Winter Bulletin 2000-2001 Vol. 16, No. 4

Solar Energy for Belize
Continuing Education for Mayan Health Workers in 2001
Press Release: Lakota Indians Defying DEA; Accept KY Co-op's Offer to Replace Destroyed Hemp Crop
Kids to the Country

December 1, 2000

Dear Plenty Friends,

Even though dire predictions of Y2K computer malfunction catastrophes happily were not borne out, Y2K has proved to be a year of singular intensity. Hardest to integrate has been the loss of some of our dearest friends and family members, including too many young people to car accidents and illness. Gratefully, these losses have been somewhat tempered by stories of survival and a bumper crop of new babies to remind us of the endurance of life force. I have found myself reading more spiritual books, meditating more, and doubly appreciating the healing power of our rambunctious, big hearted Plenty tribe. I am reminded as never before of the spiritual foundations of this entity we call Plenty. It has evolved from an historical reawakening in the minds and hearts of one of the most lost generations in the history of humanity to the mysterious and profound truth of Oneness. Because we are each other; we care for each other. Love is the common gene and heritage that is worth passing on from one generation to the next. Love is why we get out of bed in the morning and try to make a difference.

Love is not wimpy or sentimental. It both motivates kindness and illuminates injustice. Love is demanding. Life without love is impossible. Plenty was founded by a group of people who came together out of their love for each other. Later we would fall in love with the people we were trying to help, the Mayans, the Lakotas, the Caribs, the inner-city kids, all of ‘em. Then it was their love that sustained us, along with the faithful love and support of the members of Plenty International. That’s it. That’s how it works for us. Plenty is a renewable, perpetual energy machine that helps to reduce and eliminate toxic and harmful emissions while hopefully contributing to fairness and hope in the world.

In the early days of Plenty, the first ten years from 1974 to 1984, we had a policy that if someone wanted to work for Plenty, they had to live with us in our community, the Farm, in Summertown, Tennessee for at least a year. In those days, the population of our community grew from more than five hundred to more than a thousand and, economically, we were a spiritual collective. No one was paid a salary, but everyone’s needs were taken care of. Typically we were able to live on about a dollar a day per person. By 1984, that system was no longer viable and our new cooperative arrangement required that most adults cover themselves financially and contribute to the maintenance of the community. No longer would the Farm be a limitless pool of low overhead Plenty volunteers.

In 1987 we got a letter from a group of soon-to-be-graduates of the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia offering their services as volunteers for two weeks. We took a chance and weren’t disappointed. Not only did they pay their own way, but they contributed money and labor to a construction project on the Carib Reserve in Dominica, West Indies. Since that pioneering group, we have had volunteers from Wharton working on short-term projects nearly every year since and never had a problem.

Consequently, when we decided we needed a full-time Program Coordinator to manage our projects in Belize, we openly advertised in the Plenty Bulletin, on the web and through non-profit job search channels. We were amazed to receive applications from thirty-nine highly qualified candidates, any one of whom had the credentials to do the job. Trouble was, they were all over the globe, many of them working in the field in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Given the short time frame, we had to make our selection on the basis of email correspondence and a few phone calls.

	Plenty Belize Program Coordinator, Melanie Reimer and partner, Greg Grosenick about to head out for Belize from Tennessee. (Photo by Anita Whipple)

As it turned out, our choice for the position, Melanie Reimer, was living in Africa with her partner, Greg Grosenick, after spending five years doing development work in the eastern European states of Georgia and Uzbekistan. Nonetheless, through an exchange of long and open emails, somehow we clicked, and in fact Melanie and Greg did get to live on the Farm—for all of three days in October before driving the Plenty van to Belize. Again we loaded the van to the gills with computers, medical supplies, tools and school books, most of which were provided by Plenty donors. Once they arrived in Belize, Melanie had little time to catch her breath as she landed in the midst of a stream of fast moving Plenty projects. From the TEA birding project to the UNICEF midwife and health care program plus dealing with half a dozen aging computers and all the traffic that passes through our office in Punta Gorda. Not to mention that one day after arriving Melanie fell off her bike and broke her wrist! As Lisa Wartinger put it, "Welcome to Belize."

The point is, even though Melanie and Greg come from very different backgrounds than us old Plenty staffers, we have the most important things in common—we can’t sit still for the status quo and the level of injustice and inequality that pervades the world. We like big challenges and we’re forever inspired by the knowledge that each one of us has the power to change what the future will be for the generations coming up behind us. We love the opportunity to do what we are getting to do, and we love life, with all of its pain and beauty, reward and loss, agony and uncertainty, wonders, miracles and magic.

Thank you for your life and your love and support. We wish you blessings of happiness and peace, from all of us at Plenty to you and yours.

Yours truly,

Peter Schweitzer
Executive Director

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