2011 Back to School Contest*

Win a Vermicomposter for your classroom
by helping us name our new friend.

This year Cathy got a new piece of wormy jewellery. A very realistic worm brooch now rides along as worm ambassador. Now we need help naming our new team member. (This is where you come in.) Follow the link below and submit what you think would be a squirmingly good name. We will take all the submissions and select the top five for a final vote-off. (This is where you come in again.) In the next Worm Away Newsletter we will post the top entries for your consideration. You will then have a chance to vote for your favourite. The top vote getter will have the honour of naming our friend and will receive a new Vermicomposter. To submit your name idea Follow this link Our new friend was the creation of Hilary Powers at Salamander Feltworks. Check out her website to see other incredible creations.

Win a Vermicomposter for your class. *Contest open to all Canadian Public and Private Schools. Entrant must be associated with a school. Prize includes shipping within Ontario.

Waste Reduction Week is
October 17-23, 2011.

Waste Reduction Week (WRW) in Canada is intended to raise public consciousness about waste and its environmental and social ramifications.

The WRW theme, “Too Good To Waste” is about conveying an appreciation for the richness and beauty of our diverse world and the importance of working toward ecological sustainability by conserving resources and curbing wasteful practices.

Schools, Businesses, Not-For Profits, Governments - everyone can be involved. WRW offers educational resources and a “take action” message that empowers all Canadians to adopt more environmentally conscious choices.

Visit the WRW website www.wrwcanada.com, for more info on how you can celebrate Waste Reduction Week.

The writ has been dropped.
October 6 general election in Ontario.

Please take the time to exercise your right to vote!

Election Day: Thursday, October 6, 2011
Voting hours are from 9 AM until 9 PM ET.

Date: September 23, 2011
Event: The Great Northern Exhibition:
Vermicomposting Demonstrations
Location: 2220 Fairgrounds Road North
(Off Hwy 26W between Collingwood & Wasaga Beach)

Date: September 29 - October 2, 2011
Event: Markham Fair
Location: Markham Fair Grounds
10801 McCowan Rd. Markham, ON

Date: October 15, 2011
Event: Soupfest 2011
Location: Holland Marsh Wineries
18270 Keele, Bradford, ON

Date: October 18, 2011
Event: East Gwillimbury Chamber of Commerce
Networking Breakfast Meeting
Sponsored by Cathy's Crawly Composters
Location: Silver Lakes Golf & Country Club
21114 Yonge St. East Gwillimbury, ON

Date: October 23, 2011
Event: Organic Magic with Worms
Location: Royal Botanical Gardens
680 Plains Rd. West, Hamilton, ON

* This is a popular family event. Seating is limited.
Register early to avoid missing out on the fun!

Register Online Now.

Did you Know?

Earthworms use touch to communicate and influence each other's behaviour. This is according to research published in the journal Ethology.

The striking behaviour, found in the earthworm Eisenia fetida (Red Wiggler), is the first time that any type of worm, or annelid, has been shown to form active herds.

First, they placed 40 earthworms into a central chamber, from which extended two identical arms. The idea was to leave the animals alone, and then to see how many earthworms moved to either arm over a 24-hour period. Over 30 identical repeats of the trial, the worms preferred to group within one chamber over the other.

"So our hypothesis was confirmed: a social cue influences earthworm behaviour," says Ms Zirbes.

A second experiment tested how the worms affected each other's behaviour. researchers placed one worm at the start of a soil-filled maze, with two routes to a food source at the end. After the worm chose its route to the food, the researchers added a second worm to see if it followed the same route as the first.

However, after repeated trials, the second worms were no more likely to take the same route as their predecessors. Yet if two worms were placed together at the start of the maze, they were more likely to follow one another, suggesting that they used touch to communicate where they were going.

"To our knowledge this is the first example of collective orientation in animals based on contact between followers," the researchers wrote in the journal.

Researchers believe that clustering helps the worms protect themselves. Individual earthworms secrete proteins and fluids which have antibacterial properties, potentially deterring soil pathogens. Gathering into groups may increase the amount of fluids covering the earthworms and hence better protect individuals.

In the News

Print

• Vermicomposting Westview
  Recently, Westview School was awarded a $1000 grant from Metro. As Westview is now an Eco School, they decided to use the money to purchase vermicompost bins from Cathy's Crawly Composters for each classroom.
  Read more ...

The Blog-O-Sphere

• Wo-Built Inc. - From Worms to Green Building
  ... I normally don’t write about my private life, but I got new pets, 800 to 1000 to be precise. And I had them for a week and a half and they are still alive!!! They are red wiggler worms (scientific name: Eisenia fetida), they live in a composting bin in my kitchen and they eat my organic kitchen waste.
  Read more ...
• Once upon a worm - But when this story begins, I had just moved to a new city and was looking to start a new composter. So I was excited when a local company (cathyscomposters.com) that raises and sells red wriggler worms.
  Read on ...

For all the wormy news please visit our website.

A sticky Congratulations to Anna Valdes of Oakville. Her guess of 112 gummy worms in the jar was closest to the actual amount of 114.

The Live Green Festival in Toronto was another huge success this year with hundreds of people stopping by to visit Cathy and the worms.

Social Entrepreneur, Marlene MacPherson threw off her wig and put on her apron, making a decision to feed her family better since her own Cancer diagnosis.

Marlene's Meal Makeovers was built to empower and show families how she took back her family's food preparation with her young daughter in mind. Her television show and C1P2 Cookbooks, gives back to charity and gives us these tools and tips we need. Join her on the journey back to her family's kitchen and together we learn how to Cook Once, Produce Twice!

In 2008, you would have been more likely to find Marlene MacPherson behind her desk then in the kitchen. As a hurried Vice President, Marlene barely found the time to spend with her then three year old daughter Dakota and her self-employed husband Rick.

In July of that year Marlene was faced with news that forced her to push back from her desk and re-evaluate her priorities ... that news was stage three breast Cancer. Now like most people Marlene was unsure about what challenges she would have to face, but instead of consuming herself in her diagnosis she decided to look at it as a challenge and a way to change her life for the better.

Now Marlene is just over two years post treatment with a new body and spirit intact. She is training hard to prepare for marathons (in fact she ran a ½ marathon 6 months after treatment!). She has also become a recognized social entrepreneur and has shifted her focus to healthy eating and disease prevention through her new show Marlene's Meal Makeovers. Marlene hopes that through the show she can teach families to "Cook Once and Produce Twice" in order for busy families to cook more wholesome meals for their families and reduce their time in the kitchen. Marlene cooks every recipe in the Marlene's Meal Makeovers test kitchen in order to ensure that they meet the needs of this generation of families. Families have more control over disease prevention then they think. Marlene hopes to teach families to reunite in the kitchen so that they can own this power and use it to their advantage.

www.marlenesmealmakeovers.com