Here’s an easy good deed. Buy a T-shirt from Better World Betty, who’s officially a friend of this blog—and I don’t mean on Facebook—and is always up to various planet-friendly schemes for Charlottesville and Albemarle. Betty is essentially a source of information and encouragement, answering such questions for locals as "Where am I supposed to take these dead batteries?", "What’s the hottest Earth Day party in town?", and "Why should I care?" She also writes a column in C-VILLE’s ABODE section.
Good question.
Actually, I shouldn’t say "buy" since Betty is a nonprofit. The shirts are free with a $15 donation, kind of like those "premiums" that public radio and TV always happen to be handing out to people who just sent them money. You can get them at Nature’s Child, which is a kids’ gear store on the Downtown Mall. (Betty is very into shopping local.)
Another reason I shouldn’t say "buy" is that Betty herself, or to be technical, Betty’s director Teri Kent, completed an entire year of not buying anything new (food excluded) for herself or her family. Instead she shopped secondhand and found ways to do without all the silly stuff the rest of us insist on carting home from Target. That was in 2008, and I for one am still quite impressed.
$15 to a good cause, folks. And the color scheme is reminiscent of ice cream. Dig it.