Category Archives: Community

Beer and Napkins Event- RiverReConnect: ReConnecting People to Rivers Initiative

RiverReConnect: ReConnecting People to Rivers Initiative

Tuesday, June 9th, 6:00pm – 8:00pm The Community Tap, 217 Wade Hampton Blvd, Greenville, SC 29609 (864) 631-2525

Upstate Forever Staff Members Nancy Eisen Fitzer and Heather Bergerud Nix will present key initiatives in education and engagement to cultivate a stronger appreciation for our limited water resources and a fascination with the ecological richness of Upstate SC water resources and rivers. Several projects will be highlighted including Blueway Mapping and Upstate Adopt-A-Stream. We will follow the presentation with an ideation session targeting these two projects.

Limited to 30 Attendees

(Tickets include choice of craft beer and pizza will be served)

About our Presenters

Nancy Eisen Fitzer has been with Upstate Forever since 2005. Her responsibilities include producing our newsletters, maintaining this website, researching and writing other publications, and monitoring state legislation.
Nancy has a masters degree in City and Regional Planning from Clemson University, a B.A. in biological anthropology from Harvard, and also studied natural resource management and rainforest ecology in Australia. Her previous experience includes organizing community service projects in partnership with schools, parks, and shelters in Columbia for City Year, a national youth corps program.Nancy lives in Greenville with her husband, Matt, and three children.

Heather Bergerud Nix joined the Upstate Forever staff in 2007 and is the Director of the Clean Air & Water Program, where she leads a variety of advocacy and outreach efforts. Heather received her B.S. in Biology from Winthrop University. Before joining Upstate Forever, Heather was a project manager at an environmental consulting firm. Her main focus was wetland delineation and permitting, construction site inspections, and industrial facility inspections. Previously, Heather gained a variety of experience working at Glacier National Park in Montana, a chemical manufacturing facility in South Carolina, and onboard commercial fishing vessels in the Bering Sea.
Heather is thrilled to be able to use her technical knowledge and background to help further positive changes in the Upstate. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, gardening and traveling.

For more information contact Phil McCreight or Tony Miller

Meetup Scheduled for May 27, 2015: Engaging Creativity and Innovation of the Upstate’s International Community

As part of Beer and Napkins Community of Growth we seek to engage diverse members of our community to continue to brew innovative ideas to help individuals, communities, and organizations. We are excited to be spotlighting two leaders in the community who are devoting their energies to tap the creativity of diverse community in the Upstate

Veronica Schoell – Business Coach and Leader in the upstate automotive industry

Veronica is the founder of The Greenville (SC) International Group – Group used as a tool to increase the interaction and integration of the international community and its American friends in Greenville, SC. She will share insight into her group and some of the needs of the international community and how to engage them more.

Juan G Gonzalez, MS- Business Consultant and Entrepreneur

Juan is the owner of Innovation Builders, LLC, and co-owner of Optimum Professional Services, LLC, His is also the founder of Spanish Writers, a mixed group of published writers and writers in the works, with the common ground of finding beauty, culture and history in any language we can find them, and then share our thoughts to other cultures and communities. Beside managing his companies he is devoted to his Hispanic Innovation Exchange HiE. HiE has a bi-fold purpose: On one side, HiE intends to bring the cutting-edge events in the English (Mainstream) Innovation Market into the Local Hispanic Group Market, this process implies the use of an interface that translates into Spanish initially (other languages in the future) and promote events, flexibly, timely and on the most appropriate target market inside the Hispanic Group. The other side involves building up relationships with Spanish speaking countries and foster innovation exchange into and from this countries with America Innovation.

Come join us for this free event sharing ideas.

Space limited to 20 attendees. Snacks will be provided.

(Coffee, wine, and beer are available for purchase)

Challenge of the Week: Melinda Hoffman-Afghan Book Collection

Our Beer and Napkins Challenge and Sketch Art comes from local artist and social entrepreneur Melinda Hoffman. Melinda Hoffman, artist and lifelong learner, was inspired by her beautiful granddaughter and her own Afghan art project to create Afghan Book Collection. Melinda “stumbled” upon this need of the Afghan people. We believe it was a calling and thankfully she listened. ABC has become her passion.

The Director of Public Libraries in Afghanistan communicated to Melinda Hoffman that there are no children’s books in Afghan libraries. The idea of a children’s book collection is a new concept to the Afghan people. To make matters more difficult, in Afghanistan the print industry is basically nonexistent. ABC knows that there is a need for children’s literature in Afghanistan, so they are starting at the very beginning. ABC has been offered library space in the Kabul Public Library with a librarian to oversee the books that are sent. ABC will begin with this first collection of books as their initial project. The collection will comprise 100 books for the first shipment. Additional funds will allow even more titles and more translations. ABC is a lean, mean machine with every dollar going into books and their translations.

To learn more about Melinda’s art, passion, and story visit the following sites :

http://www.melindahoffman.com
http://www.afghanbookcollection.com

Challenge: Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open to “stumble” upon needs your talents can fulfill!

Beer and Napkins Holiday Makers Special with Joey Loman

Naughty or Nice in 2014 do you have Ideas you want to make a reality in 2015?

Tuesday, December 9th at 6;00pm, The Community Tap

Continuing the Makers conversation from our November 25th Meetup, this fun year end Beer and Napkins 2014 finale features lnnovator and Maker Joey Loman sharing his key steps in making your ideas and inventions come to life in 2015!

Event details here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/beer-and-napkins-holiday-makers-special-with-joey-loman-tickets-14663241149