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The Gates Rogers
Foundation’s “Green Shop” is now open at the Foundation office, 652
Main Street in Clinton, sharing space with the Fresh Air Yoga Studio
and Art Gallery. GRF’s current focus is the South Fork Nature Center on Greers Ferry Lake, across the waters from Choctaw marina.
Their shop will be raising money for that project with items relating
to nature, conservation, understanding and protecting our environment,
and preserving the natural beauty of this planet. Offered are an array
of books on Arkansas wildflowers, herbs, wild edibles, insects,
reptiles, hiking and biking trails, and scenic spots. There are books
on nature photography, and children’s books that feature critters both
real and fantastical. There are even delightful Pienkowski and Sabuda
pop-ups on their shelves; so if the kids are into dinosaurs or marine
life or giggling, you’ll have a place to snoop. You’ll really like
that their prices are competitive, even with the internet
booksellers–and you won’t have to worry about delay or cost for
shipping.
Or, if you’re shopping for
greeting cards, exquisite photographs of the wildflowers and
blossoming shrubs and trees at South Fork have been handcrafted into
unique cards and bookmarks by It’s A Duse’y! The line of gifts is small, but, characteristically,
growing: plants, pre-planted and ready to grow and bloom–from inside a
specially treated paper bag; tiny flower presses; in tiny bottles,
origami butterflies created in ten folds from three-eighths-inch
squares of foil; wee kaleidoscopes that mimic the view from a
dragonfly’s perspective. The Green Shop strives for unusual and
appealing merchandise that may simultaneously teach us something or
broaden our point of view while it entertains. Carol Corning,
Executive Director of the Gates Rogers Foundation, also encourages
green shoppers to request items they would like to see available. The GRF office additionally provides free literature on wildflowers,
birding, mammals, fish, and numerous environmental subjects.
The Green Shop profits
benefit the South Fork Nature Center. When completed, the
center will boast public nature trails, an environmentally “green”
educational facility which will be energy efficient and function on a
self-sustaining basis, an amphitheater which can double as an outdoor
classroom, and a spectacular shoreline view of Greers Ferry Lake. More
importantly, it will serve as a model to educate and inspire us to be
aware of our environment, to protect vulnerable species, to adopt
practices which are ecologically sound, and to work toward recreating
a planet on which man and nature exist in a mutually beneficial
partnership. It’s a noble cause, a sincere effort, and the Green Shop
invites you to be a part of it.
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