Recent D$W Activities
D$W displayed and held a Driving in God's Garden training sessions as part of the Project North Festival in Rhinelander WI. in Sept. of 2022. Our presence was sponsored by the First Congregational UCC of Rhinelander as part of our DiGG outreach program. We had 2 EV's on display and had 11 people signup for D$W membership.
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On Saturday August 13, 2022, we held our 61st D$W Meet at the Greenfield Public Library. D$W member, Ben Nelson, the Wizard of Oconomowoc, presented a presentation on How to Power your Home from an EV. We had 26 members in attendance who also enjoyed taking a Fuel 4 Thought quiz on $mart driving techniques.
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D$W presented our Tools for a Lifetime training at the Midwest Regional Energy Fair held in Custer WI in June 2022. This was the first time we presented our $mart training program at the MREA and we had over 35 attendees present with over 25 signing up for D$W membership.
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As part of our D$W Driving in God's Garden outreach, we displayed at the UCC Annual Convention at Green Lake WI. in June of 2022. We had over 45 people sign up for free D$W membership. We have also created a faith based DiGG network of over 60 ministers/pastors and lay people across the state for future outreach opportunities.
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At the same time as the DEED Somers event, we held our 60th D$W Meet at the Greenfield Public Library in Greenfield, WI. We reviewed the basics of $mart Driving with a $mart Driving 101 presentation. We had 24 members and guests in attendance who enjoyed sharing their most used $mart driving tip. Great D$W door prizes were distributed and our usual D$W lunch was once again served after the long Covid period.
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D$W held its 4th Drive Electric Earth Day EV Fair at the Festival Foods in Somers, WI. on April 23, 2022. D$W member Joe Dubaniewicz spearheaded this event with over 15 EV's available for display and test drives. This was the 2nd D$W event to be sponsored by Festival Foods.
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D$W displayed at the 1st Sustainability Fair held at Carthage College in Kenosha on April 2022. We enjoyed talking about $mart Driving and EV's and had 21 new attendees sign up for D$W membership.
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D$W sponsored its 7th National Drive Electric Fair at the Festival Foods in West Allis on Oct. 3, 2021. We had local press coverage with almost 30 EV's in the Fair and their owners present for test drives and answering questions. An EV Owners Forum was held as well.
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On June 5, 2021, we held our 59th D$W Meet, and first in almost 1 year, at the Greenfield Public Library. We also held an EV Fair at the library as well with over 20 EV's on display. There were over 35 in attendance with free $mart driving test drives given.
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D$W has expanded its outreach to include a faith-based program called, "Driving in God's Garden". It is our "Tools for a Lifetime" training program but based on scripture and Christian theology. In 2020 we held a "Driving in God's Garden" Webinar for the Wisconsin United Church of Christ as part of their Creation care program.
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Due to Covid - 19, all D$W activities have been cancelled or postponed for the remainder of 2020. We hope that all our D$W members, families and friends stay safe, and we'll see you soon.
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We're happy to announce another D$W sponsored DEED event for 2020. It will be held on Saturday April 26 at Myrick Park in La Crosse WI. This DEED event will be part of the annual Earth Day Fair, sponsored by various La Crosse organizations. D$W member and hybrid car dealer Chris Schneider will be co-sponsoring the event. We'll have 7 EV's on site in addition to several hybrid vehicles.
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Our first D$W Meet of 2020 and our second annual DEED event will be held on Saturday April 11 at the Greenfield Public Library. Our DEED last year had 12 electric vehicles on site to test drive. The public will have a chance to talk to EV owners and learn about $mart driving skills. D$W members will be receiving additional details via email. We hope you can join us for a great time.
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D$W will have a booth at the Racine Ecofest at gateway College on Saturday March 21 from 9 to 1. Join us as we spread the work about $mart Driving and electric vehicles.
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We held our 57th D$W Meet on Saturday Oct.19th at the Greenfield Public Library from 10-1. We had 25 D$W members in attendance and we reviewed the results of our Action in Jackson Electric Vehicle Fair. We also went through the procedures and skills that will be needed to mitigate the effects of cold weather and winter. Chuck Quirmbach from Wisconsin Public Radio joined us and personal interviews with some of our members. We all look forward to our 1st D$W Meet of 2020 sometime in early Spring as well as our 4th annual NDEW event in May.
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On behalf of Drive $mart Wisconsin, New Hope UCC and the National Drive Electric Week, I want to thank everyone who participated in our Electric Vehicle Fair last Saturday in Jackson. Though a chance of rain was predicted, it held off all day, allowing over 250 individuals to drive/ride and talk to EV/PHEV owners about the benefits of EV ownership.
With 29 EV/PHEV vehicles and 16 models registered, we had 8 dealers and 21 owners on site to offer over 80 ride and drives to attendees which is what really sells the technology. We had over 75 people attend one of our 4 half hour EV Owners Forum sessions where EV questions on ownership, charging, tax credits and overall benefits were discussed. In addition, the Owners Forum gave the attendees the opportunity to learn about the Drive $mart Wisconsin training that can help drivers achieve 10-30% better mileage in their current vehicle.
I also want to thank the 20 volunteers from both Drive $mart Wisconsin and the New Hope UCC church that helped organize this event and managed it throughout the day. They maintained the safety of all on site as well as offered hospitality through welcoming and encouraging conversations.
I’m most appreciative to all the EV/PHEV owners who took the time and effort to spend to spend 5 hours of their weekend time teaching residents of Washington County about EV’s by sharing their knowledge and expertise of ownership. I also want to thank the dealers for joining us, even though a Saturday is the busiest day at the dealership, and for offering rides in EV/PHEV’s that many drivers have not experienced before. I apologize if I did not personally introduce myself to you and thank you on Saturday for participating in this event. Personal connections are what will help us move forward in spreading the news on EV’s.
With the success of this NDEW Electric Vehicle Fair, D$W is looking at creating additional local/regional events like this one, in addition to the annual DEED and NDEW nationwide events. If you would be interested in participating in another local/regional Electric Vehicle Fair in the future, please send me your email address to brad@drivesmartwi.com or 414-881-4226 so we can make future plans together.
Finally, each of you have helped plant the seeds of change in Washington County and I expect through your passion and expertise, those seeds will blossom with additional EV/PHEV’s driving our roads in the future.
Bradlee, Marie and Justin Fons
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Drive $mart Wisconsin is once again organizing a NDEW event to be held in Jackson WI. EV owners and enthusiasts from SE Wisconsin, along with local dealers, will display their electric vehicles and will hold an EV Owners Forum to highlight the clean-air benefits and cost-savings of electric cars on Saturday Sept. 21 at the New Hope UCC in Jackson WI from 10am to 3pm. The event is part of the sixth annual National Drive Electric Week and this Drive $mart Wisconsin event is one of more than 280 NDEW events across the country and will be the largest, most diverse, gathering of electric vehicles in SE Wisconsin this year.
New Hope UCC, 4360 Jackson Drive Jackson WI. 53037
D$W Members/EV Owners of Drive $mart Wisconsin and members of the HOPE Creation Team from New Hope UCC. Drive $mart Wisconsin is organizing this Jackson NDEW event. Local dealers that will be present, based on availability, will be: Heiser Chevrolet West Bend, Russ Darrow Mitsubishi, Fields Jaguar-Volvo, Heiser Chevrolet West Allis, Rosen Nissan, BMW Milwaukee North, Russ Darrow Kia and David Hobbs Honda. RENEW Wisconsin and Great Waters Group of the Sierra Club will have an informational table at this event and this event is supported by Jimmy’s Restaurant of Jackson.
On the hour from 11am to 2pm, there will be a short 15-30 minute D$W EV Owners Forum where EV owners will talk about their experiences and answer any and all questions on EV/PHEV ownership such as:
- the basics of electric vehicles including technology, safety, performance and benefits
- review the financial and environmental advantages including tax incentives
- discuss Drive $mart tips to optimize performance and extending driving range
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52 on the 54th! As we celebrated Earth Day on Saturday with the Drive Electric Earth Day event, we had 52 attendees for the 54th Meet of Drive $mart Wisconsin. We had 9 Tesla's, 4 Volt's, 2 Leaf's, 2 Bolts, 1 BMW i3 and a Fiat 500e for the DEED event and numerous other PHEV's and hybrids from our D$W crew.
We split the Meet into talking about the 50 Tools for a Lifetime techniques as part of $mart Driving training and then followed with an open discussion of EV's. We were fortunate to have Tesla Software engineer Garlan Garner (in his beautiful white Tesla Model 3) and Tom Content, Executive Director of CUB (Citizens Utility Board) talking about Tesla technology and the WI. PSC interest in expanding/improving EV charging across the state respectively.
All D$W members in attendance shared their experiences using the Tools for a Lifetime segment and many EV owners loved to hear about extending their range with these $mart Tools. During a working lunch, everyone contributed to the EV discussion segment, sharing knowledge and expertise.
Wonderful D$W/DEED Meet, informed education, sweet rides but it's always about the people...great people. Thanks to Marie, Justin, Teng, Ben and Garlan for taking ownership in this D$W/DEED Meet.
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Happy New Year to all members and friends of D$W. We believe that 2019 can be a year of encouragement as we continue to address the issue of climate change. Each of you have been given a gift of $mart driving and this year we'll need your help in moving beyond your own personal gain in driving $mart to take a step forward to share that knowledge with others. After the recent NFCA report we know more than ever we are in a fight for our lives and the lives of future generations. We can give up hope or we can step up and give it your all.
We're looking at doing more D$W Meets with the addition of new D$W Meets in West Bend and maybe other cities, reaching out to schools, business and organization with talks and presentations and even getting our word out through churches. It's time for each of us to step up and show up. We're thinking about making D$W a non profit to get additional resources to share the skills of our "Tools For a Lifetime" training. We think we have to give our all and be an inspiration to others...will you join us?
Our members have been steady and reliable over these past 13 years and to share the skills and knowledge of $mart driving, we need your help and support more than ever. I know that some of you are retired and may have time to help spreading our message so we'd like each of you to let us know if you can devote time to help literally to save this earth of ours. We will still promote green vehicles, but since the earth's climate clock is ticking, we must share the skills that every driver can use right now and begin to save money, become a safer drive and lower emissions. Remember it's you, the HU factor, that makes all the differance.
Please let us know your thoughts, ideas and suggestions for outreach via Facebook or email at bjfons@msn.com.
We have a gifts that we should share with others and not keep to ourselves.
What just happened at the D$W hosted NDEW event on Saturday... a lot!
First off, I want to thank all our volunteers with special thanks to Marie/Justin for their support and encouragement and to Ben Nelson for his leading the EV Owners Forum in the library. We all need to also thank Greenfield Mayor Neitzke, and several City Council members, Fire Chief Cohn along with Sheila O'brian and Michelle Scaffe from the Greenfield Library for their help in getting this educational event legalized. (long story).
Here are some of the metrics that don't do justice to the spirit and flavor of the days excitement:
- 22 cars on site, 10 different makes
- 13 vehicles available for ride/drive with 58 people going out for the EV experience
- 63 people participating in the 2 hour EV Owners Forum
- 83 info packets on electric vehicles handed out
- 32 sign ups for D$W membership
Though numbers are hard to figure since both events were happening at once, my best guess for total numbers based on observation and conversations with owners/volunteers is close to 150 individuals that came to our first NDEW event.
It was a long 5 hour day but if the purpose was to support, train, educate and promote (remember our D$W STEP Program) the public on EV's, then we should all agree it was a great success.
Thanks to Marie, Justin, Ben, Joe, Dorothy, Gary, Teng, Jerry and Dennis for pulling off the largest EV event ever held in SE Wisconsin.
https://driveelectricweek.org/event.php?eventid=1370
Recap of our July Meet: Hot day but cool Meet with 28 members attending including 4 new members. We rolled in with a Tesla, iMiev, 3 Prime, 1 FEH, 1 Lexus 400h, a Volt, Camry Hybrid and 6 Prius and several conventional vehicles. We came from all over SE Wisconsin and Illinois including Bloomington, Burlington, Oconomowoc, Kansasville and Franksville.
We had a great open session on what "Tools For a Lifetime" we have in our Drive $mart tool belt. As you can see we came up with at least 27 tools that could be used in Smarter driving. We had an expanded Round Robin when we shared our current rides and mileage numbers.
One last update, D$W just finished 2017 with a unique partnership with the Milwaukee Public Schools and Arcade Driving in presenting our "Tools For a Lifetime" training to over 200 local students and driver instructors. This is the very first time that fuel efficient training has been taught as a part of a public school drivers education program and we were asked by MPS/Arcade to set the curriculum and teach the training. The MPS Drive program has continued into 2018 with summer school training and we hope that our D$W training will also expand in 2019.
Please feel free to invite family members, work associates, friends, neighbors and even strangers to this newest D$W Meet so they can learn the tools for the future and recognize that Fuel Efficiency is the Fuel of the 21st Century.
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Our planet Earth is our home, and D$W has over 52 Meets and over 12 years we have tried to “Protect Our Home” by teaching thousands of drivers to Drive $marter. As our country moves forward in a new direction, 2018 and years to come may put all of our D$W members and friends to their stiffest test in these initial 12 years of “Protecting Our Home”.
D$W has never been a political group, but rather a grassroots group of activists that passionately believe that one of the best ways to “Protect Our Home” is with our STEP Program of supporting, training, educating and promoting green transportation and teaching Driving $marter techniques. The rewards for this effort are when the drivers see the money they’re saving and the corresponding mitigation of the effects of climate change.
We all have met the skeptics that believe that D$W techniques won’t work, but once behind the wheel and after hearing the stories and connecting with other D$W members they become believers. All this takes is patience, persistence, practice and the continuing encouragement of each member. So let 2018 be the year of re-committing your passion to D$W and help provide the evidence that green transportation and Driving $marter is not only important but also critical to our efforts in “Protecting Our Home”.