It’s been a fun contest – thanks to all of you who took the time to participate! And thank you to all of the nominees for continuing to make a Great Green difference!
The winners of the Second Annual “Who’s the Greenest of Them All?” contest are:
1st Place – Hank Kryzik of Tucson, AZ
2nd Place – Laurie Rivlin Caspert of Bergen County, NJ
3rd Place – Nick Ingertson of Oro Valley, AZ
1st Place – Hank Krzysik of Tucson, AZ
1st Prize: WellHome Whole-house Assessment PLUS a 2-night stay at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort compliments of Legendary World, with $100 hotel credit from Mrs. Green’s World
Hank Krzysik was nominated by his wife Annette. Here’s what Annette has to say about her husband’s green practices:
“We as a family have become very aware of our impact on the environment and what we can do to make a difference. What started as simple recycling of our trash at home has now become a life’s mission for Hank. We do all the simple things — reusable grocery bags, recyclable plastic containers instead of paper bags for lunches and storing left overs — we haven’t bought a plastic bag in two years! He uses biodiesel (made here in Tucson) in his truck!
Hank has planted a garden for fresh produce and several fruit trees. He has added rain gutters and rain barrels all around the yard to collect every drop of rain possible to water the garden and fruit trees so we have reduced our use of ground water use tremendously. As we need appliances, they are replaced with energy-star or water sense appliances. We have changed every light bulb in house to a CFL.
Hank practices what he preaches. When weather permits he takes our daughter to school on his bike. He walks to work many times throughout the week and when possible, rides the bus to meetings. Hank is a “green” architect. He has helped many homeowners build, from the ground up, completely sustainable homes as well as sustainable additions to existing homes, retrofitted to include photo voltaic solar panels, solar and tank-less water heaters, energy efficient windows, doors, sustainable flooring, and the list goes on. Hank was instrumental in starting the Care for Creation program in our parish for recycling at our parish and parish school. He is now in the process of having solar panels installed on our parish hall. There are plans also for the school children to plant a community garden where all their produce will be donated to the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul which feeds the hungry.
Hank is the greenest of the all!”
2nd Place – Laurie Rivlin Caspert of Bergen County, NJ
2nd Prize: High-efficiency Niagara toilet from Big John the Toilet Guy and $50 Fox Restaurants Gift Certificate
Laurie Rivlin Caspert was nominated by her husband Ron Caspert. Read why Ron believes his wife deserves the “Who’s the Greenest of Them All” Award:
“I am nominating my wife, LAURIE, as the GREENest housewife of Bergen County. Find me another home in BC that has a green bin in front of their garage, so neighbors could drop off their corrugated boxes, magazines, glass bottles, broken crayons, egg cartons, and of course, toilet paper rolls. How many other women host a party, and declare it BYOB, Bring Your Own Bag of Recyclables, that is. Friends and family have said, they can’t look at a cereal box or paper towel roll the same anymore. Any other housewives in Bergen County recently buy a used School Bus so they can do environmentally friendly crafts with kids. Her slogan ~> YOU GOTTA HAVE ART… and we’re going GREEN. Her newest endeavor ~> the FunArt Bus – a place for Fun, Creative, EcoCrafts Kids Love!
Laurie is an ART teacher in Woodcliff Lake NJ, and has been teaching ART classes to children for the past 12 years. She calls her approach “FUN ART” (as opposed to “fine art”), a roll-up-your-sleeves, messy kind of art kids love. The emphasis is on fun and the creative process. To Laurie, it’s all about self-expression, while promoting self-confidence and pride. Learn more about Laurie’s ARTrageous Recyclables!
Her life has always been about creating. She has the natural ability to look at things differently, and create incredible things out of “nothing”. She feels so lucky to have taught so many kids throughout the years. And now, with her FunArt Bus, she is looking forward to spreading her passion. Patient, passionate, innovative, energetic, high-spirited, and earth-minded, she has truly found her calling.
She recently purchased a used School Bus – which she is painting, renovating, and refurbishing – to use for mobile ART classes, to teach Eco Crafts to kids. She would love the opportunity to visit different schools and neighborhoods – to encourage kids everywhere to do environmentally friendly crafts.
She is devoted to promoting creativity and self-expression… and dedicated to raising awareness about our environment. Her goal is to encourage kids everywhere to do EcoArt – while empowering them to express themselves, to help bring out the innate creativity in every child. She will show how we can take everyday items we find around the house – and together, turn these ordinary items into our own unique artwork. The bus will be ready to roll on April 22, 2011… let’s make EVERY day Earth Day!”
3rd Place – Nick Ingertson of Oro Valley, AZ
3rd Prize: $30 Gift Certificate from Bookmans and $20 Gift Certificate from Eclectic Pizza
Kelly Loden nominates Nick Ingertson of Eco Pest. Here’s why Kelly believes Nick deserves the title “Greenest of Them All”:
“Not only is the botanical pest control effective and safe, but Nick’s hands-on customer service approach makes Eco Pest Shine.
Over the past 4 years Nick has pushed the envelope to create new approaches to pest problems that eliminate the use of synthetic pesticides from being introduced into our environment. Some examples are: The EcoPURE Pest Program (100% Natural), the EcoPURE Termite Barrier (the only 100% botanical termite treatment in AZ), and the EcoPURE Tick Treatment (100% botanical — this took 2 years to create and is truly amazing!!). Also, he is currently designing the EcoPURE Flea Treatment that uses harmless frozen CO2 gassing method to rapidly hatch flea eggs so flea problems can be resolved in 1 treatment instead of 2 or 3 (saving money for the customer). Oh, and it’s 100% natural of course.
I could go on, but the bottom line is that studies on synthetic pesticides in the environment show links to allergies, asthma, birth defects, low weight births, child development, cancer, etc…. And probably affect us in ways we are not even aware of yet. Other companies use nasty synthetic toxins and just ‘spray away’. While there is no perfect method yet, thank God someone is committed to steering us in a Safe, Clean, Eco-Green direction. Thank you to both Nick & Eco Pest!”
View the full list of Nominees
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