News Blog

Welcome to the Spring BWB Newsletter– read this newsletter with much nicer formatting here.

Get inspired by these projects around the world making an impact:
-a costumed shopping cart race supporting a Chicago food bank
–an underwater sculptural coral reef habitat
-opportunities to support disaster recovery in Mississippi and California
-and more!
Plus, discover what’s new in Northern Nevada, where volunteers are building an outdoor classroom and working to save the Gerlach Water Tower. 

Stay in contact with us and consider donating to keep our program alive. As always, BWB is powered by our incredible community. Thank you for being you.



Burners with Bees Worldwide Call
Attention Bee Lovers! On Tuesday, April 12th at 5:00p PST / 8:00p EST/ 2:00a CEST we’re hosting a BWB Worldwide Call: Burners with Bees. From Fly Ranch to Colombia, we’re highlighting bee initiatives. We’ll also be hearing from the 2023 man-base designer, Tim Brenner, and his inspiration behind this year’s winning design, “The Hive.” This is an excellent opportunity to connect with other bee lovers, learn about projects, and exchange ideas related to these prolific pollinators.  Register HERE or join the FB event.

Mid-Atlantic Art & Civic Engagement Grants Open NOW! 
Being a burner isn’t just about the events. It’s a culture manifested around the globe through art, communal effort, and innumerable individual acts of self-expression. FIRE PONY Creative Society is offering up to $1500 in grant funds to improve lives of communities in the mid-Atlantic. Applications close on April 18th and will be awarded during Mid-Atlantic Leadership Conference (MALC) on April 22nd. Learn more and submit your idea HERE.

Chiditarod (Rod in a box Toolkit)
Dress Up. Cause Chaos. DO GOOD. 
This March, CHIditarod gathered over 10,000 lbs of food and over $132,000 for their community grant program, all while racing shopping carts and causing mischief.
Make your own creative fundraiser with the Rod-in-a-Box tool Kit, a collaboration between BWB and CHIditarod. 11 years worth of manuals, forms, sheets, timelines, templates, software, and pro tips.


2022 Grantee Immigrant Aid Project
The latest BWB blog hlighlights Grantee Immigrant Aid Project, a craft initiative using traditional printmaking to raise awareness for displaced people from Afghanistan, Syria, and Ukraine. Led by Jessi Sprocket and volunteers, the project has involved 75 participants and 8 artists, who have shared stories and cultural motifs through block prints to connect with and raise awareness for millions affected by displacement. Want to learn more? Read the full article HERE.


Healing Broken Circles Art Collective
Healing Broken Circles, a 2022 Community Grant winner, hosted ‘The BackWall, Art Uncuffed’ an evening of arts-related programming created by those impacted by mass incarceration.The BackWall is an initiative deepening the conversation around mass incarceration through the lens of the arts and creating community. Learn more at the Healing Broken Circles website and see clips of the program on Facebook HERE.

Global Coralition Reef Project ‘Atabey’ has been successfully placed in the ocean. Designed to catalyze coral reef regeneration in the Dominican Republic, and standing 15’  tall, Atabey is one of the tallest underwater sculptures in the world. Atabey represents the ‘Mother of Waters” from the Arawak/Taino indigenous culture of the Caribbean. This project is part of a global movement to unite art and science to revive our reefs, through sculpture and coral farms, which can grow coral up to 50x faster. Global Coralition is currently raising funds to build a land-based coral farm, where reefs have declined to less than 10% living tissue.  Watch the video of Atabey being built.

BWB Alberta (Canada)
Clean needle kits for harm reduction.
On Feb 7, twelve BWB Alberta volunteers assisted the Calgary Alpha House Society making clean needle kits for the DOAP (Downtown outreach addiction partnership) team. In just 2 hours they made enough kits to last a few months, and were so efficient they ran out of supplies! These kits are crucial for ensuring clients health and safety. Thank you to everyone who came out!
BWB Arizona (USA)
Menstrual products for kids in foster care. A few years ago the Arizona discovered that the state of Arizona doesn’t provide menstrual products for young women in foster care. Unwilling to accept this Burners Without Borders – Arizona and Arizona Burners Community Outreach decided to collect items for Helen’s Hope Chest, a shop where youth in foster care find clothes, toys, books, and now…period products! In 2023 we’ve already collected and donated more than 2,050 menstrual care products valued at over $1,000.


BWB Bogotá (Colombia)  
Restoring Chingaza’s Páramo (Andes Mountain ecosystems).
BWB Bogotá‘s new environmental initiative aims to grow thousands of native plants and restore our Andes Mountain ecosystems, which generate “Páramos” or tropical waters, and support over 36 million Colombians.“The Germinator” is a plant nursery that aims to restore and raise awareness of this unique ecosystem, while benefiting rural communities adjacent to Chingaza’s Páramo. We’ve teamed up with Ancestral Foundation, a nonprofit committed to nature restoration and sustainable development. On April 30, we’ll kick things off by planting 100 native trees to restore the reserve in Chingaza. We plan to pursue a commercial strategy based on nature activities to achieve the collaboration and funding required to begin our Germinator construction!

BWB Second Life (Virtual) 
Relay for Life in Second Life!
Burners Without Borders SecondLife (BWB-SL) has registered as a team with Relaying For Life Of Secondlife. From Feb – June we will participate in Relay Weekends by walking/running the track for 24 hours. We’re excited to be building an art installation on the track for all. 
On May 6th we will be leading the “Darkness Into Light” initiative where we will walk a 5K together on a planned route in Secondlife, in support of mental health and suicide awareness. We’d love for you join either project!

BWB Vancouver (Canada)
We are thankful and proud of our BWBV team and community helpers, who make our “Christmas Isn’t Over” & the “Soup n Buns” projects happen each and every month! We invite everyone to come to join us at 12:30 pm on the first Saturday of each month at Oppenheimer Park in the DTES.
Coming up in May will join the “Darkness Into Light” Global Initiative that is about hope and mental health awareness. In collaboration with Vancouver DIL, we will register and walk together as a group, on May 7th, 4:30am to sunrise.Please keep in our loop! BWBV FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/burnerswithoutbordersvancouver

Clean Energy Response to Tornado in Mississippi
Footprint Project is activating thier Energy Response Team to support Mississippi’s tornadoe recovery. They have received requests for solar generators and will be activating equipment from our their in New Orleans. If you know of community resilience sites in need of power or have generator equipment available to deploy, please contact logistics@footprintproject.org. For additional support requests, please click HERE!

Urgent Storm Recovery in Bridgeport, CA
(Ongoing as of March 21st)
Location: Bridgeport, CA (115 Miles South of Reno, NV)
has been cut off by snow and flooding. Supplies and labor are needed. Food and local shelter are available for volunteers.
Current Volunteer Activities: Cutting and clearing ice/snow blockages, sandbagging, cutting drainage ditches, and evacuating people.
Material Donations Needed: Shovels, chainsaws (electric are best), sumps (sump pumps, swamp cooler pumps), empty sandbags, and tarps.Volunteers please contact Bridget Hardy: 307-703-0959 (coordinating) BWB note:This recovery effort is happening in harsh conditions, and volunteers should be prepared for and familiar with working in snowy winter/rural mountain conditions. Always know your own limits when volunteering for this type of initiative.


The American Chainsaw Portrait Revival
Artist Glenn Richardson is touring the country creating chainsaw wood portraits alongside storytelling interviews that honor the humanity of all people and reflect on pivotal elements of North American history. He’ll be traveling along the Lewis and Clark trail from May – October, 2023. Connect along the route and share your skills: https://sawaddict.com/  Support Requested:Administrative support in managing the tour and lining up interviewsNetworking and community connections along the routeWeb-based video and graphic skills

Theme Camps: Join BLAST 2023
Burner Leadership Achieving Sustainable Theme Camps (BLAST) is a green camp rating system that offers a framework for resource-efficient, environmentally conscientious, and regenerative camps.
BLAST provides an incentive to “Green Your Burn,” awarding camps for successful sustainability efforts. Read our One Page Introduction. For camps that are interested in participating in the 2023 BLAST program and volunteers, please fill out this form. Questions? blast@greentheme.camp


Tribal Members Ask Volunteers to Help Prepare Outdoor Classroom
Pyramid Lake Paiute elders & supporters are calling for volunteers to help create an outdoor classroom where local Native youth can learn traditional practices in a natural setting.
Tribal members aim to host hands-on educational programs at a part of the Reservation called Potato Patch Ranch, located halfway between Nixon and Gerlach on NV-447. They desire to pass on knowledge about using native plants for food, smudging, shelter, clothing, baskets, twine, medicinal teas, etc to local Paiute / Shoshone / Washoe youth. Volunteers are needed to prepare the land for future school field trips, outdoor nature-based workshops, classes, and seminars about traditional practices.
Donate: If you would like to support this project you can donate HERE.
For more Infomation contact Randy Burns at 415-317-9046 or Elaine Burns Duncan at 775-276-8956
Friends of Black Rock High Rock
Year of the Rabbit. Swift and durable. Kind and gracious. Friends of Black Rock (FBRHR) took a look at our activities in 2023 and decided to follow the rabbit! Join them for new heritage tours, e-bike trips, geology trips, hot springs outings and more in Black Rock country. Apply for the 10th anniversary Artist in Residence program by April 21st to explore the largest conservation area in the lower 48 (with a stipend!). Fly Curious? Find out how to support the Fly Geyser Docents at the upcoming volunteer outreach event in Reno.

Gerlach Watertower Fundraiser
The iconic Gerlach water tower has been standing proudly on Main Street in Gerlach, Nevada since 1909. The 44,000-gallon tower serviced the citizens of Gerlach and trains for the Western Pacific Railroad Company. It’s now in need of repair to keep this landmark. The Gerlach community is throwing a fundraiser and asking for support. You can attend the fundraiser or donate HERE!
Burning Man Project Northern Nevada Job Openings
Nevada Operations (NVO) and the Department of Public Works (DPW) are hiring! Be a part making Black Rock City a reality.
A few current roles include:
– Gerlach Waste Stream Crew
– Solar Program Crew
– Maintenance Crew at Fly Ranch
– Renewable Fuels Project Manager See all job postings HERE.
 
Fly Ranch Stewardship Days
See dates and register HERE. Weekends focus on hands-on projects while setting aside time to explore the property, soak in the springs, make friends, and enjoy the beauty around us. Our suggested registration fee allows us to provide meals, snacks, and beverages. Campouts start at 8am on Saturday and conclude on Sunday at 4pm. We urge everyone attending to participate in an orientation call on Zoom, each Wednesday before from 6-7 pm. On the calls, you’ll be able to meet fellow campmates, ask questions, and get any late-breaking info about our adventure. For a comprehensive overview of the Fly Ranch Project, visit the website.

Fly Ranch LAGI Design: Solar Mountain
Solar Mountain from the 2020 LAGI (Land Art Generator Initiative) design challenge was recently featured on the website Interesting Engineering sharing: “The Solar Mountain project is now moving on to its next design stage, which means it could effectively become an artistic workshop for new approaches to architecture and sustainable engineering that we’ll see in the future of solar power applications”. Read the full article HERE.

Collective Effervescence on the Ohio River (BWB Grantee) featured on Local News Channel
2022 grant winner from Portsmouth, Ohio enjoyed local news coverage on their canoe project hoping to change perceptions of the Ohio River. They’ll be partnering with Shawnee State Sociology students to learn more about research methods, designing surveys, interviewing participants, and measuring enjoyment of this natural resource. We love this positive local coverage, click through to read the article and watch the news clip.

Far Away Project (2017 BWB Grantee) has launched a new podcast.Hear stories of changemakers from around the world who are creating community resilience through grassroots humanitarian and environmental work. The first season is all about ocean change makers, featuring inspiring activists, athletes, explorers, and even an astronaut using art, tech, and science to better the oceans.
Listen HERE.

BWB exists because of YOU.Over the years, your participation and generous support have enabled this creative community to accomplish so much around the world.BWB is known for helping real people solve real problems. The unique gifts this community brings to the international stage are quickly transforming what people think is possible.To continue doing this important work, we need your help. To donate to the continued success of BWB, click here. Any amount that you can give will go a long way in helping us to reach our goals.Thank you!

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