Give-Aways and Trade Shows
February 16th, 2011, 10:51 pm
With the GreenWorks trade show coming up on the 24th of February, the Media and Fundraising teams started to look into networking and advertising options. In addition to the seed paper created for business cards, we were looking at other eco-friendly advertising methods and paperless formats of distributing information.

One bright idea was to create custom printed USB drives that would hold information about the Green Corridor. This would allow us to disseminate and spread our message, while avoiding contributing to the overuse of paper.

Several style options were considered. The following, a spin-style drive without a cap, was the crowd favourite.

Some other marketing ideas were also considered. Custom tote bags are all the eco-rage at the moment, and a relatively inexpensive option.
A compact, transportable, roll-able water bottle was also an option, with the Green Corridor logo imprinted on the front.

Unfortunately, at the moment, these marketing items are beyond the limitations of our budget. Making contacts with corporations and companies in the country who provide these services was nonetheless a valuable exercise.
Paper-Making Fun
February 15th, 2011, 2:04 pm

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Behind every great paper-maker, there was likely a group of disgruntled siblings doing most of the hard labour. Indeed, Cai Lun, of paper-making legend probably had a whole slew of lackeys, and Alexa Caturay, of the fundraising team does also. With the fantastic help of two willing sisters, we have created seed paper.

What is seed paper, you ask? It is exactly what it sounds like — paper with seeds embedded in it. The beauty of this simple addition to a regular writing pad is that it can be planted, and if nurtured with water and sunlight, will grow beautiful wildflowers.

Beginning with bits and pieces of scrap paper that we had plenty of in the house, we created a paper slurry by blending this up with water.

After wildflower seeds were added, we used a paper-making frame that I made some time ago to mould the paper.

Much squeezing out of water ensued, then the pages were then hung up on a line to dry.

The plan for this paper is to stamp it with the Green Corridor logo, using a stamp that was ordered today from Sterling Marketing Products. These eco-friendlier business card substitutes will be handed out at the GreenWorks conference, which is coming up on the 24th of February.
I’m sure my sisters look forward to a weekend of logo-stamping fun.