Sustain: Gear Swap Event
Each week Michael Stein-Ross contributes Sustain, a column about community & sustainability.
Coming up in a couple weekends is Outdoor Gear Swap 2011 hosted by Burien Cooperative Education Project (BCEP). Recently I wrote about a clothes swap that my wife hosted in our living room. It was naturally a pretty cool event seeing as it was a sustainable and free way to improve a wardrobe while hanging out with friends. Right now though, I’m picturing all those clothes morphing into tents and backpacks and boots and fishing poles and snowboards and lanterns and a bunch of other outdoor gear — and I’m starting to salivate. I don’t know about you, but I can relate to the REI-loving, no-room-in-the-garage-for-all-the-gear Northwest stereotype. But I also love getting things for free. And I love cleaning out my closet. And meeting people in the community is excellent. So I know I’m going to love this gear swap.
BCEP, the host of the swap, is a fairly new educational non-profit in Burien. Their main project is currently a new school called the Bridge School, but all of their programs, including Bridge School, have an emphasis on community building, connecting to the outdoors and cooperative learning. So this gear swap fits particularly well with BCEP’s mission.
Here’s the skinny:
Sunday July 24, 4-7pm
Our Savior’s Lutheran Church Parking Lot in BURIEN
158 S. 168th St on the corner of S 168th St. & Ambaum Blvd S
WHAT TO BRING
Outdoor – or sport-related items and gear that gets people outside and/or moving including (but not limited to) camping gear, all outdoor and indoor sports equipment and clothing, outer wear such as boots, jackets & hats, jogging strollers, even gardening items would be great. If you aren’t sure, bring it anyway!
HOW IT WORKS
All are welcome and there is no fee to participate — however, items brought are considered donated to the event and BCEP Scholarship Fund.
The object of a swap is not to get as much as you can of the best that is available.
Instead, the idea is for people to clean out their closets and LET GO.
If you don’t get something you want, let that go, too…
Be courteous, fair and conscientious of others and JUST HAVE FUN!
Every two donated items earns you one “take ticket”.
One Take Ticket = One Free Swap Item.
SCHEDULE
ITEM DROP-OFF – 3-4pm – If possible, drop off items early so the hosts can get a jump on organizing the swap areas.
FREE SWAP AREA – 4-6pm – Most items will go to the “Free Swap Area” where you can use Take Tickets.
SELL AREA – 4-6pm – More desirable or costly gear may go to the “Sell Area” where the best offer buys it.
FIRE SALE – 6pm – ALL items go on sale to the highest offer; anything left over may get donated to charity.
They plan on firing up the grill and offering other affordable and tasty treats for hungry swappers, so you may want to bring a bit o’ cash.
All proceeds go to the Burien Cooperative Education Project (BCEP) Scholarship Fund, offering scholarships to BCEP Programs including The Bridge School (Cooperative K-2 Elementary), Garden School Cooperative & Burien Homeschool Art & Science Lab
FORMAL SWAP RULES
The object of a swap is not to get as much as you can of the best that is available. Instead, the idea is for people to clean out their closets and LET GO. If you don’t get something you want, let that go, too…
Be courteous, fair and conscientious of others and JUST HAVE FUN!
READ & FOLLOW THE RULES OF THE SWAP
HAVE FUN & SPREAD THE WORD!
Enjoy the community, hang out and eat some food together, talk about your camping plans and tips.
Tell your friends about the swap – the more people that come, the better it is for everyone!
BRING ITEMS IN CLEAN and GOOD CONDITION
Items needing minor repairs should be labeled and identified upon entry to the swap.
ORGANIZE ITEMS BEFORE YOU BRING THEM
Please bag small items and attach or bag anything in a pair (including shoes).
BRING MORE THAN YOU PLAN TO TAKE TO ENSURE A GOOD SELECTION
BRING THE QUALITY YOU’D LIKE TO RECEIVE
Be fair – bring your good stuff if you want to get good stuff and don’t be greedy.
BE COURTEOUS & KIND
If you see an item you like but someone else picks it up first – you have no claim to it
If two people see and go for an item at the same time – please work it out in a fair and polite manner
Disputes over items may result in the item being moved to the “Sell Area” or donated it to charity
Do not cut in front of people, grab or hoard items
THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES, STATED or IMPLIED
No one has claim to or can expect to receive any item at a swap.
You simply may not find something you want to take in exchange for what you brought.
RESPECT THE SWAP HOSTS & THE PROPERTY
Please put litter in the proper place and even help clean up at the end if you can – the hosts will appreciate it and
want to have this event again!
DO NOT LEAVE YOUR OWN PROPERTY UNATTENDED
If you do, someone may think it’s up for grabs. Keep track of your personal items.
CONTRIBUTE in OTHER WAYS
Ask how you can contribute to the event or help in some other way.
Contribute directly to the BCEP Scholarship Fund – BCEP is a registered WA State charitable organization. Share
your ideas for making the swap better, bigger or more fun!
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Sustain: Natural Yard Care Event
Each week Michael Stein-Ross contributes Sustain, a column about community & sustainability in Burien.
There’s a free workshop I recommend you check out this coming Tuesday.
Here are three reasons why:
•We are all responsible for the health of Puget Sound (which is essential to our well-being)
•I want Lake Burien to be clean when it eventually opens up for public use.
•The Marine Tech Center at Seahurst Park is a sweet place to visit.
When and where:
Tuesday July 12, 2011 from 6:00p – 8:30p
at the Marine Tech Center at Seahurst Park
2400 Southwest 140th Street, Burien, WA
I’ve written about rain gardens before as a way to divert run-off water from storm-drains to an area that cleans the water as it slowly percolates into the ground water. This workshop isn’t about rain gardens, but I’m betting they mention them.
According to the organizers you will learn “how to incorporate more native plants that use less water, how to attract more wildlife, and how to improve soil and water health, and the overall health of the Puget Sound.” Who wouldn’t want that?
If you want to help keep Puget Sound healthy, register for this workshop. It’ll be a good starting point for positive action, or a nice refresher if you are already on your way. And then a stroll along the beach? Heck yes.
Sustain: Native Plants in Burien
Each week Michael Stein-Ross contributes Sustain, a column about community & sustainability in Burien.
If our goal is to build a sustainable Burien community – adaptable, inventive and resilient in the face of social, economic, or really any type of change – we must look backwards in time to see what has worked over the long term. About 12,000 years ago the ice sheet that covered Cascadia was retreating. What evolved thereafter were the plants and trees that we now call native species. As Jean Spohn, one of Burien’s native plant experts, would say, “they have adapted to play well together.” By working with the other species of their ecosystem, native plants create diverse, strong plant communities and they have sustained these communities for a very long time. The opposite of native species are those that settlers brought with them – the aptly named “non-native species”. Some of them, like English Ivy or Himalayan Blackberry, invade whole areas, reducing diversity and choking out other species in their sprawl. (It’s interesting to note that the culture of the settlers did and still does encourage the same behavior.) According to the Washington Native Plant Society, “invasive non-native plants are one of the biggest threats to native ecosystems, second only to habitat conversion.” In our work towards a sustainable Burien, we need to protect local native plant communities and in so doing hopefully we will learn from them.
Why we need to protect native plants:
- Short on water? Native plants survive on rain – no need to water.
- Short on time and money? Native plants need no fertilizer.
- Worried about bugs? Native plants coexist with native insects – no need for pesticides.
- Want to keep animals around? Native plants provide food, shelter, nesting material for native wildlife – without them native insects, amphibians, birds and mammals will not survive.
- Want clean water in the aquifers? Native plants protect water quality.
- Don’t want the Eagle Landing trail to drop onto the beach? Native plants control steep slopes.
- Like pretty things? Native plants are beautiful.
What we might learn from native plants:
According to Jean Spohn, we will learn to think in terms of greater systems. Native plants are an integral part of the terrestrial and marine food web. Most insects are specialists – meaning they only eat a few species of plants. Native plants evolved dependent on native insects and native animals and birds evolved to eat native insects, etc. Taking any piece out of a system disrupts the entire web and conversely, protecting one strand of the web protects all strands. The more time we spend with native plants, the easier it will be to see the human role in this web, and then to make the necessary changes to our way of life so that the web may be repaired and sustained.
We will also learn to look for local sources of food and supplies – to establish a sustainable lifestyle that is not reliant on goods from far away. Humans who lived in this region before the invasion of humans from Europe used native plants for all sorts of things: food, medicine, buildings, clothing, and artistic endeavors. Minor’s lettuce leaves, flowers and stems can be used in both salads and cooked dishes – It tastes similar to spinach. Redwood Sorrel leaves have a wonderfully lemony taste and can excite any salad bowl. Evergreen Huckleberry, Thimbleberry, Salmon Berry and wild strawberries all produce edible berries and are easy to harvest. Native peoples referred to the cedar tree as the “tree of life” because they were able to use every single part in their daily lives.
One doesn’t have to go to Burien’s more wild places – Seahurst Park trials, Eagle Landing, Salmon Creek Ravine – to find native plants. There are surely some within a two minute walk from where you are right now. Below you’ll find some resources to help you recognize natives (and invasives) and how to integrate them into landscapes:
- A wonderful and comprehensive place to learn about northwest native plants: Starflower Image Hurbarium.
- If you’d rather have a book in hand, try The People of Cascadiaby Heidi Bohan or Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast by Pojar and Mackinnon. Both describe common native uses for some of the plants in their book and both are available at the Burien Library. (While you’re at the library be sure to check out the town square rain garden and general landscaping. It’s chock-full of native plants.)
- ID plants plus find landscaping plans and how-to articles at the King County Native Plant Guide.
- It’s difficult to find native plants in local nurseries but here is one that keeps adding to their stock: Village Green Perennial Nursery in West Seattle.
Sustain: One Little Hang-Up
Each week Michael Stein-Ross contributes Sustain, a column about community & sustainability in Burien.
When I was growing up I always thought every woman’s favorite past-time was a spending spree at the mall. It still might be for some, however, last Sunday I witnessed a much more sustainable and community-minded alternative. My wife Kat hosted a clothing swap for her friends at our house. It was a chance for them to both socialize and reinvigorate their wardrobes without spending any money. Pretty sweet deal, right? Regarding the actual swapping, the point was not to make one-for-one trades. Rather, the idea was to bring clothes they should be getting rid of anyways to see what others may want. After everyone left we had enough piles of clothes in our living room to make any bachelor proud and a long line of lonely-looking hangers on the curtain rod. It seemed that Kat’s friends left behind more clothes than they took, which I suppose was one of the goals.
I’m happy to say that Frenzi, my clothing store of choicr, soon thereafter received a large donation; and all was good except for one little hang-up: all those empty hangers. What were we to do with a load of empty hangers? I hate to throw things away when they can be put to better use. So what’s the best use?
I think the dominant culture would say, “Well, duh, buy new clothes to hang on them.” But consuming more would just bring the binge-and-purge cycle of consumption back around, and that’s not something I’m interested in. It’s like losing weight — once you get rid of it, you want to stay rid of it.
An important side note is that physical possessions correlate to one’s mental state. I certainly feel more clear-headed and free when I get rid of things and/or take the time to organize my living space. Then why do we often give up that clarity and freedom by piling on more stuff? Perhaps because deeply ingrained cultural habits are difficult (though not impossible) to break. What certainly makes it easier is having a community of friends working towards the same goal. And that is exactly what I witnessed in our living room.
Back to the hangers. In this post-clothing-swap scenario, the best use for the empty hangers we came up with was creative repurposing. We used every last one of the wire hangers to make bird-scares at the Family Garden Camp that Kat and I are teaching this summer. Even so, there are many more plastic hangers awaiting their fate. I’ve put them in solitary confinement (a box in the garage) for now. I’m punishing them for representing a bad cultural habit. When it’s time to clean out the garage I’ll probably end up bundling them with other items to donate to a second-hand store, unless someone tips me off to a brilliant way to reuse them. Any ideas?
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Sustain: Interview with Bill Opfermann and Rebecca Dare
Each week Michael Stein-Ross contributes Sustain, a column about community & sustainability in Burien.
For this week’s column I wanted to share the thoughts of a local couple who I very much admire. Bill Opfermann and Rebecca Dare are not the type of sustainability and community activists who would be formally recognized by the city for their leadership, nor are they the type of people who would seek such recognition. While some people know who they are, many many more have been affected by their work without knowing it. They are Sustainable Burien board members and keep an incredibly busy schedule, so it was a real treat to be able to sit in their dining room for a comfortable chat. I’ve transcribed some of the highlights below. (more…)
Sustain: Burien by Bike
Each week Michael Stein-Ross contributes Sustain, a column about community & sustainability in Burien.
The month of May was “Bike to Work Month”. In the spirit of this celebration, I was riding my bike to work the other day when I pulled up to a red light next to another cyclist. For the first 20 seconds we just stood there with our bikes, looking straight ahead, waiting for the light to turn green. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Here’s what went through my head: “Wow, beautiful morning; smells good out here…wouldn’t have been able to say the same if I had decided to drive today…I wouldn’t have pulled up to this lady on her bike either. (I glance over). Does she even see me here? Why am I acting like I’m in a car? There aren’t two windows and a bunch of metal between us, just some lovely air — wonderful for transmitting sound. I’m going to say good morning.” So that’s what I did. And she wished me a good morning back, just in time for the light to turn green. And that brief interaction made my day. (more…)
Sustain: Burien in One Word
Each week Michael Stein-Ross contributes Sustain, a column about community & sustainability in Burien.
At the Annual Discover Burien Auction Gala a couple months ago, the emcee had attendees give him one-word descriptors of our city. I was struck by the number of negative words being tossed about, particularly since we were at a dinner to celebrate citizens who are doing great things to improve our community. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to offer my one word then, so I will now: Potential. (more…)
Sustain: Rain Garden Installation
Each week Michael Stein-Ross contributes Sustain, a column about community & sustainability in Burien.
While many Burienites were exploring the many health options at the Burien Health and Wellness Fair on Saturday, a small group of neighbors and community members dedicated the better part of a day to install a cluster of eight rain gardens around SW 150th St. and 24th Ave SW, just south of Eagle Landing Park. Rain Gardens are beautiful landscape features that catch and filter polluted runoff, help prevent flooding and provide habitat for birds and wildlife. Sharing labor, food and ideas, it became a very successful community building weekend! (more…)