Held Saturday, Oct. 7, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Vista Dining Hall, the Community Conservation and Repair Fair at MHCC is a free day of exhibits and workshops, as well as a repair café staffed by volunteer fixers. More than 30 exhibitors will offer giveaways and resources on reducing waste, saving energy and water, and living sustainably.

The event will include eight expert-led workshops covering such subjects as weatherizing your home, building a backyard habitat, and reducing food waste. The Sandy River Basin Watershed Council will also provide tours of MHCC’s grounds and Beaver and Kelly creeks, with a focus on the college’s planned clean-water retrofit projects.

“The fair and repair café will provide a range of resources and information to community members on living more sustainably and on reducing individual carbon footprints,” said Troy Builta, MHCC’s Mapping and Sustainability Specialist. “We also plan to highlight the conservation and sustainability work happening at the college and with at partners at the city and county levels.”

The conservation event will feature a repair café organized by the City of Gresham and the Coalition of Gresham Neighborhood Associations. More than a dozen volunteers will be on-site to repair items for free. Suggested repairable items include bicycles; clothing and fabric goods; clocks, fans and small kitchen appliances; and VCRs, CD players and printers. No televisions, microwaves, or small engines.

“We live in a throw-away culture – it’s become incredibly easy to go to a store and simply buy a replacement when something breaks,” said Shaunna Sutcliffe, Residential Recycling coordinator for the City of Gresham. “Repair cafes help reverse that trend by providing a local place where you can bring your broken item and have them fixed.”

“It saves space in the landfill, saves precious resources from being mined, saves money, and shows people how to fix their items themselves,” Sutcliffe added.

The MHCC Sustainability Committee, City of Gresham, Multnomah County, and Coalition of Gresham Neighborhood Associations organized the Community Conservation and Repair Fair. Event sponsors include Groundwork Coffee, NW Natural, and Habitat for Humanity’s Gresham ReStore. Groundwork will supply free coffee; please bring a reusable mug. Free snacks also available.