Spotlight

A kick start for our new Champions for Change Program
A big thank you to the Tucson-based Zuckerman Community Outreach Foundation, who has joined GSA USA in support of our Champions for Change Program. The Foundation is helping us distribute 2,000 books to libraries, schools and youth groups. Our book, Champions for Change: Athletes Making a World of Difference is the platform of the program, whose goals is to use the powerful stories and appeal of sports stars such as Greg LeMond to draw youth into addressing some of the more difficult challenges affecting their lives, including science and environmental proficiencies. Our Champions for Change Program inspires youth to read about their heroes, who also serve as role models for personal discipline, self confidence, motivation and wellness, as well as examples of strong commitment to and work for healthy communities and environment.

Events

In the media… again!
To celebrate Earth Day Jane Poynter talked about Champions for Change to a packed house at Biosphere 2. While there she chatted with Gina Murphy-Darling on her talk show Mrs. Green Goes Mainstream. Check out her interview here.

Also, watch Champion for Change Natalie Spilger on ABC’s Earth Day broadcast.

Riding for MS and the environment
The 2010 MS Round-Up Ride held in Florence, Arizona in March was highly successful and achieved their goal of operating an eco-friendly event with 900 participants in the middle of the desert.  GSA helped them get a set up for bulk water instead of using individual water bottles. Other highlights included:

• Use of local vendors to provide fruit for their participants.
• All cardboard from the event was recycled by the city of Florence.
• Recycling on site and at stations along the route.
• Non-packaged items were primarily utilized at the event reducing overall consumption.

GSA’s Local Trust to plant urban forest with Audubon in Tucson.
Join us! To launch our partnership with Audubon, GSA’s Local Trust is planting trees on May 15th at the Audubon’s Mason Center in Tucson. The Local Trust is GSA’s locally-based carbon credit program. This effort will offset Tucsonans’ travel emissions. The Audubon will also create an urban habitat for at-risk bird species by planting other native desert vegetation around the trees. GSA President Jane Poynter will speak about The Local Trust at the event before planting the trees. Check out our home page for event details.

You can offset your travel emissions at www.thelocaltrust.org, and choose whether to plant urban forests with Audubon, or put solar hot water systems on low-income housing the Habitat for Humanity.

Old shoes make new fields!
Team Captain Dan Schied of Rochester, NY reports: “Here at the University of Rochester we have ongoing collection boxes in the locker rooms of our athletic center. I take the collected shoes to the county facility, which collects them from many sources and sends them to the Nike Reuse a Shoe Program. The entire shoe is recycled into different athletic field materials. The video on their homepage describes it well. We launched the program last year on Earth Day so it has been a year now and we have collected 217 pairs total. We do encourage reuse before recycling, so this program is intended for shoes that have really been warn to the point that someone else would not want them.

GSA flies high at record setting El Tour de Phoenix
GSA’s Ecoflag flew at the start line of this year's Holualoa 19th El Tour de Phoenix, held on Saturday April 10, 2010. Our own Navigator, Olympian Jame Carney, coached the first place finisher for both the men and the women: GSA Navigator Erica Allar of North Carolina, who set a new course record, and Clay Murfet of Tasmania Australia.

El Tour de Phoenix set a new attendance record:  1,414 cyclists making it the 3rd largest cycling event in State of Arizona. The event raised over $8,000 for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The North Face Endurance Challenge
GSA USA needs volunteers to help support The North Face Endurance Challenge at Sterling, VA on June 5th and 6th.

Voted the “Greenest Racing Series” by Trail Runner Magazine, Global Sports Alliance is happy to help and is looking for volunteers to be part of the excitement. Want to get an inside look into this world class event? Want to get into the action and give encouragement to all the hundreds of athletes participating in this epic test of endurance? Want to help protect this beautiful, natural setting and support TNF on their journey towards sustainability? Then come join the GSA USA team for a few hours, a half day, or entire weekend of fun and excitement.

Please contact dina@gsa-usa.org for more information or to volunteer!

Record Breaking Kayaks!
Are you a kayaker?  Join us as we celebrate World Environment Day in UNEP's North American host city, Pittsburgh, PA. 

On June 5, Paddle At The Point will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the Largest Raft of Canoes and Kayaks. The record, previously held by Cleveland, was recently set by 1,104 boats in Inlet, New York. Join GSA as we fly the ecoflag at this exciting World Environment Day Pittsburgh event! Find more information here.

Another fabulous partner!
We’ve partnered with Solar Day, celebrated nationwide on Saturday, June 19. Solar Day was created in 2009 to be a national and international day of recognition of solar energy, clean technology, energy independence, sustainability and protection of the planet.  Get ideas for your own SolarDay event  here.

Volunteer Spotlight

Please welcome our newest Team Captain, Susan Schneider and her team, Cycling Made Fun, of Alexandria, Virginia. Having spent her teens in Austria, Susan returned to the U.S. at age 26 to pursue a career in foreign service. Throughout this challenging time she says, “Bicycling in groups and becoming involved in bicycle advocacy kept me sane.”

In 2008 Susan started a bicycle group, Cycling Made Fun, for beginners and intermediate bike riders to get more people involved in bicycling. She also commutes by bicycle and wants to promote bicycling as an eco-friendly transportation alternative. Go Team!

Eco-Tips

Get Off the Bottle!
Starting on World Water Day and ending on Earth Day line producer Sarah Olson and director Stephanie Soechtig drove across the country urging Americans to Get Off the Bottle! They stopped in thirty cities to collect pledges for people to reduce their bottled water use and traded empty bottles of water for a Klean Kanteen! www.tappedthefilm.com/

Let’s all get off the bottle! Take your sports bottle to your next event, instead of buying bottled water. If you’re an event organizer, consider providing a water station and ask participants to bring their own bottle. It saves money and resources.

A no-cost way to raise money for non profits.
Go to www.goodsearch.com and enter Global Sports Alliance USA as your non-profit of choice. Every time you goodsearch instead of using other search engines to surf the web, money goes to GSA (or any other nonprofit you would like to help out). Please ask your friends to do the same. It adds up fast, and is a great way to help non-profits in this difficult economy.