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Upcoming

Ride for clean air in 2009 El Tour de Tucson
Register for the UMC 27th El Tour de Tucson through GSA USA and we benefit. Or sponsor another cyclist to ride for us. More that 9,000 cyclists pound around Tucson on Saturday, November 21, 2009. Download the application here.

GSA USA’s book launch
Our new book Champions for Change will launch in New York, Tokyo, London and Tucson this fall. We’ll start at the United Nations in Manhattan on November 4th, then Tokyo at GSA’s 10th Anniversary party on November 11th. We’ll also be signing books during Tour de Tucson expo the week of November 16th, and finally in London. You’ll meet featured athletes. Stay tuned for details.

Sustainable Turf at the Home of Baseball
On October 1st the ecoflag will fly at the "home of baseball" as GSA New York team captain Kevin Trotta participates in a sports field seminar at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, NY. His presentation, Science in the Outfield, will promote environmental stewardship and encourage sports field managers to conduct their own on-site research to uncover more sustainable methods of managing sport facilities.

Coastal Cleanup
Join in the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup, the world’s largest cleanup event of its type. Last year 400,000 volunteers in 104 countries collected 6.8 million pounds of trash from oceans, lakes, ponds and rivers. GSA-NY will again partner with the Town of Cornwall Conservation Advisory Council and with Storm King Adventure Tours (who are contributing their own volunteers and 30 kayaks) for this Hudson River cleanup event on October 3.

Events

Ecoflags make a splash
This summer, Team Captain Leon Larson gave ecoflags to 75 officials of water sports to fly at events around the world that abide by the UNEP/GSA green sport event pledge. It already flew in Canada's water ski and wakeboard championships in Calgary, Canada, and the American Water Ski Assoc. National Championships in West Palm Beach, Florida. Next up, American Kneeboard Championships in Calloway Gardens, Georgia.

And the winner is…
On 1 September, GSA-NY presented its Environmental Stewardship Award to Thomas V. Wright, the Superintendent of Parks and Grounds at the historic Mohonk Mountain House, high on the Shawangunk Ridge in New Paltz, New York. Presented annually, the award is "given to an individual who exemplifies the role of environmental steward in the management of natural resources that support outdoor recreation and sports opportunities.” Built on the deep-blue waters of Lake Mohonk in 1869, the grand 265-room Mohonk Mountain House is one of America's oldest family-owned resorts. Tom Wright manages thousands of acres of unspoiled natural beauty with 85 miles of hiking trails, swimming, boating, ice skating, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, tennis, horseback riding, rock climbing and a golf course that has been called one of the “Top 10 Environmentally Friendly Courses in the USA” by Links magazine.

Ecoplay meets Fairplay in Tucson
Tucson’s Martial Arts Team Captain, Chris Valdez, put young champions through their paces at his kajukenbo tournament this summer. Kajukenbo combines several martial arts, such as judo, with western boxing. Chris’ program strives to teach at-risk youth discipline as well as respect for each other and the environment.

Team Captain Spotlight

Boulder Team Captain Carey Sager recently joined GSA USA. He manages parks for the City of Boulder, and strives to keep chemicals to a minimum when caring for sports turf and landscape through the program he leads. Rochester Team Captain, Dan Schied, also joined us this summer, and a horticulturalist at the University of Rochester. His group’s first activity is a tennis ball reuse program, which they kicked off in August. Rochester Institute of Technology supplied 600 balls for schools to use on the bottoms of chairs and tables to reduce noise in the classroom.

Sports Eco-Tip

Shade playgrounds while offsetting carbon emissions
When flying or driving to a sports event — or anywhere for that matter — consider neutralizing the carbon you put into the air by purchasing carbon offsets. There are a plethora of online organizations that would plant trees for you, or invest in wind power or some other great project. If you’re heading to Tucson this fall for El Tour de Tucson, The Local Trust will plant trees around local school play grounds to provide shade for the children and the buildings where they study while sucking CO2 out of the air for you.