The first one is on the 24th of March with guest speaker Ian Robertson from UWA. Another event we would like to get going throughout the semester is an inter-college energy and water challenge! This is food for thought at the moment but is something I am very keen to get underway with your help.

There are so many exciting events coming up for the semester and the year! Keep an eye on this site, the projector slide in the dining hall and announcements around college as these events you do not want to miss :)

Looking forward to meeting you all very soon!

Planning to save!

Well I have worked out my average shower times... 4 minutes and 7 minutes while washing my hair. This equates to using an average 48 liters and 84 liters of water at a time!! Say i wash my hair twice a week, this is equivalent to 408 liters a week and 21 216 liters a year... so I am aiming to get down to 2 minute and 4 minute showers. Just think by me reducing my shower times by around half, i can save 204 liters a week and 10 608 liters a year!! To put into perspective, an average family spa holds around 1000 liters of water so in a year, so i would reduce my water use from using 21 spas full of water to 10.5 full spas. Even by half that is a lot of water just to keep me clean, the amount would be unbelievable for the population of Australia at least!!

By changing traditional shower heads to a water saving one can save each person 7000 to 11000 liters of water a year based on an average shower time of 5-10 minutes. Some people shower up to 20 minutes, and my sister is no exception (at the moment!!) so

my shower times don't seem too bad. However they are still too long. Water saver shower heads can cost as little as $20 a head in Bunnings, what is even better i

s Perth residents as from February 2011 can swap their shower heads free from charge for a water saving shower head! Below are the new versus old shower heads...

A big water wasting culprit i have found is (being a girl) shaving my legs in the shower. While not everyone has a bath we can still save water by turning the water down to a dribble while we shave and back up when we need to wash soap off. Simple things like this can make a huge difference.

One flap of wings happening right here :)

The World Clock

Our Impact on the world has been said to be immeasurable, but here we have it measured and I have yet to find someone who views this for the first time without letting their jaw dropped or eye brows raise even if it is just in the slightest!

Change

It doesn’t matter how small the change is — it only matters that you make the effort to bring about that change.

Welcome to my blog! My name is Janelle and I am helping Trinity College and all university students like myself who reside in the college to become environmentally sustainable, more involved in community events and aware of the issues facing our community and take small steps together to make a difference in this world. Here residents can keep up to date with what events are happening in our college, local communities and the world. This year for 2011, I am taking the challenge to learn as much as i can about saving energy, conserving water, recycling, eco-friendly gardens and plantation, wildlife, issues of social justice and community programs and events. The bigger challenge which is to make environmentally friendly actions a habit and not a once off situation.

They say to create a habit such as brushing your teeth, you must carry out the action 16-21 times, you must remind yourself everyday of your new habit your creating, write yourself notes and remind yourself why you are creating this new habit. Be gradual. Similarly one usually needs to break a bad habit in order to forma a new one. Many who fail take a plunge and go cold turkey to stop the habit they want to break altogether. A better approach is to once again be gradual. For example, my first goal (I feel being female this should be the first on my list!) is to cut down my shower time and break the habit of standing in the shower with the thought I am rinsing off excess soap (which in most cases is not actually there). Or how many of us use the shower as a revitalizing place to feel the water run over your face and wash away excess emotions to feel totally refreshed once out? Well I have found I can get the same amount of soap off in less than a third of the time and revitalize with a simple splash of water in the basin just as well, or whats more sit outside for a few minutes and 'smell the roses' so to speak.

So, my first habit to break is long showers and my habit to form is short showers. My first step is to time my showers, but I am going to go further and time the showers of my family members also. Then I will experiment and race to see how quick i can have a shower and still feel as clean and refreshed as when I had longer showers. A shower can use 4 - 20 liters of water a minute depending on the shower head! So comparing my times before and after I change my habit I can calculate how much water I can save a day. Then to make shorter showers a habit, i will gradually reduce my time each day and record my showers even after I reach my goal time to ensure i continue the habit. Here is a good site:

http://www.oneminuteshower.com.au/

which tells us that showers contribute the highest of 29% of our water use. A great way to reduce this is to install water saving shower heads in the showers. This I don't think we even have at our house let alone at college. Time to go to Bunnings dad!