Earth Day Block Party in Spokane: Reuse, Repurpose, and Recycle in Action

“Reuse, repurpose, and recycle” became more than just a slogan when hundreds gathered for last Saturday’s Earth Day Block Party at West Central Abbey. More than 50 donated bicycles were shared at the party by River City Youth, and the Mend It Cafe with Spokane Zero Waste was inside repairing party-goers’ clothing. Community groups staffed booths, and food and native plants were available. Kate Burke, Executive Director of River City Youth, and Elyse Hochstadt, Executive Director of Spokane Zero Waste, joined the Religion Desk Podcast from the block party to share about their work, the good things happening that day, and the importance of reusing. The episode also features music from Spokane’s Raging Grannies and Hannah Wynn.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Turn down the lead. It's all the hope. And they see breathe. Just listen to me. My list that secret reusing ego screws. Stop locally. Deep. Just listen to me.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

This is the Religion Desk for Faves News. I'm Jason Jones. That's the lively sound of the raging grannies singing at the Earth Day Block Party at West Central Abbey in Spokane, Washington. On Saturday, April 25th, River City Youth and Spokane Zero Waste hosted the event. Hundreds of people gathered for the party, and a line of people formed an hour before the event for a chance to receive one of the donated bicycles. Outside, plants, bicycles, and food were shared along with music, and a number of community organizations staffed informational booths. Inside, the people from Mended Cafe were gathered around sewing machines, repairing clothing, and other items. Here's River City Youth Executive Director, Kate Burke.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

River City Youth is a nonprofit place based in West Central, and we work to provide enrichment programs for youth through community engagement, job training, and education.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Are you particularly focused on this neighborhood?

SPEAKER_00 1:16

All of our work is done in West Central, but we have a lot of youth that are just from all around the north side of Spokane.

unknown 1:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

What's this event?

SPEAKER_00 1:24

This is our Earth Day Block Party. So it's our second annual block party that we've hosted. And we partner with Spokane Zero Waste and the West Central Abbey to host this event and give away a lot of free things like free bikes, free native plants, plant starts, we have free food, there's live music, and it's just an event to get community together and um enjoy being around each other.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

How many bikes do you think you've given away today?

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Upwards of 50 bikes so far.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Wow, and they're all donated?

SPEAKER_00 1:57

All donated, or people sometimes buy us new bikes. Or if we get grant money to purchase new bikes, we do that. But a lot of the times it's just people get a bike last year and they bring it back because they've outgrown it and they donate it back and get a new one. So it's kind of like a bike lending library. But yeah, we get tons of bike donations all throughout the year and we kind of save them up for this event.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

What's one thing you would like everyone to know about River City Youth?

SPEAKER_00 2:24

I feel like River City Youth is working on creating sustainable programming that's true enrichment and high-quality program for youth. So we have many different programs. We have our bike bus, which is a program that rides homes elementary school kids to and from school on their bikes. Um, we also host outdoor adventures for middle school kids. And then our high school program is an internship for 14 to 18-year-olds where we hire them on to work in our garden and our greenhouse and learn about beekeeping among learning communication skills, teamwork, and responsibility.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Here's Spokane Zero Waste Executive Director Elise Hotstadt.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

We're a nonprofit organization whose mission is to build the knowledge, skills, and systems for a thriving waste-free community. And we are focused mainly on textile waste because it's so prevalent in the world today, and 90% of it is plastic based, and so we're really working on the plastic pollution problem.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

So much that happens right now is fast fashion, where it's real cheap, but people don't wear it a long time. So, but you're trying to do something different, I'm guessing?

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Yeah. Yeah, well, we're trying to educate people on the problem and also teach them about the benefits of repair, and that's how the Mendic Cafe got started is how do we keep clothes in circulation longer and start to educate people about materials so that they are knowledgeable when they go to buy something new? That one thing will compost and be a part of the circle of nature, and the other thing is going to create pollution.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Tell me the the Mended Cafe, you all are set up here, but you do this other places too?

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Yeah, we go to places, we we try and meet communities where they are. So twice a month we sh pop up at different locations, could be a library, we've been at breweries, we're out in Greenbluff, um, we'll be at the scale house. Oftentimes people request a mended cafe and we try and get it together and bring it to that community.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

So you all mended my son's little stuffy, his his little labu-boo and his hat, but uh what are some things that you all mend besides is it just clothes or other things?

SPEAKER_01 4:32

It's mainly clothes, but definitely do stuffed animals and done curtains, we've done pillows, I've done some hats, um, we've done drapery. So any textile-based material that's in your home, if it's not like on a couch or something, we can likely fix it.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Or we'll give it our best shot. Okay, so don't don't bring your couch in here. Is this doing that? Is it hard to learn?

SPEAKER_01 4:56

To mend? Yeah. Oh no, it's really quite simple. I think we're designed for doing it. We have these dexterous hands. It's a needle and thread and a very simple hand motion if you're doing hand stitching. And we teach classes in getting to know how to sew right from the basics, get to know a sewing machine all the way up until making garments. So I think learning to sew, it was one of those basic things that used to be part of our education, and it has gone by the wayside. And look at the results, not so great.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Could uh even a guy like me learn?

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Oh, yeah, absolutely. No doubt.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

I'd actually like to.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

So the first step is signing up for a class, get to know your sewing machine. That's the learning of the workings of a sewing machine, and we provide the machines, you don't have to have one. Threading a home sewing machine is pretty much the same for any brand, any age, so uh it will be transferable information if you decide to get a sewing machine at home. Well, we uh would love volunteers. We have a public, well, we'd love volunteers if you're a mender and you want to participate in Amendic Cafe, you're welcome to do so. Just get on our website, spokehancerwaste.org. And also we are launching a public arts project that is helping build community shade in impacted communities that don't have tree canopy. So we're looking uh for people to participate in that. And we always welcome in uh teachers to teach classes. People are really wanting to learn how to sew. And so if you have a skill, if one of your audience members has a skill that they'd like to share, we'd love to pay you to do so. And um if you're timid about learning or about teaching, we are going to have a class on teaching skills.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

So I this got me thinking, so this probably was the sort of thing that was passed on generationally, and that maybe stopped a generation or two ago, but we're trying to reteach these things.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

That's right. It was passed on generally generationally, and it was a skill of you know, value. We had a value system that was like, if this thing was already made, we understood the labor that went into things. That it was treasured. You wanted to maintain it. It was also we had clothing of natural fibers that had such a higher quality that mending it was just like what you did because you spent a lot of money purchasing it. These days, the stuff, some of the stuff we get in here is hard, is impossible to mend because it's so poorly made. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

I have often that's Hannah Wynne singing outside at the block party. You can find out more about River City Youth's work at rc.org. And you can connect with Spokanzia Waste at spokansierwaste.org. This is Jason Jones for the Religion Desk with FaZe News.