Sunshine Community Garden This short documentary chronicles the regular practices and annual plant sale of a community garden in Austin, TX.  It was created by the spring intern class of Elephant Productions.  Enjoy!

This year, the theme was Give5: “Bring 5 Friends”, “Give $5″, “Give 5 Hours”

Mayoral Candidates Brewster McCracken and Carole Keeton Strayhorn, along with Team Leffingwell, were the keynote speakers. Volunteers put in an estimated dollar value of $36,400 of volunteer hours in the Austin community in one day!

Projects featured in the video:

• 3M volunteers update Wooten Elementary Library
• Community Volunteers Improve Mt. Sinai Christian Academy childcare center
• Allstate volunteers remove graffiti for the City of Austin, Graffiti Abatement Project
• Dell GRSO and Intel volunteers help recycle computers for Goodwill
• Nordstrom volunteers beautify the Umlauf Sculpture Gardens
• Amplify and Team Qwest volunteers renovate Open Door Preschools playgrounds
• Freescale Semiconductor volunteers inspect, sort and box donations at the Capital Area Food Bank
• Flextronics and Four Seasons Hotel volunteers beautify Reagan High School grounds

“Were you there? Send us photos, tell us about your volunteering experience:
web@unitedwaycapitalarea.org”

The current 2009 Texas Legislature is considering passing a bill that would allow licensed concealed gun carriers to bring their weapons to school (any public college or university in the state of Texas). On the anniversary of the Virginia Tech 2007 shootings, alumni John Woods helped organize a walkout on April 16th at the University of Texas where he is now a graduate student. Students across campus walked out of class and marched to the capitol to protest. Those who opposed the bill listened and cheered to speeches made by John Woods and Texas Representatives while counter-protesters voiced their opinions on the side, standing up for their second amendment rights.

Susan Dawson shares with us why investing in Education for the future benefit of Central Texas is so important. She also talks about the Blueprint for Educational Change, a collaboration between the E3 Alliance and several Central Texas organizations and individuals, including the United Way.

When I get on my motorcycle for weekend rides, I take off from Austin and try to “get into the country” as soon as I can. I usually don’t have a specific agenda or schedule; I just pick out a general direction start riding. I try to stick to Farm to Market or back roads as much as possible.  I’ll check a map every now and then to find a small town to gas up or just to get off the bike for a while.  On one of my weekend rides I went to Coupland Texas.  I always carry a camera with me because I never know what I’m going to find.  When I drove through the little downtown, just past the Old Coupland Inn, I turned the corner and discovered a corner lot filled with sculpture. How odd, all of this granite and steel just sitting out in the open.  After poking around, I saw this guy with a grinder working  a stone. I went up an introduced myself and over the weekend I got enough material to learn something about Jim Huntington the artist.

John Larsen/Photographer

jlarsen@austin.rr.com