News and Updates

San Francisco 2012

Author: Majida Thalji

San Francisco celebrated Earth Day Backyard Fun with dance, music, play and games. For our global activity day we prepared Earth Paste, a biodegradable cleaning paste that is easy to make.

We gave each person who came to get food from the free food pantry at the Fairfax Community Church a small container of Earth Paste and the recipe, encouraging them to make it at home and to teach others.

Another activity we are promoting is a compilation of stories based mainly on the book “José, o Menino de Coração de Maria”. Our version is called “José, the Boy from Coração de Maria”. Although it is a book for children, it is also very interesting for adults. The introduction explains what Seringal Novo Encanto is and invites us to participate in the expeditions. During the story, readers have the opportunity to become more familiar with the "Seringal" and create a visual image of what it might be like, hopefully planting a seed for a future visit. It is a fantastic way of bringing the term "Seringal" into our vocabulary and our awareness.

On Saturday August 18th, Roger Humphrey, Majida’s companion, took 5 adults on a 3 mile docent-led interpretive walk at Edgewood County Park and Natural Preserve. Halfway, we stopped to do an activity called“camera” which involes working in pairs to direct each other to view a photo through each other's eyes. We also took the opportunity to talk about N.E. and we picked up trash from the path on the way back.

In the next couple of months our N.E. activity will be to show a video of Jeffrey Bronfman speaking about the origins of New Enchantment. Our friend Jeffrey is an integral part of the organization’s foundation. It is also part of our membership registration campaign for New Enchantment.