The Visit of the Big Green Idea's Big Green Bus to Exeter, Saturday 28th March 2009
A few words from Brigit!
Well....it was a pretty amazing day!!!!
If ever I had doubted that the BGI was going to help service a need I would have been put right yesterday. We had over a thousand people through between 10am and 5pm and thank goodness we had 10 volunteers working, because we couldn't have coped with less! The bus, inside and out, was constantly packed with people looking for information, asking questions, attending talks and filling in feedback forms.
We were bang in the middle of the city centre so we had a complete cross section of people coming into the bus. At one stage, Anne-Christine and I were holding two workshops upstairs at the same time. I was talking to a bunch of English teenagers and A-C was talking (in French) with a bunch of French teenagers!
We got back to Malvern just after midnight last night and haven't unpacked the bus yet.
Although we had a run out last October, this was really our big 'launch'. It could not have run more smoothly....apart from the fact that none of us managed to take a break! The visitors to the bus would never have guessed that this is not something that we do every day. Loads of people asked when we would be back again and it was just the most amazing day.
Everything I had planned and worked for over the last two years came to fruition yesterday and I can hardly believe that we actually made this happen!!! I lost count a long time ago of the amount of people who have helped to make this dream a reality, but thank you, every single person who has done anything to contribute, no matter how small.
BGI vounteer Anne-Christine gives her first thoughts on the day!
As soon as the bus arrived, even as Brigit and volunteers were still preparing for the day, passers-by were attracted to the bus displays. People were queuing up to ask questions, and many spent a long time looking round the bus.
Even the less keen people were lured by the free lightbulbs, EasyGreen Exeter's puppet show, with puppets made out of ‘junk', and Dick Strawbridge's talk on alternative energy. Low Carbon Exeter gave a presentation of the Transition Towns movement, to which they belong, and Val, ‘The Woolly Shepherd', also was on hand with her new product, local sheep wool insulation.
The bus was invited by Exeter City Council as part of their Big Switch Off fortnight, in support of Earth Hour. The council was hoping to see as many of their citizens as possible pledge to switch off their lights and unnecessary appliances for an hour at 8.30pm to encourage people to think about their energy usage.
Other stalls in Bedford Square included the Energy Saving Trust, ‘Exeter Seed Swap', ‘ExeAct', Friends of the Earth (away from their usual Saturday spot on the High Street) and Dartmoor National Park's Climate Change exhibition.
A good thousand people were taken care of on the bus, with many agreeing to fill in feedback forms. These will help with funding applications and making us even better for the next event in Bournemouth in Poole in May.
On a personal note, running errands, helping to shepherd people to the talks happening upstairs and talking about skincare products or alternative fibres - even talking in French to a group of French schoolchildren visiting Exeter, all served to make my day a very successful and happy one.
We had many visitors with pointed questions on all subjects, and this proves once more - if needs be - just how much the Big Green Idea's concept that sustainable living is easy, healthy, inexpensive and fun is important and relevant for this country and the planet as a whole.
