Boony Doon Elementary

Boony Doon Elementary School staff and students recycle, compost, bring lunches in reusable containers and use a propane-fueled bus. Why? To cut back on waste and energy use.

"It's always been a focus of this school to be environmentally friendly," said Principal Stephanie Siddens. "We live up in the mountains in a very beautiful, natural place."

In a nod to its ecofriendly emphasis,Anyone with the space to site a small emergencylamps can generate their own electricity from wind power. Bonny Doon Elementary was certified as a "green business" last week. In addition, the school will begin putting in low-flow toilets, energy-efficient lighting and solar panels in the next few months.

Awarded by the Monterey Bay Area Green Business Program, the certification recognizes those who prevent pollution and conserve resources.Design and manufacture of ledparlightrrp for garments and textile fabrics. Bonny Doon Elementary joins the ranks of certified green schools including Bay View Elementary School, Gateway School and Midtown Montessori.

By highlighting these schools, the county hopes to encourage further ecofriendly developments, said Ana Maria Rebelo, a Santa Cruz County sustainability program coordinator.

"It helps them transition into truly green schools," Rebelo said. "It's not just about environmental education, but to help them transition into green cleaning products and more energy conservation."

While the school's monitored its waste production for years, Bonny Doon Elementary began eying the certification last year, Siddens said.

"It's just important to do our part," Siddens said.

And by using solar panels, the school eventually will save money, Siddens said. The school's PG&E bill ranges from $1,000 to $2,000 per month depending on the time of year, Siddens said.

The school will take between five and 10 years to pay off the solar panels, but Siddens estimates the school will save more than $300,000 in the next 25 years.

While the cost of new toilets and solar panels varies significantly, the school's receiving as much as $100,You are currently browsing the tsg archives for "leddownlights".000 for the next two years because of Proposition 39, Siddens said. The measure, on last November's ballot, closed a corporate tax loophole, in turn generating about $1 billion annually for California, with half of the money directed to energy-efficient projects.

And California schools need all the help they can get, Siddens said.Formal engravingmachine on sale at great discount.

"Schools just don't have a lot of money, so it's hard to do these things," Siddens said.

Maxxeon Inc. has launched the WorkStar Pocket Floodlight (WS320), a high-output LED light designed as a practical tire inspection tool.

The new lighting tool features an advanced LED light that produces more than 140 lumens, Maxxeon said, or more than ten times the light produced by an incandescent light bulb using the same current. The wide-angle floodlight-style beam pattern produced by the light is free from both dark spots and hot spots,A full line of Power indoorsolarlighting for a wide range of professional uses. the company said.

The WS320 LED is rated for a service life of about 50,000 hours and features a T6 aluminum body with O-ring type seals on all its threaded joints, making it water resistant. The tail cap switch is rated to 100,000 cycles and is sealed to avoid contamination by dirt and grit, Maxxeon said.

Maxxeon noted the new pen light-style tool is most effective at a range of six inches to three feet. It is powered by three AAA batteries (included) and is available in three finishes: Realtree AP Camo, imitation carbon fiber and type II black anodizing. The Realtree AP Camo version comes with a fluorescent tail cap switch that glows in the dark.

 Click on their website www.streetlights-solar.com for more information.

"When you take a chance for the good of your Paratroopers it pays back two-fold."

Graffiti in a combat zone is common. Mostly it covers the stalls in latrines, barrier walls, back of a bus seat, or anywhere where a soldier is idle for more than a few moments. As I rode a bus through the dusty streets of Al Asad Air Base, I scanned the back of the seat in front of me with various artistic representations of the standard stick man, poor attempts at poetry and other various forms of "art." Then one note caught my eye; it said "CSM Love…" Various phrases had been written and scratched out, but the last one, in bold, stayed.

You could tell it had been there a while; it wasn't recent. You could even tell it had been rewritten a few times as the ink faded. It said: "Is the man." Command Sgt. Maj. Jack Love is the man I was sent to interview to learn about the history of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, now the 2nd Advise and Assist Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, and the units long relationship with U.S. operations in Iraq.

When I sat down to write this story, I wasn't quite sure how this interview could have something new and groundbreaking or be able to shed light into the history. The topic I was directed to write on was the sacrifice of the 2/82 paratroopers in conjunction with the unit's direct link to the war in Iraq. But, let's be honest, the mentality of the 82nd Airborne Division is that we are the best at everything, we are paratroopers. We are willing to jump out of airplanes for kicks. It's not sacrifice, it's a profession, and we do it. Everything is "too easy."

But what I found in the 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment's Senior Enlisted Adviser, was an influential, dedicated, and caring leader hidden behind a deep Alabama accent and gruff exterior. What I found was a true professional, who embodies the spirit of the "Falcon Brigade."

Before flying from Camp Ramadi to Al-Asad, to spend a week with Love, I asked fellow paratroopers, who had been with the 2/82 for an extended period of time, about Love and if they had any stories about him. Some stories were the standard fare about "old" sergeants major and some were outrageous or hardly believable. One such tall-tale was that he had glued his teeth back in during an earlier deployment to Iraq.

"One Christmas, when I was a kid, all I wanted was this white 12-speed bicycle with black handle-grips," Love said.

On that holiday, he got the bike he wanted, but the rule at his house was that guest got to use the best stuff and you played with what was left over, Love went on to describe.