Evergreen Habitat for Humanity wants to keep good stuff out of landfills — and get women working in the construction trades.
Call it “upcycling” in both cases. That’s certainly the buzzword these days, Habitat’s Leanna Fabian said, for diverting usable materials from the waste stream and transforming them into something clever. Fabian said Habitat can’t help noting the growing success of Clark County’s Recycled Arts Festival, an extravaganza of creative arts and crafts that attracts thousands of people to Esther Short Park every summer.
You could say that upcycling is also what Habitat’s targeted “Women Build” program aims to do with women hungry for employable skills. It trains them in construction techniques and bolsters their confidence in an overwhelmingly masculine arena: the building site.
Now, two local Habitat agencies are launching their own version of Recycled Arts. On Aug. 22, the Clark County Habitat for Humanity Store in east Vancouver will host a “ReMaker’s Fair and Upcycled Auction” where you’ll be able to peruse and purchase the same sort of beautiful and useful stuff. There will be a silent auction for some of the bigger, bolder pieces, Fabian said.
So let the word go forth, Fabian said, that Habitat is eager to enlist “remakers, upcyclers and repurposers” who want to get in on the ground floor of what it hopes to make an annual event. From sophisticated professionals to amateur crafters, all are welcome — just as long as the thrust really is the creative upcycling of stuff that otherwise was probably headed for the trash.
If you are interested in setting up and selling your wares or donating to silent auction, contact Fabian at 360-737-1759 or leanna@ehfh.org.
The event also will feature workshops and do-it-yourself, make-and-take activities. It’s not exactly aimed at children, but supervised kids and their parents should have a ball fashioning things like plastic-bottle planters and light-fixture terrariums, Fabian said. Kids can also help create a community bottle cap mural, she said. There’ll even be a ReFashion demonstration featuring repurposed clothing items. Plus, of course, live local music and food truck offerings.
The whole effort will help Evergreen Habitat for Humanity and its client families keep building affordable homes — there have been 31 in Clark County so far — and the Habitat store keep recycling building materials and other useful stuff. But proceeds from the silent auction will be dedicated exclusively to that Women Build program, she noted.
“We work so closely with the Habitat store, and they are all about reusing materials and keeping things out of the landfill, this seemed like a great way to work together,” Fabian said.
The ReMaker’s Fair and Upcycled Auction is set for 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 22, at the Habitat store at 10811 S.E. Second St. (just off Mill Plain, west of I-205).
Learn more about Evergreen Habitat for Humanity at ehfh.org.
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