Just hours after record rainfall for the month of March, ECHO opens it's doors to record attendees during it's annual Farm Day! Visitors drove from as far as Jacksonville to attend this year's event. Farm Day is held in North Fort Myers at ECHO Global Farm, the headquarters for local nonprofit Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization.
Having to scramble for last minute parking was only one of the challenges caused by yesterday's deluge! Other challenges included postponed set up and rescheduled volunteer training. You wouldn't know it from the scene today, though! Teeming with people, ECHO's Farm Day seems to be a huge hit!
Visitors are enjoying sugar cane juice fresh from the cane, Freshly hand-ground peanut butter, gardening workshops such as "Jump-start your Garden with Containers" and "Food Plants in the Landscape", tours of ECHO's 40+ variety Bamboo courtyard and Tropical Fruit Tree Arboretum and Children's activities such as "Paint-a-pot, Plant-a-seed" and "Leaf Printing."
"We received more rain on the farm yesterday than I have ever seen in March!" states ECHO CEO Stan Doerr. "But with a few last minute adjustments and with today's beautiful weather, Farm Day is just as successful as we expected! We are so pleased to have such a crowd!
This community event is made possible by ECHO’s generous sponsors, including a new major sponsor The News-Press, LCEC, Travis Reprographics, First Bank, Sun Harvest Citrus, Fafco Solar, Vic’s Painting, Rotary of Cape Coral North, Costco and Walmart.
ECHO is seeking a Seed Bank Manager.
Purpose: To provide ECHO’s network of development workers with access to trial quantities of high quality seeds of promising and often underutilized food plants. The Seed Bank Manager oversees daily operations of the seed bank including the collection, extraction, sorting, cleaning, storing, and distribution of seed to the ECHO network.
Essential duties (not exhaustive):
- Provide guidance to interns and volunteers as they carry out tasks such as testing seed germination, monitoring inventory, filling seed packets, and processing seed requests.
- Respond to seed requests and inquiries received through the Seed Bank’s telephone or email address.
- Work with Farm Manager in planning seasonal grow outs of seed.
- Oversee use of the seed bank growout area; will require time outdoors.
- Submit regular updates to churches supporting the Seed Bank Manager position.
Qualifications:
- Must have good organizational, verbal, written, and supervisory skills.
- Must have a basic knowledge in word processing and database (e.g. Excel/Access) systems.
- Ability to work independently, but in consort with other staff members and volunteers.
- Ability to implement and follow through on matters of policy and program while handling repetitive or sporadic detail in an effective and timely fashion.
- Must subscribe to the ECHO Statement of Faith and possess character traits consistent with ECHO’s core values.
Education and/or Experience
This is a manager-level exempt position with benefits. This position typically requires a college degree in an agriculture-related field. International experience is preferred.
For consideration, please email your resume with cover letter to Tim Motis, Director of Agricultural Technical Resources Dept at tmotis@echonet.org, mail to his attention at 17391 Durrance Rd, N. Fort Myers, FL 33917 or fax (239) 567-3345.
This is the last intern month for Joy Longfellow (pictured 3rd from left in back row) and Crystal Perry (pictured far right).
We will be having a time of prayer for Joy on Wednesday, March 24th, at 1:15 in the VRC followed by her Senior Seminar.
We will be having prayer for Crystal on Wednesday March 31st, at 1:15 in the VRC followed by her Senior Seminar.
We have 2 new Interns who start on Monday, April 5th:
Laura Conville will arrive on April 2nd and will be the next Monsoon Intern. Laura has a degree in Foreign Language with a concentration in Spanish from the University of Montevallo. She spent 6 months in 2007 volunteering with 3 families in Ecuador on their organic farms through WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). In 2008 she worked at the Camp McDowell Environmental Center teaching environmental science. She has spent the past year in Colombia with the Episcopal Church. Laura's list of leisure activities includes: yoga, art, soccer and dancing. Greatest accomplishment: her WWOOF trip to Ecuador.
Andrew Lotze will arrive on March 29th and will be the next Rainforest Intern. Andrew has a degree in Economics/Political Science from Duke University where he participated in ROTC. He has served in the US Army since 2002 and has a company grade officer rank of Captain. In the military he served in South Korea, Honduras, Romania, Georgia and his last posting was 3 years in Italy. He graduated top of his class in flight school and has over 471 flight hours in rotor-wing aircraft. Andrew grew up as a missionary kid in Liberia and Pakistan. He says he is a "computer nerd" and adds photography, running, biking, hiking and anything in the water to his list of things he likes. Greatest accomplishment: learning to fly a helicopter.
It is not likely six of Oasis Middle School 's seventh -graders will be traveling to the moon anytime soon. But their wastewater recycling design could!
The team of girls collaborated and came up with a solution using three two-liter soda bottles. They cut the tops off and created one long tubular structure held up by wooden posts. The girls made a simulated wastewater by combining salt, baking soda, salt, vinegar, ammonia and baby shampoo.
The solution was poured through a filtration system including charcoal, sand, gravel, coffee filters and a paint filter. After its cycled through, the liquid sits in a bunch of crushed Moringa seeds. Moringa is a vegetable tree with a variety of potential uses.
And through the design process, Danielle Gabhardt, 13, remembered she learned about one of those uses through a trip to ECHO in North Fort Myers.
"Third-world countries use Moringa seeds and pour them into water in order to have a stable water supply," Gabhardt said.
Dunn noted that through the process, the seeds can take out 99 percent of the bacteria in water where there is no filtration system.
Even if they don't win the contest, the group members said they've been intrigued with the engineering process.
"We're proud of ourselves," said Brittany Skinner, 12. "This project isn't that easy to do."
Read more here!
ECHO & Haiti
As organizations around the world respond to the devastation in Haiti, ECHO staff have added their helping hands. Please visit our website here and here to read our response efforts in detail, below are a few highlights of what ECHO is doing in Haiti.
Donating two water filters for the cost of ONE
ECHO’s strength is providing sustainable, long-term solutions for thwarting hunger around the world. Our plan for doing this in Haiti is described in a news clip with our President/CEO Stan Doerr about ECHO’s Haiti Initiative – a plan in conjunction with USAID to bring plants, seeds, and trainers to Haiti to help people grow their own food. > Read More
Valley Forge, PA—In Tending to Eden: Environmental Stewardship for God’s People, author Scott Sabin establishes theological foundations for creation care and provides a global perspective on issues including sustainable agriculture and forestry, creating enterprise, and ultimately empowering the poor. The book’s practical strategies and case studies are born out of Sabin’s experience as executive director of Plant With Purpose (formerly Floresta), a nonprofit organization working internationally to reverse poverty and deforestation among the rural poor. Plant With Purpose currently works in 67 villages in Haiti and the forty staff members there focus on long term development work to ensure that villages are more resilient to natural disasters. Many of the stories which personalize and illustrate Tending to Eden focus on this devastated country, torn apart by recent earthquakes: > Read More
Do you know your yams?
 Yams as we know them in the United States are very different from the staple commodity in parts of Africa. Yam is the common name for some species in the genus Dioscorea. These are perennial vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers.
The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) has traditionally been referred to as a yam in parts of the United States and Canada, but it is not part of this family. > Read More
The first of its kind in the region, The ECHO Agricultural Conference for Northeast India, will be hosted by NEICORD (North East India Committee on Relief and Development) in collaboration with the ECHO Asia Regional Office.
The conference, organized for those engaged in agriculture development in Northeast India, will focus on sharing among participants, particularly with regard to improvement of hill cultivation, eco-forestry, SRI and preserving the environment. The conference will include plenary sessions on important issues provided by excellent resource persons. Participants will be able to network and exchange skills and knowledge.
Date: 6-8 October 2010
Venue: CBCNEI (Baptist Centre) Guwahati
For more information contact:
Joshi Tuisum
Phone - +919436102076
Email - jtuisum2003@yahoo.com, charity@neicord.org > Read More
ECHO Position Announcement
Chief Operations Officers (COO)
ECHO is a Christian Nonprofit based in North Ft Myers, Florida that specializes in Tropical Agricultural Technical Support working with thousands of organizations and individuals in over 150 countries. ECHO is a dynamic growing organization which is expanding its ministry and is seeking an individual that can grow with this international ministry. > Read More
An ECHO intern reminisces about his experience during an overnight shift of freeze protection.
> Read More
WANT TO DOUBLE YOUR MONEY?
SAWYER WILL MATCH EVERY FILTER DONATED
Haiti is in desperate need of clean water after the catastrophic earthquake on January 12th. After an earthquake, water supplies are vulnerable to contaminates through ruptured pipes, and damaged storage units. Waterborne diseases lead to dehydration and can be deadly fast if people do not have access to safe water.
ECHO is including these water filters in packets that will be sent free of charge to network members and other workers on the ground helping the poor. For every filter you donate on behalf of ECHO, Sawyer will match one! Where else can you double your money? > Read More
By Donna Pogliano
January 6th, 2010, was a relatively normal Wednesday in the shop at Echo except for the impending freezing weather and the urgent early morning request to get the Cummins diesel engine’s oil leak fixed. Important because the Cummins diesel is what powers the pump that takes water out of the tilapia pond to send through the sprinkler system. A network of sprinklers wet down the tropical plants at ECHO when freezing weather threatens. This freeze protection can make the difference between major damage and saving the plants. > Read More
When temperatures dropped to 30 degrees at 10 pm Tuesday night, ECHO staff knew that they were in for a challenge. Temperatures stayed below freezing for nine to ten hours! ECHO's demonstration farm boasts roughly 15 acres of tropical food plants that are more sensitive to cold and have to be protected from the freezing temperatures. > Read More
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