If you attended the Home and Garden Idea Fair in Clark County this year you saw lots of great home improvement ideas and probably discovered many creative things to put on your garden wish list. You also may have heard tons of pounding, excited chatter and lots of laughter.
That commotion was the result of a four-way collaboration, born through heightened community awareness and networking between the Clark County Skills Center, Clark County Environmental Services, the Clark County Habitat for Humanity Store and our new Building Material Recovery Program.
How did it come together? (Deep breath!) The Lifetime Fence Company in Vancouver contacted me about salvaging used cedar fencing from some of their teardown projects, and of course we were happy to oblige. We took the lumber to the Clark County HFH Store, processed it and set it aside for sale and for use in future projects.
The environmental services folks approached the HFH Store about purchasing some wood for their summer kids projects (birdhouse making), and of course the HFH Store was happy to oblige. The environmental staff needed bird house parts cut and contacted the Clark County Skills Center about using its occupational training center for the wood work, and of course they were happy to oblige.
At the fair with boxes of parts that needed assembly there were plenty of willing hands and smiling faces ready to oblige! I’m sure if we listened hard enough we would hear lots of newly-housed bird families across town saying, “Much obliged!”
Thanks for the partnerships. This is a small but great example of what we can do when we work together, using everyone’s gifts to make all our worlds a better place.
