A Reuse Box Truck Tiny House Tour of New Canaan, Connecticut

At the end of April, Derek Diedricksen and I capped off our busy Earth Month with an extended stay in New Canaan, Connecticut. We were there with The REUSE! Box Truck Tiny House and our Escape The Waste edutainment programs for 5 days with 4 events at 3 different locations: New Canaan Library, The Carriage Barn Arts Center and New Canaan Country School.

Being there for numerous days, we had the time to explore the town, support a bunch of different local businesses, and get constantly reminded that reuse is everywhere you go and there are benefits of reuse for all of us.

We got into New Canaan on Friday evening and got the truck settled into our home at the library for a couple of days. We were soon joined by our longtime friend Marty Skrelunas, a regular from Tiny House Summercamp and a New Canaan local who works in historic preservation. He was instrumental in connecting us with the library which blossomed into the extended stay.

Being an exceptional tour guide, Marty wanted to take us to his favorite pizzeria, Joe's Pizza. He even got the OK to bring vegan cheese so I could try it out. After a behemoth of a meal, Deek and I headed back to the truck and settled in for the night.

Deek, Marty, and I with our monster pizzas

The next morning, I was still working off my pizza. So, I just went for coffee at Le Pain Quotidien, a French cafe. (Je parle un petit français.) I was pleased to see that the coffee there is served in ceramic cups and unique ones at that. They were more like small bowls without handles. After doing some minor work on my computer, I met Deek at The New Canaan Diner for more coffee in more ceramic mugs.

We didn't sit at the diner too long though, as we wanted to check out the one thrift shop in the town, obviously named, The New Canaan Thrift Shop. It was an old house converted into a shop and I was there a bit longer than Deek, making sure I explored all the rooms. After finding some choice items at a good price for future 1 of a Kind STAY VOCAL shirts, I headed back to the library to meet Deek and our library liaison, Micaela Porter.

The library was a great place for tours of the truck, as we were parked right near an entrance. Plus, our new friend Micaela encouraged every person that came to the library to check out the truck. We had a lot of people pass through and had some great conversations. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't with us so we had to have our display inside. That was OK though, since were inside for a couple of hours for the movie. After the movie, our tour guide Marty took us to Norwalk, CT, where we went to dinner at Valencia Cocina, a Venezuelan restaurant.

This couple was in the tiny house for a while and had a lot of questions and interest.

Plenty of room to spread out our reuse gallery inside the library

Micaela Porter found some 1 of a Kind ways to reuse

On Sunday, after grabbing some bagels and coffee, Deek and I headed to the Carriage Barn Arts Center, where we hosted a reuse art workshop with kids. One of our projects was creating "Scrappy Cats and Dogs" with scrap pieces of wood. It was awesome to see kids go off script and create a scrappy platypus, unicorns, etc.

One of the kids brought a diorama of a bedroom that she made with discarded materials. So cool!

Going a little off script with a "Scrappy Unicorn!"

Kids also made Martian Plants with pieces of discarded election signs, random items from recycling bins and a little cement.

Earlier that day, we had learned that the Carriage Barn Arts Center was the former barn for horses at a massive estate built in the 1800s. It had been on its way to disrepair, but was completely revitalized. The 400+ acre area is now known as Waveny Park. And the most random fun fact of the trip is that we learned that this was where actor Christopher Lloyd grew up! (Yes, Doc Brown from Back to the Future. His family later donated the estate to the town and now it's a public space with trails, gardens, summertime concerts, etc.

After exploring the park and getting thousands of steps in, our contact at the New Canaan Country School, Katherine Kaneko, came to meet us. We were going to be at the school for two days, so she wanted to show us the school, see where we'd be parking, etc.

This school was unlike any other school that I've seen before, but I could have guessed it would be by reading their mission. They "create an active, joyful learning environment where children are challenged to think deeply, question confidently, and act generously so that they may lead lives of impact and purpose." This is the kind of environment that I subconsciously longed for growing up, but certainly did not always get in the schools that I went to.

Being a private, tuition-based school, there were many aspects that wouldn't be possible at most schools. But my favorite aspects by far certainly would be. This was their creative reuse area, featuring a bathtub to hold a bunch of supplies. What a great idea for any school to provide art and creativity materials to their students, while saving a lot of money and educating kids on reuse and easy way to help the planet. It's also a great way to work with local businesses to get donated materials that would otherwise be discarded.

The reuse art supplies area at New Canaan Country School

After getting the truck settled at the school, we went back to downtown New Canaan and ate dinner. And yes, our friend Marty joined us there too. With it being a small town, I wanted him to meet Katherine and her partner. I love connecting people who support the reuse movement and positive community change in general.

On Monday morning, Deek and I woke up early, as we had to move the truck to its location where it would be for the two days of tours. At about 9AM, the classes started coming and they kept coming for the next 5 hours straight. Fortunately, our new friend Katherine did a great job segmenting out the classes and we had a few minutes in between each. And thankfully, we were parked right near the school cafeteria for coffee and food throughout the day.

Outside the truck, Deek shows students some of his unique reuse ideas for everyday items.

Inside the truck, students explore reuse solutions.

After the long school day, we went to a grocery store for some truck snacks and then to Zumbach's, a coffee shop that has clearly been a staple in the town for a while. Their ceiling was covered with vintage college pennants. And for our last meal in town, we went to Gates restaurant with Katherine, Kate Casner (the school's pottery teacher), Victor (Micaela from the library's husband), and of course, Marty.

Vintage college pennants completely covered the ceiling at Zumbach's Gourmet Coffee. Deek and I both went to Northeasten, fyi.

After dinner, we walked through downtown again and stopped at Van Leeuwen Ice Cream that people had been raving about. Not only did I find a bunch of vegan options, but they even had a Planet Earth flavor. The "Earth" part was matcha. Pretty cool. I opted for a cone of course. Why get ice cream in a cup when you can eat the vessel?! It's such an easy and tasty solution to a waste problem.

That night, we were stopped on the sidewalk by a woman whose son had been at our art workshop the day before. She told us that her son had a lot of fun and a great time making the projects. Sometimes, we're not sure how kids enjoy the projects and if it makes an impact, so this was a nice unexpected and rewarding moment.

Introducing a class to our reuse world outside the box truck.

Without having to set up the truck, Tuesday was much more relaxed and the tours continued throughout the entire day. And for the second day, we were serenaded by the music teacher getting the kids outdoors dancing to her singing about "Betty Martin."

Being at this school for two days, I was reminded again how much work it is to be an educator and how valued they need to be in our society. Deek and I only have a small fraction of the experience that full time teachers do, but we can appreciate what they do.

My mom was a teacher. Deek's parents were teachers. Many of our friends are educators. Teachers are literally the ones who are molding us from a very early age and they need to be valued as such.

Deek, Katherine Kaneko, and I

With the hundreds of kids (and adults) who listened to our talk about waste solutions and explored the reuse ideas in the truck, I was also constantly reminded of why I do the work that I do. We can't just think about ourselves and we can't just think about right now. These are the humans that we're sharing the planet with and these are the humans that we're leaving the planet to and we owe it to these humans to do our best to protect the planet.

This was the first time that we gave tours to kids younger than 5 and they definitely enjoyed and understood a lot.

After the second nonstop day and wanting to avoid traffic heading back home, we took our time packing up, chatting with students, staff and some of the parents too. We even had numerous kids want to trade their Pokemon business cards that I handed out for a better character on the back. Ha.

On the way out of town, we stopped at the library to see Marty one last time and return his reusable coffee thermoses that had brought us coffee in previously. (Marty gets it.) I also had to pick up my pizza leftovers; some of the tastiest form of reuse. Speaking of coffee, the library had a coffee shop, which is just a perfect match. I'd love to see that at more libraries. So, I grabbed me reusable cup and fueled up one last time with a lot to reflect on and think about.

Deek and I definitely had a great experience in New Canaan. Not only was the community interested and impacted by our reuse programs, but there were many reuse experiences in the community. This is why I always tell people that reuse is everywhere and it's for everyone.

This trip was also a perfect example of why it has been so great to live minimally in the tiny house and in general. I've saved so much money on rent and mortgage that I can afford to eat out more and explore the communities that I visit. And as I've said since I first moved into the truck, "You don't live in 98-square feet to spend 24 hours in 98-square feet. Life is outside."

Big thanks to everyone mentioned above and the many more who made our trip to New Canaan quite memorable. It felt so good to build a mini community while in town and we hope to be back to see them in the near future!

P.S. Here are some stats for me in those 5 days:

• 0 single use cups used

• 0 pieces of single use silverware used

• 0 new single use bags acquired

• 0 new clothing items bought

• LOTS of local businesses supported

• LOTS of great conversations about reuse

• LOTS of kids having fun while learning

• LOTS of great experiences

• LOTS of good food eaten

• LOTS of coffee drank
  

Thanks to the New Canaan Public Library and New Canaan Country School for many of the above photos.