We've got a bright shiny building!

Hey SEEED family!

I couldn’t be happier about the Career Readiness Program recruitment, y’all! We have 10 applications filled out already, so it’s getting competitive! We have some wonderful, motivated candidates. We will probably not be advertising the program much more for participants since we already have more people interested than we can accept. Interviews will start next week, and then we will have our Fall 2015 Career Readiness Program class ready to go. That frees me up to focus on recruiting instructors. I’m hoping to get a guest instructor in for most of the workshops. There’s so much talent in this community, so it would be great to show these young people some of the great leaders of Knoxville. On that note, check us out in this week’s KnoxvilleNoir blog (link). Our friend Quineka is doing great work keeping talented black folks engaged in the city, so give her some love!

This week the Turnkey building was full of young faces getting ready to learn, but not in the way you might expect. Classes at the University of Tennessee start back next week, and 30 incoming freshmen in UT’s Ignite program volunteered their day getting SEEED in top shape before their school starts back and before ours does, too. The students got started getting the building in shape for our Career Readiness Program students to come in ready to earn while they learn. Outside, the Ignitees trimmed the bushes, watered the community garden, broke down the old compost bins, and took apart the mysterious half-formed pond that was summoning mosquitoes in the back yard. Inside, they cleaned all the floors, organized the supply closet, and took the old tint off the windows. They even organized SEEED’s mini-library, so anyone who wants to borrow a book from us can come on by and find something they like! Altogether, that was hundreds of dollars worth of labor, so we are very grateful!

SEEED runs on volunteers, so if you ever have the hankering to garden, paint, or clean some bathrooms (ok, I don’t think anyone wants to do that last one) come down and see us! You might end up on this blog!

Mini Summer Program Video

SEEEDville, a lot going on here over at SEEED. Personally, I have been creating an application guideline for Three Rivers Market Nourishing change, created a media guide, added our set program dates to our websites event calendar, and finished up my production workshop at CTV Knoxville.

One thing I would like to share is a video clip from when we teamed up with the Just Lead Program of the Emerald Youth Foundation. This was our mini summer session...

Hope you enjoyed it...

SEEEDville out.

Countdown to Careers

The Career Readiness Program starts in just over a month! As you can guess, there’s a lot to do around here before then. We are fundraising toward our goal of $30,000 for the fall session. John and I have already sent out 117 letters, and we licked every single one of those envelopes. That’s love, Seeedville. :)

At the same time, we are starting up recruitment for the Career Readiness Program. The application deadline for students is September 2^nd, and we already have a few great applications in. We will take the 10 most motivated and prepared applicants. So if you know any young adults looking to get into a career, send them on over. Applications can be picked up at SEEED Monday-Friday 9-4.

We are also on the lookout for workshop instructors for the fall. Our workshops are never boring, so come ready for interactive, fun learning with a bunch of fantastic young men and women. Open topics include Hopes and Dreams, Interviewing Skills, and Applying for Jobs. If you are interested in teaching these or any other life and job skills to young adults getting on the pathway out of poverty, email seeedknox@gmail.com for more information or fill out the volunteer interest form at seeedknox.com. 

We'll keep you in the loop as we get closer to starting the Career Readiness Program started up. Get pumped, Seeedville!

Hello SEEED family,

It's been a super busy week. First I'd like to talk about the proposal Lee sent out to Scripps, or more commonly known as HGTV. While Lee was on vacation Stan and I talked with them about a potential opportunity with Rebuild Together Knoxville to revamp Morningside Community Center. If we are selected the community center makeover would be HGTV's VIP project with Vanilla Ice and spotlighted nationally.

Also, I finalized our Marketing Action Plan for our upcoming Job Readiness Training in September. Moreover, we're getting closer to speculative dates with respect to the county workshops and outreach programs. Erin Eldridge form Alliance to Save Energy has a huge task for us to accomplish (which will be discussed at a later date). This week was just filled with meeting's accompanied by numerous moving parts which I will not bore you with.

Additionally, we created a video for the Just Lead Program of the Emerald Youth Foundation for which we will be posting on Facebook and maybe (if it's good enough) our website. Speaking of social media, we have a B.B.Q fundraiser at Jarman's B.B.Q coming up August 2nd, so spread the word.  And my last tidbit is for Lee's vacation.
:)

SEEED OUT

School's Out for Summer

Hey, everybody! Last week’s post from John was a preview of the letter going out to the people of SEEEDville as we speak. So that means I have two weeks to catch y’all up on. We’ve been scrambling around the office with each of us working on our own projects, so I’ll let John tell you about marketing and all that fun stuff.

basically John :)

This week was also the end of SEEED’s first session of Life Skills Training for Emerald Youth’s Just Lead. School may be out, but those kids were working hard and cracking us all up while they did it. Here’s a little sample of some of the goals those 14 and 15 year old young men and women set with us at SEEED:

• “Make sure my family is financially stable and well.”
• “Stop feeding into negativity.”
• “Be making at least second honor roll by next year.”
• “I want to get closer to God.”
• “I want to be a chef, and I want to own my own restaurant.”
• “Be myself.”

Over the summer, we covered topics like how to shake hands and introduce yourself, goal setting, and figuring out what you value. To celebrate wrapping up, the kids each picked a peach from SEEED’s edible forest, some of the first fruit of the year.

Take care, y’all!

-Lee

Help Support the SEEED foundation!!!!

SEEEDVILLE!!!! Thanks to SEEED’s 5+ years of grassroots advocacy, Knoxville’s Smarter Cities Initiative is gearing up to weatherize over 1,200 homes. This weatherization will lower KUB bills for hundreds of low-income families by making their homes more airtight and energy efficient. And we have even more good news for you: SEEED is using this opportunity to get young adults on the pathway out of poverty. The city’s weatherization program will create 200 new jobs. SEEED is fighting for young people in these same low-income communities to get those jobs.

 What makes SEEED special, though, is our commitment to merging job skills with environmental education. We believe that energy efficiency technology presents an exciting chance to grow the Knoxville economy. The students we train aren’t just ready for jobs-- they’re ready to be a meaningful part of Knoxville’s growing green economy.

The city is poised to weatherize homes at historic levels over the next two years, and this work will create hundreds of jobs. SEEED aims to prepare our young adults for these jobs. SEEED is partnering with the city to get our students to work right away. Outside the classroom, students will put their new skills into action educating homeowners about how to weatherize their homes. Through SEEED’s career readiness program, these young adults will get paychecks now while gaining skills for lifelong careers.

           Now we need your help. To run this life-changing training, SEEED needs to raise $30,000 before the first class in August. Our current opportunity with the city of Knoxville will let us do more than ever to help the young people of Knoxville. Moreover, Knoxville plan's to match 15,000 of what we raise. Don’t wait— right now is the time for you to invest in our young adults.
You can donate on our website page at: 
www.seeedknox.com
           or by mail at: 
SEEED, INC
1617 Dandridge Avenue 
Knoxville, TN, 37915 

Where do you live?

Hey, SEEEDVille! This week feels like I’m for real getting to work here. We have a budget for the next career readiness training, plans for community workshops, and some new members of the SEEED family. Time is flying by!

Y'all know that SEEED has a reputation to being #1 at getting people interested in energy efficiency. It’s not hard a hard sell when you’re talking about weatherizing somebody’s house-- that means saving money on KUB bills. Now SEEED is planning to kick that education up a notch by hosting workshops in all the senior centers in Knox County to teach people how to save money on their utility bills for free. I’ve been learning from the best programs across the country on workshops like these, so I’m super excited to help write the content for these workshops. Plans aren’t final, but we’ve got Mayor Burchett on our side, so we’re feeling good! Keep up to date about that on our facebook page. The workshops are free, but there’s a special ticket so don’t miss out!

This week we hit the jackpot with new SEEED family. SEEED has needed an accountant for a while. As great as Stan is, he’s not an orderly person. Many thanks to Michelle, who’s been a lifesaver, but it’s a lot of work. So now we have not one but TWO new folks around the office! Steve is a pro who has plenty of experience with management and finance and a B.A. from Lincoln Memorial University. He loves to ride motorcycles, too, so not only can he sort out our accounting but he can look very cool while doing it. J And welcome also to Samantha, our new finance and accounting intern! Samantha is a junior at my and John’s alma mater. GO VOLS! She’s studying finance with a collateral in accounting, and she just finished her second year of Mandarin. Wow! She is also interested in sustainability, so we’ll see if we can pull her away from the computer to work on the green side of things.

John’s been filming around the office to get the hang of making videos. You should have seen him yesterday practicing until he had the words just right and looked camera-ready. Keep an eye out on facebook for his video coming soon!

Mostly lately I’ve been working on how to get the word out about what we do here at SEEED. I think our work is pretty cool, but if somebody doesn't know about it we can't help them and they can't help us. This is where you come in! Over the next week of two, we will be sending letters and emails and calling the people of SEEEDVille to tell them what we want to do to get young people jobs while educating communities about energy efficiency. Obviously you care about SEEED, so I don’t want to leave you out! Our email address is seeedknox@gmail.com. Email me your name and mailing address, and I’ll make sure you get a letter from us with our vision for SEEED and our plans to get young people to work and on the pathway out of poverty.

Talk to you soon!

-Lee

SEEEDVILLE Friday's!!!!

Hey Everybody,

An extremely busy week this week!!! The beginning stages of planning out our career readiness program has been a ginormous task, but as I often say- thank god we have Lee. Additionally, the city increased it's program to weatherize houses from $7.12 million dollars to $15 MILLION. Fortunately, SEEED may have a huge part in this program training some of these young, at risk youth's to get job's created form the weatherization program. Moreover, everybody knows that SEEED is the place to go for green jobs like weatherization, so it will definitely be getting busy around here.

Also, I want to give a huge shout out to one of our program's finest!! Terrance (Big T) is heading off to Santa Barbara College this August to pursue his dream. Again, congrats Terrance on your continued success and of course, enjoy the West Coast!!!

 And last, but not least our young people from the Just Lead program and our Emerald Youth Foundation partners participated in their second week of life skills training with us. This weeks agenda included proper handshake and eye contact platforms. I tried posting a video of the game who's my homie, but I am having technical difficulties. Needless to say it was a fun day.


Until next time SEEEDville,

SEEED out

TGIF

Hey, y’all! Lee again. It’s been a wild couple weeks here at SEEED. We’re gearing up for our next career readiness training course in August, but before then there’s a lot to do. We are in the early stages of planning a new opportunity for our job trainees. The city will be rolling out a brand new 7.12 MILLION dollar program to weatherize houses, and it’s still up in the air how to spread the word. Everybody knows that SEEEED is the place to go for green jobs like weatherization, so I think it’ll get busy around here soon. Right now it’s a lot to take in, but it’ll all be worth it once those first paychecks come in for our trainees.

The building is pretty quiet this week since we don’t have the Just Lead kids here. John and I have been rocking out to his favorite music for getting stuff done, Taylor Swift, with the occasional Watch Me played by Josh, dance included. Never a dull day at SEEED!

not technically a picture of Josh, but you get the idea

Don’t forget that we have raised garden beds that are available for anyone to plant their vegetables in. The edible forest is looking good, and there are some tiny little fruits showing up. There’s still some room in a few of the garden beds, so if don’t have room in your yard come on down here to plant some vegetables. The best part is that raised beds have fewer weeds, and you don’t have to bend over to weed them!

Leroy mugging for the camera

Our next big project is updating the donor list so that we can keep y'all updated on what SEEED is doing. It turns out we don't have the mailing addresses for lots of people. Since everybody loves getting mail (as long as it isn't a bill!), be on the lookout for a letter over the next few weeks from all of us here at SEEED. Until then, John's keeping you up to date on facebook and twitter. Come in and see us any time!

What's Happening SEEED Fam!!!!!!!

         This is John here, the new Social Media and Events Coordinator at SEEED. It's been a crazy, busy second week over here at Morningside Community Center. We began our week meeting with senior program associate Jennifer Alldredge with the Alliance to Save Energy non-profit. Tuesday, we headed over to the Urban League and let me tell you.....These Kids!!!! I don't know who was teaching who about weatherization and sustainability. A few have volunteered with us at SEEED, and it was great to see a change of philosophy in some of these young people.

 

       Additionally, Lee and I went over to the Lawson Mcghee Library to look for grant opportunity which will be a great resource for us, SEEED, and the community in the near future. Wednesday, the Just Lead program and our Emerald Youth Foundation partners brought around 20 youth's to began our first day of life skills training, and this is what it's all about. We strive to create pathways out of poverty for young adults and this life readiness program will give them the fundamental tools they need to succeed. To say the least, it was a great first day !!! 

           The second half of the week has been filled with one on one meetings with our supervisor Anya, goal setting for the upcoming month, after action reviews, and other administrative type jazz. OH! I almost forgot. SEEED is now looking for an accounting intern, for which Lee put a posting to on Hire-a-VOL. That being, if anybody is looking for a great opportunity to work for a great organization come down and visit us over here as SEEED. Until next time. SEEED. OUT. 

 

Week One!

Hello from your new SEEED Career Readiness Program Coordinator, Lee!

John and I are wrapping up our first week on site at SEEED, and it’s already been a whirlwind! Before we even got in the doors for our first day, we had two weeks of training. First we went to Atlanta with all the other new AmeriCorps VISTAs in the South for a few days in the Emory Conference Center. The food was great, and we were told to enjoy it because we wouldn't make enough to eat that well for a while! Back in Tennessee we had a week of training with some of the other VISTA members in the area serving in Knoxville and Jefferson City. We met up at Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City for a few days of learning about the area and getting to know each other. We are lucky to have a great group of VISTAs working together this year!

Finally we got to actually get started at SEEED last Friday. John is taking over for Summer. He will be working on social media, so he'll be running the facebook page. twitter, instragram, and probably other sites I don't even know about. Right now, he’s updating SEEED's website, so check out his work! He'll also be setting up big events throughout the year for SEEED. From what I hear, SEEED knows how to party, so John will have his hands full!

As for me, I’m taking over for Kenisha as Program Coordinator for the career readiness program. Kenisha left two binders full of papers about everything she does, so it’s a little overwhelming right now. I’m looking forward to the challenge, though!

So far, John and I have met a ton of people doing great work to make Knoxville better. There’s no way I can list everyone, but here are some of the highlights of the first week.

•          Josh Outsey is back in town! Josh was one of the co-founders of SEEED and was in Kentucky as an Appalachian Transition Fellow. We got to hear some great stories and advice about Stan and SEEED.
  
•          The Williams Creek Community Garden is getting rolling! They have their first plot tilled and a sign up. Very official! They will be planting pumpkins this year that will be ripe just in time for Halloween. Thanks to Caley, the VISTA at the Permaculture Guild for letting us see the cool work y’all are doing!
  
•          The folks from Neighborhood Nerds fixed John’s computer. It wasn’t a great start for John to come into the office on the first day and not be able to connect to the internet. The Nerds helped him out and it was working in no time. Those guys are awesome!
  
•          We met with people from all across town to learn more about what’s coming up this year in weatherization and energy efficiency. Erin Gill and Brian Blackmon in Knoxville’s Office of Sustainability were especially helpful.
  

We still have a lot to learn about SEEED, but it looks like there’s some great work being done here. I’m excited to dig in and meet everybody soon. And we have the perfect opportunity to meet y’all at the barbecue coming up! Don't forget: We are having a cookout with Jarman's BBQ Friday June 19^th right here at SEEED. See you there!

Onward and Upward: Hear from Kenisha & Summer's experiences as VISTAs and Meet the 2015-2016 AmeriCorps VISTAs

HAPPY FRIDAY, EVERYONE!!! 

We know it's been awhile since we last wrote, but to be honest, you haven't missed much that has happened around the organization. For the most part last week everyone was mostly in and out of the office-either visit family and/or attending graduations. So, not much time was really spent at Seeedville all of last week.

These last two weeks at Seeedville are seeming to be bitter-sweet. Summer and I (Kenisha) are entering our final week with us. May 22, 5:00pm will mark our final day here at SEEED. We are sad to be leaving, but we believe that we have done some much for SEEED, and we are positive that everyone is eternally grateful to us for the contribution that we have made over the last year. SEEED won't be the same without us, but that doesn't mean that the organization won't continue to prosper--if anything, we believe that SEEED is on the verge of becoming something bigger than what it was these past year, and Summer and I are extremely excited, and are remorseful that we won't be a part of if; although we'll be sure to stay informed on up to date on the organization's accomplishments. We will miss Seeedville dearly and we are positive that we'll also be missed by everyone who has ever interacted with the organization. 

But on a more positive and sweeter note, SEEED is blessed to have two more VISTAs to join in the place of Summer and Kenisha. And no, these VISTAs are not the new Kenisha and Summer. They are John and Lee. These two young man come to us as graduates from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. SEEED was so lucky to have had these two young man who have been living and working in the local area; hence they seemed to be better equipped with knowledge about local community that Summer nor I had. Therefore, we believe that SEEED will be in great hands come May 29th when these two young men begin their journey as AmeriCorps VISTAs at Seeedville. I do not doubt that they will be equipped with the resource that Summer and I have left behind for them as well as their own knowledge and resources that they have gained while attending their undergraduate university and living in Knoxville. 


If I have to be honest, I think that when me and Summer started our journey as VISTAs, we came with not much knowledge about Knoxville or the communities we intend on serving. While Summer attended Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, TN and frequented Knoxville on the weekends, her interaction with the City was mainly based on shopping excursions, eating and enjoying the nightlife. Hence, she wasn't well-informed about the issues that plagues the inner-cities--low- to moderate-income communities. As for me, when I first learned about this VISTA opportunity, that was the first time I would have learned about the City of Knoxville. I had been the Nashville a while back and so Tennessee was not completely new to me. Quite frankly, Vanderbilt was in my top choices for schools to attend for my undergraduate degree, but decided to go elsewhere when I learned about how massive the institution is. Hence, when I decided to live and work in Knoxville for a year, I didn't really fully grasp what awaited me, nor did I fully understand the issues of poverty, race, class, homelessness, education and various other social in/justices that affect such a small City. I did do my research and so I was "well-informed" based on the statistics that were laid out on the internet. But if we are completely honest with ourselves, we'd really come to learn that not because it's on the internet, it doesn't make it true. Or we'll also acknowledge that a live-experience is worth much more than any book/research. 

Therefore, when Summer and I came to Knoxville, we were taken aback by some of the issues we ran into: lack of familiarity with surrounding communities, lack of understanding regarding the cultural idioms of the City, and various other lack of knowledge when it comes to what Knoxville is really about and who the people are whom we serve. 

Don't get me wrong. I do think we have made a positive impact and we have made an effort to really get out there and meet the people, learn about the City and gain a broader perspective of the work we do here. But I do think that when we have people coming in who are deeply rooted in Knoxville and have been a lot exposed to the issues that affect the City, it can get a lot more done for the organization and for those whom we choose to serve. 

So, as we've mentioned earlier, we have two amazing young men who will be joining Seeedville this year and we are sincerely grateful to them for saying "yes" to accepting the challenge to make Seeedville more successful over the coming year. The services that VISTAs provide to the organization are tremendously crucial to the success of SEEED. Hence, we are very excited to know that when Summer and I leave, that SEEED will be in great hands and that organization will be moving a different and positive direction. So, here are our two new added members of the Seeedville family: 


Meet Lee:

Hi all! I’m Lee Owen, and I will be serving as the program coordinator at SEEED this year. I am finishing up at UT (Knoxville) where I have been studying history and political philosophy. A lot of my involvement of campus has been coordinating informative lectures and public events at UT, so I’m looking forward to applying that experience in a whole new way. I was also on the quidditch team, which isn't much of a professional qualification, but it was very fun! I’m very involved with my church, Tyson House, where I’m very fortunate to be taking part in an intentional living program for the next year. I was thrilled to be accepted into the C-N Vista program because it seems like a great way to grow professionally while jumping right into serving the Knoxville community. To be honest, I don't have a set plan laid out for my career, but I know that programs targeted at building and supporting community have helped me so much, and I am thrilled to be part of that process. I’m impressed by the work I’ve seen at SEEED and the other sites, and I am especially looking forward to meeting my cohort and getting down to business!

Lee will be serving as the Program Coordinator for our Career Readiness Program, as well as working closely with Stan to merge Knoxville's Smarter Cities Campaign into what SEEED is doing. Lee will be entering the role that I (Kenisha) currently occupies, but will have his hands full with the Smarter Cities initiative. I hope that you'll give him the same (or even more) support that you have given me over the year ;)

Meet John:

Hello everyone, my name is John Gough and I'll be working with SEEED as the social media and events coordinator. Originally, I am from Michigan, but have lived in Knoxville for the past the five years. Prior to pursuing my undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee I served in the United States Army National Guard as a Combat Engineer with the 1431st SAPPER Battalion. With the 1431st I helped provide security for the Mackinac Bridge Walk, assisted in the Upper Peninsula Wildfires, and deployed Afghanistan in 2008 to conduct Route Clearance Patrols around the notorious Khost-Gardez pass. Upon returning home I spent some time traveling in Europe, South America, and Central America. During this time my parents had moved to Kingston, Tn to retire. With no immediate family left in Michigan I made the move to Knoxville, Tn in order to be closer to "home." Since my time here I have grown to love and call East Tennessee home, which has sparked my aspiration to serve the community in which I am apart of. I believe Americorps will give me the unique opportunity to make a real difference in our local community and lay the groundwork to eventually make a difference in the national and global community. As Martin Luther King once pronounced, "We must not be concerned merely with those who commit violence, but about the system, the way of life, and the philosophy which produced the violent." Moreover, I'm looking forward to meeting and working with everyone in the upcoming year. Until then, all the best, John!

John will be serving as the Coordinator of Communications, Event Planning, and Social Media. He will be continuing SEEED's capacity-building efforts in the same ways that Summer has been for this past year. Hence, we do ask that you continue to support, not just John and his efforts, but that you also continue to support SEEED in a way that shows how much you all care and love SEEED.

Summer and I sincerely thank you all for your kind support throughout our year of service. If we were to individually name each person who's made this year a success, we wouldn't have room left. So, we do hope that if you believe that you have touched our lives in any way past year, please know that we are grateful to you in more ways than one. And we cannot ask for anything more than for you to continue to give that same support to our incoming VISTAs, because they we are only as successful and effective to the organizations we serve when we know we have a lasting support system that won't give up on us and the work we set out to do. 

Thanks again for a year well-spent. We sincerely hope that we have in turn touched your life in a positive way and we do hope that our incoming VISTAs will too. 

That's all for this week, folks. I know that was a rather long post, but I do believe it was needed; at least for this time. We promise we won't do another post this long (maybe, LOL)!

FYI, next week is me and Summer's last week. So, if you haven't stopped by to bid your goodbyes (or see you laters), we encourage you to come by and do so. It's really suck if we don't get to see most, if not all, of you before we leave. So, please come by! We always love to you all around the building :) 

Stay tuned for my very last blog post on 05/22/2015. 

Until then, 
+Seeed Knox

LET THE EARTHLY FESTIVITIES BEGIN....

Hi Everyone!! 

We hope you all have had a wonderful week thus and are looking forward to what the weekend has in store for us. 

Like we have informed you all, SEEED attended Knoxville's Earthfest this past Saturday at the World's Fair Park. We had a lot of fun! It was really great to see other folks and talking to people about what we do. There were some people who were living in Knoxville who had little to no idea that our organization exists and so we realize that we definitely need to start stepping up our outreaching game. Other than that, everything else was great! We got some goodies to take home. Here are few photos and a little video for you to feast your eyes. And if you didn't attend, you missed out on a whole lot, but hey, there's always next next, which we can't wait for!

On another note, Seeedville celebrated Earth Day, which was on Wednesday, by having volunteers from Knox County Sheriff's Office coming out and pressure wash the facility, mow the grass, painted the retainer walls, and fixed our broken doors out back. It took up pretty much the entire day, but, hey, why complain, when they are doing this out of this kindness of their hearts. And so, we want to give them a huge shoutout for taking the time out of their day to help us get the exterior of our facility to look more appealing. 

We are grateful to all of you for your continuous support of the organization. The views on blogs are significantly increasing. We have over 400 views, in not just the U.S., but various other parts of the globe. So, we encourage you to continue your view support. As for social media, we are still just an inch away from reaching our 1000 LIKES for the year. So, be a good sport and like our Facebook Page. We have a lot of good stuff happening on their. Things that we haven't put into these posts. So, stay current and informed. You can also visit our website for any news/upcoming events around the organization. 

That's all for this week, folks. We sincerely hope you all are having a great work week, and that your weekend will be a tremendous one. 

Until next time. 

+Seeed Knox 

LET'S TALK GREEN....

Hi, Guys!!! 

How's everyone doing today? Enjoying the beautiful day? We hope you all are!

As for this week's update at Seeedville, SEEED has been up to fun and exciting stuff. We attended the Knoxville Home Energy Fair, hosted by CAC. It was really cool to see all the other businesses that are providing the same services that we do. Most importantly, we were extremely impressed to see homeowners taking the time out of their busy Monday afternoon to drop in and learn some really cool energy saving techniques or to even just support the organizations that they are already familiar with. One thing that we thought could have made this more appealing to community member; since we were targeting mostly low-to moderate-income communities, was to host the event in a more remote location that would have bring in more residents. Other than that, everything went well. SEEED has a few people stopped by our table, wanting to learn about what we do. So, it felt good being able to share what our organization does best.  Here are few photos to show you how much fun we had at the Energy Fair. 

As for other exciting things that are happening in SEEED's world, Stan, our executive director, was invited by Appalachia Funders to serve on a panel discussion about the future of the green economy and what roles do organizations, like SEEED, will be playing this. Below are a few photos of Stan and his fellow panelists. Also, there is a photo of Stan and Josh Outsey, one of our four founders of SEEED. Josh is currently serving as a Highlander Fellow. So, now he's in Kentucky, with hopes to be back at the start of summer. Hopefully, his return will help SEEED get back on track and in the direction it needs to do. 

In our list of photos from the event, we'd like to bring your attention to the photo of a tweet from the Appalachia Funders, quoting Stan on the importance of connecting people to issues that are currently on the discussion table. This says a lot about where Stan's passion comes from and why he's driven to ensure that the voices of the people are being heard. 

This week is going by extremely fast. It's already Thursday, which means that the weekend is fast approaching. Do you guys have anything fun planned for the weekend? Interested in learning what Seeedville will be doing this Saturday? Well, since you asked, we'll be in attendance at the Knoxville Earthfest, which is on Saturday at World's Fair Park. It should be starting around 10 and end around 6-ish. So, if you're in Knoxville this Saturday, and you're looking for something fun and exciting to do throughout the day, we strongly encourage you to come by. We'll be at one of their tables. So, stop by and see what we have going on. 

That's all for this week, folks. We're still raising money to fix our facility's broken windows. So, we are still accepting donations on GoFuneMe. Also, Our goal is to reach 1,000 like on Facebook. So, we strongly encourage you to go on over to our page. Check us out. We are staying relatively current with our updates. So, do help our Social Media Coordinator, Summer Gregory, reach her goal of 1,000 likes. 

Seeedville wishes for you all a very productive rest of the day and a very funfilled weekend. Whatever you do, be sure to stay safe and look out for each other; whomever they may be. 

Until next time. 

+Seeed Knox