The event on Saturday the 10th was a wonderful gathering and a great step forward. The event drew a great group of people with around fifty people showing up. The Don’t Crush people are a great group that shares many Green Values. It was good to build bridges between them and the local greens as well as to celebrate the victory in saving the RAV 4 EV's.

Both Paul Scott and Chelsea Sexton gave informative and impassioned presentations about how they went about saving the Electric Vehicles and how Toyota responded so well to the protests. It was a great example of how community organizing can make a difference and all it takes if for people to show up and do what they can.

Russell Sydney presented the kick off of the Sustainable Transportation Club as a local group dedicated to getting people on the Westside into clean transportation with the least oil dependency possible. We got over thirty people signed up on the clubs mailing list, which is growing rapidly. The group will be working to encourage and facilitate sustainable transportation.

One of the things that really made the event a special occasion was when Santa Monica City Council member Kevin McKeown presented Paul and Chelsea with a commendation from the City of Santa Monica. They were beautiful official looking documents. Chelsea was very taken by the fact that Kevin had researched her activities and even knew about her chasing the doomed EV1’s as trucks were hauled them off to be crushed.

The event included having everything from cars down to standup electric scooters. Here is the list of electric vehicles present:

In addition we had a newspaper reporter and at least two film crews recording the event. Michael from the Cycle Santa Monica list serve was able to get word to a film crew working on a documentary about alternative fuels. Good shot Michael. Anthony Rodgers was on had to help the other filming along with Kelly Olsen, which will be used in future cable TV programming on sustainability.

Thanks to Will Yeager who tabled the event for us as well as bringing the canopy and tabling supplies that let us create a good focus for the people on Ocean Park. Will and Anthony also helped to create this successful event with a strong tabling effort at last weeks Wednesday farmers’ market.

Thanks to all of you who helped get word out about the event.

This event is an important part of what we are trying to do. This includes actually getting people out of their gas-guzzling beasts and creating a sustainable transportation and it is more than that. This is to do with getting people organized around the things they care about.

If you would like to contact us about this you can do so by emailing us – info@dontcrush.com or sustain@rsydney.com or by calling 310-450-7419 or by going to www.sustainabletransportclub.com to sign onto a mailing list.

You can go to www.dontcrush.com for more information about their efforts.