Neighbors for the Environment -- excellent example of community-building

When Renee and I had our EnviroMom/Master Recycler booth at Multnomah Days we were lucky to have a great group of folks in the booth next door: Neighbors for the Environment (NFTE or 'nifty'). NFTE was inspired by the Northwest Earth Institute and essentially encourages neighbors to form groups (much like our GreenGroups) to discuss ways to address global climate change. They currently list four groups on their Web site (all in SW) and will list any new groups that crop up. In addition to meetings, some of the activities NFTE suggests are neighborhood work parties, cooperative recycling, emergency preparedness plans, tool sharing and car pooling.

Doesn't that sound ideal? Do you hang out with your neighbors, pool resources and help out one another? Isn't that the way it should be? (We've become such an insular society.) All it would take is a note in a mailbox, or stopping to chat when a neighbor is working in the yard, and you could create a neighborhood support system. Sounds great to me (now if only we could transition to 29-hour days...).