From yoga to worms, fair touts living simply

The third annual Simply Living! festival teaches how things from yoga to worms can improve the quality of life. The three-day extravaganza, Simply Living!: An Exploration of Sustainable Living, features more than 40 workshops, hands-on activities, live music, vendors, a children's tent, tabling by local businesses and activist groups, and a nationally-recognized keynote speaker. It will take place at Third Street Park.\nThis year's event was co-organized by the Center for Sustainable Living, Bloomingfoods, City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation and Heartwood. Workshops such as Wildlife Gardening, Economics of Living Simply, Eco-Yoga, Massage and Body Healing, Acupuncture and the ever-popular Worm Composting are offered.\nEnergy and Optimism\nSimply Living!, which has grown each year, has its origins in a similar event.\n"I originally came up with the idea after going to a renewable energy fair in the Midwest with a similar setup," organizer and presenter Christine Glaser said. "I came back here with an idea for a fair about sustainability and worked in a group of four to develop the first fair."\nThis year's project is the largest yet, with planning beginning almost immediately after evaluations of last year's fair were completed. While organizers consider last year's fair successful, they looked for even the smallest changes to increase its focus on community interests.\n"After last year's festival we got a focus group from the town and talked to them to see what they were interested in," Heartwood's Tiffany Kinney said. "We really feel we have something for everyone. It's not all about living simply, but really enjoying the life that you have."\nGlaser agreed the fair needed some tweaking.\n"This year we even had someone head a 'fun committee' for things such as music ... The thing that is so great about this event is that its got such an uplifting atmosphere where everyone can share their enthusiasm."\nHighlights of living the simple way\nAlthough Simply Living! has a diffuse focus, a central theme of the fair will be health and wellness. Jeff Brown of Bloomingfoods has organized a workshop on the subject. \n"Community education is really a high priority in our mission," Brown said. "We have a monthly educational series, offering things such as cooking classes, and really were interested in doing a whole health and wellness fair, and this had such an overlap we decided to participate."\nIn past years, Bloomingfoods helped cater the event, and is increasing its role this year by organizing the "Holistic Health and Well-Being" series of workshops. \n"We feel this track allows people to see alternatives in town for things such as disease prevention and allows people to take responsibility and become empowered for their own health," Brown said.\nKnowing that many newcomers will visit the fair for the first time this year, organizers also attempted to make the fair accessible to all, including those that come upon the event by wandering by the park.\n"We have the hands-on demos such as bee keeping and bike repair available to the public," Glaser said. "And we hope that people will walk by and try those and then become interested in going to a workshop."\nGlaser said she believes the fair can appeal to anyone.\n"We try to make it so that people who are beginners can gain knowledge, and so that people who are experienced can have a good time and make contacts as well," she said.\nGary Nabhan, director of Northern Arizona University's Center for Sustainable Environments, is flying in to speak at the Waldron Arts Center the evening before the festival. In addition to many research projects on topics such as farming and local foods, Nabhan is the author of 14 books.\n"The keynote address was done working with several people on campus," Bloomington Parks and Recreation's Marcia Veldman said. "We're very thankful because without their help and the help of the Biology department we wouldn't have been able to do it."\nThere's also a bit of art and entertainment, including performances by The Oolation Singers and the Bloomingtones. Dance/Martial Arts/singing group Capoiera Angola will also make an appearance during a workshop Sunday.\nFun in the Backyard\nAnd yes, children are welcome.\nNot forgetting that even the smallest impact makes a difference, the children's tent returns this year with a variety of environmental activities. The fest will find Bloomington's blossoming youth singing, creating finger puppets, making paper, painting, storytelling and even participating in some Tai Chi.\nRoss Brittain, from Wild Birds Unlimited, 1101 N College Ave., will be teaching a workshop called "Gardening for Birds," geared to help people learn how to create a correct habitat easily in their own green space.\n"Too many times people put up bird boxes, and end up creating more problems," Brittain says. "Most times they are either in the wrong place, in an area with predators, or are simply not monitored once put up."\nBrittain was quick to point out that 65 percent of boxes actually cause harm unintentionally due to misuse, according to the North American Bluebird Society. \n"With this work shop, and many others in the track we try to stress the importance and ease at which food, water, shelter, and a place to raise young can be implemented into someone's backyard, creating a suitable habitat," Brittain said. "We hope people live with a better understanding that their backyard is part of a larger ecological system, and that things in their backyard do make a difference."\nBrittain's workshop will be one of many in the organic gardening/urban wildlife environment track.\nClose to Home\nEnvironmental workshops are important, but learning about one's home can be just as resourceful, presenter John Bower said.\n"While the idea of the Simply Living fair is the environment outside, this focuses on the environment inside, the one you are most likely to come in contact with," he said. "This year we are basing the workshop around a case study of the house my wife and I have built, and specifically what makes it healthy."\nBower said many problems that exist in today's homes can be more easily remedied than many believe.\n"A lot of times these days, its more about what's cheap rather than what is the effect on someone's health when it comes to building a home," Bower said. "There are so many little things such as new carpeting having a variety of harmful gasses, or old carpeting being home to dust and molds, which could be the cause of the spiraling asthma rates. \n"We just want to put the idea of a healthy home in perspective and to let people realize it really doesn't cost a lot"