Santa Rosa Junior College will host the Green Living and Fix-It Fair to promote and demonstrate environmentally sustainable lifestyle choices for students and staff from 4-6 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Bertolini Quad.
In adherence with SRJC’s goal to establish and promote a “culture of sustainability” across all aspects of campus life, the Green Living and Fix-It Fair will highlight methods to reduce your environmental footprint and save money by reducing, reusing and recycling materials.
Sponsors of the event include the SRJC fashion studies department, Sustainable SRJC, Reuse Alliance and Zero Waste Sonoma.
Zero Waste Sonoma will emphasize zero waste in transportation, food choices, energy, gardening and composting.
Reuse Alliance will share information on reusable resources and help repair bicycles and small electronics. Register an item to be repaired through this link.
Sustainable SRJC will provide information on native plants, hydroponics and permaculture.
The fashion studies department will have a mending bar to repair small holes in clothing, provide information on ways to extend the life of clothing and teach people to mend their own clothes. Attendees can look forward to giveaways of sewing supplies, mending kits and a raffle for a Pfaff sewing machine.
“Visitors to the booth will have a chance to enter to win the machine, and if you sit down to sew with us for a bit or bring something to be mended, you’ll get an extra ticket,” said Emily Melville, fashion studies program coordinator. “I believe that Sustainable SRJC hopes to make this an annual event and Fashion Studies will happily continue to contribute our support and expertise to help people extend the life of their clothing,” Melville said.
Biological sciences instructor Abigail Zoger is among attendees looking forward to the Green Living Fair because of the issue’s importance. “I consider climate change to be the most important issue of our time for several reasons: 1, It makes every other issue worse — poverty, health, social injustice — and 2, The solutions are within reach; we ‘just’ need to convince people to implement them,” Zoger said.
While Zoger hopes fair attendees will get excited about green living techniques, she also wants students motivated for the long term. “I really want people to feel empowered to demand change,” Zoger said. “What if the City of Santa Rosa put in protected bike lanes? What if we joined in a concerted campaign to do so?”
