A Tiny, Tiny House Tour of Vermont to Share Reuse Solutions & Kick Off Earth Month

Deek, Rally the Catamount, and Alex at UVM

Like every Earth Month, this April is my busiest time of the year for events and travels. And to kick off the month, Deek and I headed to Vermont in The REUSE! Box Truck for three events with three very different age groups and communities. It was a really cool experience to see the different kinds of reactions to our unique reuse solutions in and out of the tiny house.

Some people want to live in the REUSE! Box Truck, some want it for a clubhouse, some want to travel in it when they retire, and some people just want to bring some specific reuse ideas into their own house. And these have been the exact goals of the truck since we started the project 10 years ago.

Rally and Alex at UVM

Our tour of Vermont began at UVM on April 8th, where we showcased the truck for the second time. We were parked outside of the always-busy Davis Center, the main student center on campus. And this is where their coffee shop is, so it was perfect for us!

Throughout the day, we had hundreds of students and staff pass by, take a tour, or just do double-takes at what they were seeing. Students were definitely impressed with the potential of an inexpensive home of their own and many thought the 98-square foot house was even bigger than their dorm room!

A UVM student takes home one of STAY VOCAL's special edition Vermont sweatshirts created by sewist Carly Carte.

Rally was impressed with Deek's art... or crushing on that cat.

On April 9th, we were in Randolph for Vermont's first-ever Reuse Conference: ReuseApalooza. I was honored to be the keynote speaker for the event. In addition to my personal story with reuse, my talk was focused on reusers collaborating and working together. I wanted people to leave the event with at least one idea for a collaboration.

Alex speaking at the Reuse Vermont Conference

I'm quite happy to report that it worked! Not only was I seeing others connecting and planning at the event, but I have been too. Since the event, I've connected with Birdie Blue to donate some of my rescued shirts and I'm going to speaking at a summer camp at UVM in June.

For the first reuse conference in Vermont, it was a great turnout and we met a lot of people doing a lot of great things around the state. Our exhibitor neighbors included Jamie from Rise Up Refill, a zero-waste refill shop in Waterbury and Kate from The Bunny Bin, a unique company that restores secondhand toys and involves emotional storytelling. Vermont Senator Peter Welch also showed up at the event and spoke about his passion for the planet and The Right To Repair.

Deek spoke at the Reuse Vermont Conference about building with used materials.

Senator Welch speaking to the crowd at the Reuse Vermont Conference.

Attendees of the Reuse Vermont Conference standing outside The REUSE Box Truck tiny house.

On April 10th, we were in Barre at the Barre City Elementary and Middle School. After parking the truck and settling in with coffee, we were visited class by class by class. Students and staff toured the truck for the entire school day and everyone left with their own own reuse ideas; the goal of the truck for sure. Not surprisingly, the small bathroom was completely intriguing to the young kids! They had a lot of fun outside the truck, seeing the work that Deek does with his scrap art and that I do with my STAY VOCAL reuse shirts.

As a bonus, we were parked by an area where some old broken school equipment that was being discarded. Deek incorporated some ideas into his talks on some ideas on what to do with it. Maybe that unique table is going to happen...

Deek speaking to students and staff about creating art with discarded materials.

Alex was in the principal's office, but was not getting a detention.

Big thanks to Corey Berman from the UVM Office of Sustainability, Susan Alexander from ReuseVT and John Jose from Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District for this great mini tour of Vermont. Visiting Vermont is always a good time. That's why we'll be back in July for the Reuse Retreat!

🤝