The Eco-Fair planning committee is a branch of the Maharishi University of Management Permaculture Club. The club includes a wide range of participants: students, faculty, staff, administrators, and community residents who are passionate about the environment.

Dr. Marielle Savard, co-director of the university's Sustainable Living Program, is the director of this year's Eco-Fair project as well as being faculty advisor for the M.U.M. Permaculture Club. Business student Lorena Reynoso Singh is assisting her with the Eco-Fair.

Other members involved in the Eco-Fair include Tom Brooks, sustainability coordinator and the university's chief administrative officer, Charlie Knowles, president of the Permaculture Club, Matthew Lindberg-Work, chemistry student, and Charisse Lown, art student. Staff members are Christine Loyacano from our "green dormitory" committee, Stan Stansberry, KHOE Radio station director, Jim Gilmore, resource conservation officer and John Revolinski, associate director of Admissions.

Members of our community providing invaluable help are Lonnie Gamble, P. Eng. and John Freeberg, co-owners of Abundance EcoVillage and Joan Masover, investment advisory representative from Iowa Progressive Asset Management and winner of the Iowa Sierra Club Business Award. Dr. Kent Boyum, ecologist and director of Vedic City's Rebuild Iowa Program, and Jack Engstrom, independent consultant, are among the alumni who are involved.

Our mission is to create an event that presents a vision of sustainability, each year delving more deeply into the pivotal question, "How can we create sustainable communities, socially and ecologically?"

The answers are provided by leading experts who share with us empowering and practical knowledge through workshops and presentations. The local and nationally recognized speakers that we host are outstanding in the various fields of sustainable development.

Eco-Fair 2002 brought participants from far and near. The workshops and presentations were packed, and visitors told us how inspirational and practical the fair was for everyone. Since then, Maharishi University of Management has adopted a green plan, and one of the aims of the Fairfield strategic plan is to encourage creative, responsible, long-term stewardship of our natural resources.

We hope this year's Eco-Fair will build on that success. Through the Eco-Fair we want to spread knowledge and facilitate ecologically and human-friendly ways of functioning for all.

This is an event for all ages. Parents can bring their teenagers or young adults can invite their parents-depending on who is the environmental leader in the family! It is not a youth summit, a technical seminar, or a scientific conference--it is a potpourri of activities. And it is an occasion to build a bridge between generations.

It is also an opportunity to go back to the basics and reflect on the underlying laws of nature. As we look around us we can see in nature, in every natural phenomenon, an order, a systematic progression-from the growth of a plant to the movement of the planets. This order implies intelligence. We strive to attain harmony with this natural intelligence.

Maharishi University of Management is located in Fairfield, Iowa at highways #1 and #34. From highway 34, take 'B' Street (one block east of the town square) north about one mile to Badgett Drive. Turn west one block to Granville Drive. Turn south and park near the Recreation Center (33 on map) or the Field House (34 on map).

Traveling north from the town square on Highway 1 (4th Street) just north of Merrill Street you will come to Robert Keith Wallace Drive. Turn west and park near building 402 (6 on map) or the Library/Science Building (35 on map).

All of the EcoFair Activities will take place in and around the Dreier Building (1 on map), the Student Union (32 on map), and the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment (7 on map).

More information: More detailed campus map (MUM website).

Jefferson County Park
enter from Libertyville Road
641-472-4421

Free camping at Abundance EcoVillage
north of M.U.M. campus
641-469-5240

For showers we can suggest:
Roosevelt Recreation Center
1000 W. Burlington (enter 9th St)
641-472-6159

Lacey Keosaqua State Park
20 miles South of Fairfield Lake

Darling S.P.
16 miles North of Fairfield

Oakland Mills S.P.
30 miles SSE of Fairfield

Geode S.P.
40 miles SSE of Fairfield