Paul Edney, co-author of Change the World for Ten Bucks and Don Nash, a local resident, recently launched a new initiative to inspire Nelsonites to use their everyday actions to make a difference.

The Inspire Nelson initiative uses the simple actions from Change the World for Ten Bucks to encourage individuals in the community to take action. With a combination of live events, partnerships with local businesses to promote positive action and the Inspire Nelson website (www.inspirenelson.ca), the initiative will run four campaigns over the next year. The first campaign runs through July and is based on Action 28 from the book: Hang your washing out to dry. It’s aptly called “Hang it out to dry in July”.

The inspiration for starting the initiative came during a conversation between Nash and Edney. Said Nash, “We were discussing the issue of carbon footprint and the recent phenomenon of paying on-line to offset your footprint. We both felt that if we were going to spend money on an initiative, we should spend it in our local community, after all, this is the area we impact.”

Added Edney, “So we started with the idea of a website where Nelsonites could simply track actions they are doing individually to make a difference and then see how together their actions create BIG change. We quickly realised that to make this a success we needed to harness the power of parntership, so we started approaching local associations and businesses to see if they would support the idea – we’ve been delighted by the response.”

Support for the initiative so far has included:

• The Columbia Basin Trust, the Nelson and District Credit Union and The Kootenay Country Cooperative have all supported the initiative with grants
• The Co-op is promoting the first campaign throughout the month of July, with a launch event outside the Co-op on the 4th July. They’ve also provided a prize for the most ‘artistically’ hung washing in Nelson – residents can submit photos for the competition on the Inspire Nelson website www.inspirenelson.ca
• Both locations of Home Hardware are offering 20% off all clothesline related products for the month of July
• The EcoSociety have offered their full support and have given space at the Wed and Sat markets to promote ‘Hang it out to dry in July’
• Oso Negro, the Nelson and District Credit Union and many other local businesses will promote the campaign to customers throughout July
• ilovenelson.com will promote the initiative on the website with articles and free advertising as well as a link to the online Inspire Nelson Action Tracker

“A big part of this initiative for me is the emphasis on community,” continued Edney, “The book has done fantastically well with over 31,000 copies sold in Canada, it’s great at inspiring and empowering individuals. And this initiative closes the circle for me, bringing the actions to life within the community and through the online Action Tracker, showing how individual action can really add up to create profound change. My hope is that following the success of the initiative in Nelson, we can bring it to other communities across Canada and beyond.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT PAUL EDNEY 250-825-3457; paul.edney@simplychange.org