The Environmental Center's Repair Café and Happy Hour in the Garden offer the community ways to get their hands dirty, learn something new and show a little love for the Earth.
Repair Café
The Environmental Center's 10th annual Repair Café is on Wednesday, April 26 at Oregon State University-Cascades. This free public event will show the Central Oregon community that repair is a sustainable option and will encourage people to rethink throwaway culture.
"Repair Cafés are all about connecting people who have broken stuff with people who like to fix stuff," said Udara (Abeysekera) Bickett, Rethink Waste program manager at The Environmental Center.
Around seven stations will be set up at this year's Repair Café, and at each station, local fixers are ready to fix whatever people come to them with—jewelry, small tech appliances, clothing, bikes, outdoor gear and more.
"Even if something can't be repaired, the attendees come away with skills — of how to take something apart safely or how to do some simple stitching or a sewing pattern," Bickett told the Source Weekly.
The event will also include a clothing exchange. Community members are invited to bring in used pieces and swap for something new-to-them.
The Environmental Center will also host a Repair Café in Redmond on Wednesday, July 19 at the High Desert Music Hall and one on Wednesday, Oct. 11 at the Firehouse Community Hall in Sisters.
Happy Hour in the Garden
Denise Rowcroft is the garden program manager at The Environmental Center's on-site Kansas Avenue Learning Garden. Rowcroft spends countless hours in the garden watering, weeding, planting, working on projects, planning lessons, harvesting. . . you name it.
Happy Hour in the Garden serves as a recurring volunteer opportunity for people to help The Environmental Center with garden projects. These early-season projects focus on prepping the garden for planting season—weeding, prepping the soil, wheelbarrowing pounds and pounds of compost, random fixes and getting the garden ready for student summer programs. As the weather warms, projects will shift with garden needs.
"Happy Hour in the Garden is a way for folks to come and get their hands on the land and learn about gardening. It really appeals to a lot of different types of folks. Let's say you live in an apartment and you really want to garden; you can get the opportunity to get your hands dirty, learn some things and just be outside. You can reap the benefits of, like, gardening without having to own space," said Amelia Corbari, communications manager at The Environmental Center.
It's not Happy Hour without tasty drinks. Every other Tuesday from 4-6pm, find Rowcroft and community members in the garden, sipping on a local brew or nonalcoholic bevvy. Wild Ride Brewing sponsored the March and April events, and Worthy Brewing/Worthy Environmental will sponsor the May and June events, providing cold ones to celebrate spring. The next Happy Hour in the Garden is May 4.
"Come be outside and get those benefits of gardening, because everybody can benefit from just being outside and digging in the dirt," Corbari said.
