Signs of Spring

Spring is in the air, and signs are in the ground! In Belair-Edison at least. Muhammed and I installed signs on four different blocks this afternoon. The weather was nice and between the porch-front gatherings and the kids playing outside, a lot of eyes were turned our way. The signs look great and are attention-grabbing without looking tacky...I think that people are going to start asking more questions about the Challenge very soon. On Lyndale Drive we had a little helper install our signs with us--a boy we had met a few times at the Herring Run Library. His mother was one of the sign recipients today, and we told him to spread the word to the other kids to get their parents involved in the Challenge. Since the kiddos aren't the ones paying the utility bills, the block party is a great incentive for them to learn about (and act toward) conserving energy.

Since my last posting, we have seen a HUGE increase in the effectiveness of door-to-door canvassing as well. We expect this to only improve with the installation of our signs, as people will now see that their neighbors are already involved. Muhammed and I have developed a new-and-improved canvassing strategy that makes much more efficient use of our time, and in general people seem more receptive to the project. I have a theory that it has a lot to do with Spring and the warm weather. People are more apt to open their doors or be on their porches, and the nice weather seems to have everyone thinking about spring cleaning and home improvement. A program like the Challenge (with the added benefit of the Project Lightbulb home energy upgrade) is a perfect home makeover for the new season, and comes at the perfect time to gear people up for the summer, when they inevitably spend more on AC and fans.

The canvassing has also been going much faster thanks to the help of the Project Lightbulb crew members. Although these guys are typically busy doing the installations for Project Lightbulb, they have been aiding us in our canvassing efforts and making a huge impact on how many houses we are able to hit each day--Thanks Project Lightbulb Crew!!!

By the end of the week we hope to have completed canvassing on our first ten tentative blocks, and have 20 signs installed. We also want to plan our first block meeting. We havent decided if we will meet with individual blocks or combine blocks into a larger meeting. We are leaning toward meeting with individual blocks, maybe holding porch-front meetings. We've heard that many community organizations hold porch-front meetings during the warmer months, and this way people wouldn't have to worry about finding transportation to our meeting place--we would come to them. During these meetings we hope to create a forum for discussion about energy-savings progress and maybe talk about potential pros and cons of various energy suppliers. Stay tuned :)