Local artist James Sullivan at the Green Tent this Sunday, Aug. 5

Using recycled materials to create art & awareness

Kids and adults are invited to make handmade paper at the Green Tent this Sunday. 

It will be wet and messy and fun! 

Artist James Sullivan is bringing tubs of homemade pulp, made from old junk mail, wrapping paper, lint, leaves & flower petals, seeds, and other odds and ends. You'll dip small screens into it and press the pulp into wonderful, one-of-a-kind sheets of paper.

The focus is on repurposing and reusing any local items close at hand. You don't need to buy things to be creative & have fun! 

James is primarily an abstract painter. He's done a lot of printmaking as well as craft and building projects that recycle/repurpose. See more examples of his work at https://www.facebook.com/pages/James-f-sullivan-studio/243096442380499.

Bring Your Cell Phone to the Green Tent This Sunday!

All politics is local.  How many times have you heard that?  But how can you have a voice in your state government when Sacramento is so far away?  How can you have an impact on the rapidly-deteriorating state of our oceans?  Besides bringing your own bag and bottle, how can you really help address the problem of plastic debris?

Join marine debris activist, Andy Shrader, this weekend at the Green Tent to find out about two state bills the Mar Vista Community Council supports, whose passage is essential to the health of our oceans: a statewide ban on plastic bags and a statewide ban on polystyrene food containers (aka, Styrofoam). 

THIS SUNDAY AT THE MAR VISTA FARMER’S MARKET

Bring your cell phone and, on the spot...

Call your State Assemblymember Holly Mitchell, Betsy Butler or Steven Bradford and leave a message with your address, asking him or her to vote YES on SB-568 (Lowenthal) (Styrofoam ban).

And call your State Senator Ted Lieu or Curren Price, and leave him a message with your address, asking him to vote YES on AB-298 (Brownley) (plastic bag ban).

Statewide Ban on Styrofoam Food Containers

http://action.surfrider.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=3995

http://www.cleanwateraction.org/action/support-sb-568

http://www.cawrecycles.org/issues/current_legislation/SB568_11

(Restaurants Shrug at Foam Ban: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/plastic-283386-foam-san.html)

Statewide Ban on Plastic Bags

http://www.healthebay.org/get-involved/take-action/california-plastic-bag-ban

http://action.surfrider.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6373

http://www.cawrecycles.org/current_legislation/ab298_11

Your State Assemblymembers and Senators really do pay attention to your phone calls.  

Master Gardeners & Preservers this Sunday, July 22

From seed to can...everything you've ever wanted to know

Your zucchini is going like gang-busters. Your tomato plant is looking a little ill. You bought way too many peaches at the Farmers' Market. What can you do?


Come to the Mar Vista Community Council's Green Tent on July 22 and ask an expert. The UCCE LA County Master Gardeners are back...and they're bringing the UCCE/LA County Master Food Preservers with them! 


The Master Gardeners will have FREE summer herb and veggie seeds and seedlings, and advice on how to increase your bounty.

The Master Food Preservers will answer your canning questions. Preservation is many things: canning, pickling, fermenting, freezing, drying and more! These experts can suggest what to do with your excess backyard and farmers market produce.


Our wonderful Master Gardener volunteers complete an intensive training program in all aspects of gardening and are a font of information. The Master Food Preservers complete an intensive training program in the basics of safe and successful food preservation. They both give their time teaching others, especially in low-resource communities.


Stop by to pick up a free seedling and packet of seeds..and chat with some garden and food preservation experts.

EnerGtech Experts returns to the Green Tent July 15

Saving energy...a live demonstration

Society is making some strides to alternative and cleaner sources of power generation. But wouldn't it be better if we all used less? 


Come see a live demonstration of an Energy Monitoring System presented by Brent Locke of EnerGtech Experts. He'll measure the energy used by different types of lightbulbs, turning them on and off from his iPad. 



EnerGtech Experts is a "geek squad" of energy saving advisors, helping home owners and businesses find energy savings with the g-Meter™. The g-Meeter accurately measures, every 5 seconds, the electricity used by lights and any thing else that's plugged in. Homeowners can watch their energy consumption in real time from their own private account on any Internet-connected device. 


A survey of 36 studies by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) in Washington, D.C. found that homeowners with real-time feedback on their power consumption—down to individual appliances—reduced their consumption by 12%. Being able to accurately measure your consumption allows you to accurately manage it.

One Hour Organizing presents on July 8

Tired of junk mail? Want to see it disappear?

• Are you tired of going through the daily deluge of junk mail?

• Do you normally toss it in the trash?

• How would you feel if it just disappeared altogether?

One Hour Organizing will share tips and tricks to eliminate your junk mail - paper and email - once and for all.

Did you know that producing the junk mail delivered to your door each year

• Destroys over 100 million trees 
• Takes 28 billion gallons of clean water
• Produces more CO2 than 9 million cars

Let’s do our part to reduce these statistics. 

BRING your junk mail! Grab what you can! Or just drop by to find out how to eliminate it.

One Hour Organizing is dedicated to helping you simplify your life by eliminating things that no longer serve you.

Cardborgami visits the Green Tent July 1

Bring your kids and help decorate

a cool, origami shelter made of recyclable cardboard. See how it folds up and expands. Learn about Cardborgami's program for helping the homeless using these innovative temporary shelters. It's all happening this Sunday at the Green Tent.



Origami, the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, inspired the structure and form of the shelter. It's primary material - standard cardboard - provides natural insulation and structural qualities. The folds provide structural stability.

The shelters are waterproof and flame-retardant, and can fold open and closed in less than a minute with no assembly required. When not in use, the shelter folds into a size a single person can easily carry. Come try one out and see how it's done!


Intended to provide a temporary, portable and recyclable shelter to the homeless and to disaster victims while helping to get them placed into permanent housing, a Cardborgami structure would make a great playhouse as well!

Cardborgami's goal involves more than simply handing out the Cardborigami units to those in need. The plan is to partner with other homeless aid organizations that have facilities where people could safely use the shelters overnight and also learn how to construct their own Cardborigami unit. Cardborgami hopes to integrate a recycling program into their distribution system, encouraging the homeless to collect cardboard and turn it in at the same centers where they can construct and pick up their own portable unit.

Master Gardeners this Sunday, June 24!

Master Gardeners bring seeds, seedlings & help

The UCCE LA County Master Gardeners are back at the Mar Vista Community Council's Green Tent on June 24 with seasonally appropriate FREE herb and veggie plants, and seeds to share.
 Wondering what to plant now? Need help figuring out why your favorite plant is looking peekish--and what to do about it? Have a question about organic gardening? 

Get the latest research-based information about urban gardening, horticulture and the environment. Learn what's appropriate for our Mar Vista ecosystem--and the 10 invasive plants to avoid. Or just stop by to pick up a free seedling and packet of seeds...and to chat a bit with some garden experts.

Our wonderful Master Gardener Volunteers take an intensive training program in all aspects of gardening and are a font of information. They give their time teaching others, especially in low-income areas. Master Gardeners offer workshops at community gardens, housing development gardens, homeless shelter gardens, answer questions on our Help Line, and much more.

Little Free Library at the Green Tent

Take a book, leave a book

Courtesy of Transition Mar Vista/Venice, we'll have a Little Free Library at the Green Tent for the next month.


Little Free Library's mission is

• To promote literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges worldwide. 

• To build a sense of community as we share skills, creativity, and wisdom across generations

The very first Little Library sits in the front yard of a home above the St. Croix River in Hudson, Wisconsin. It's full of books about gardening and community life. Not a drop of water has trickled inside...but books have come and gone since its first week by the river.  

..   When its sojourn at the Green Tent is over, Transitions will permanently install our Little Free Library somewhere in our community. Transitions is building additional Little Free Library boxes from scrape materials on June 30. Contact Transitions if you're interested in helping to build the boxes or in having one installed.

The Exploratory visits us on Sunday, June 17

The Exploratory 

is bringing its Wind Tunnel activity to the Green Tent. 

The Exploratory encourages families to look at recycled materials in new ways - as a bird or a helicopter that can fly up and out of the wind tunnel, or a hovercraft or jelly fish that floats inside the wind tunnel. 

Come and bring new life to toilet paper rolls, plates and cups. This is a perfect Father's Day activity for dads and kids to share.

is dedicated to bringing the possibilities of Tinkering and Making to families and schools. A local non-profit, it believes that creative learning is innately born in every human being and that a sustainable future depends upon our children being confidently  armed  with the tools to harness imagination to create innovative solutions.  

Transition Mar Vista/Venice Visits Us On Sunday June 10th!

Transition Mar Vista/Venice


 is a local hub of the Transition Movement, which seeks to address the challenges of climate change, peak oil and economic contraction by building resilient communities and  increasing local food, water, energy and human security.

 Transition Mar Vista/Venice is a grassroots group on the west side of Los Angeles, with the mission of transitioning to more resource aware and locally self-sufficient lifestyles to meet the challenges ahead. 

If you have questions about how communities are rising to the difficult challenges that face us today-

 stop by Sunday and join in the conversation!