The Green⁴ Re-Tree WNY party will take over the entire campus of Buffalo’s First Presbyterian Church, located at 1 Symphony Circle.  The Party will start at 6pm and include food donated by twenty of Buffalo’s best restaurants. Wine and beer will be featured with musical entertainment by the Celtic Band and another called “Off the Wire”, playing modern lounge/soft rock/light jazz favorites. Tickets to the party will be $30 each and include food and beverages.  Those wishing to sponsor a tree can pay $150 and also get two admissions to the party. 

What:           Fundraising Party in support of Re-Tree WNY
When:          October 18^th at 6pm
Where:         Buffalo’s First Presbyterian Church, located at 1 Symphony Circle

 Tickets can be purchased at: KC’s Fitness, 1 Symphony Circle, Buffalo, NY 14201, phone 886-0252 or Paul Maurer, phone 888-9766, any Re-Tree WNY board member or Community Coordinator or click here:  paul.maurer {at} citcomm(.)com

If you want help us plant contact volunteer {at} buffaloreuse(.)org and see below to learn all the different ways you can assist

Here’s the official dates so you can mark your calendars for the fall.
We have about 225 trees reserved for Northampton, Eaton, Southampton and Riley.
When we did this in May we had about 30 volunteers working from 9am-3:30pm and we were able to plunk in about 130 trees (and did the other 20 the next day) before the rain became unbearable. It was muddy and hectic, but lots of fun.
We were able to reserve a large auger to dig the holes and that made it so much easier! It is still a lot of work though. We’ll make sure the holes are pre-dug again for this round!
We will need to recruit about 50 people for the day–so if each of you bring a friend or 2 we will be all set, but we’ll also continue meeting new people and inviting them to assist between now and November.

7 NOV, Friday (tree pickup) 8am We will arrange to bring our trucks/trailers and pick up all the trees, stakes and equipment. They’re all bagged and labeled by species. Most are bare root, but some are in buckets–we won’t know until ReTree WNY gets notification. But we’ll need about 7-10 people that morning to pick up the order. They did not have all the ones we wanted last time and had to make substitutions–which I would like to avoid by getting there EARLY.
8 NOV, 9am Saturday (planting) See the photos and you’ll get an idea of what it’s like.
Please meet at 298 Northampton for those days.
POST PLANTING POTLUCK & GROUP MASSAGE! (no feet, just shoulders)
We’ll need to regain our energy, so if you’d like to bake some cookies or mull cider or prepare an inside-out lasagna or a tater-tot casserole or–(is Barb Gainer reading this?–please bring more taco salad)–or pumpkin bread or grilled turnips or whatever! We’d certainly be grateful.  Trust me, everyone will have an appetite!

Additionally, each of these holes has to be “marked” by National Fuel/Grid. We have to call in each address–ugh. But it prevents us from getting electrocuted so I suppose it’s worth it. It took a whole afternoon on the phone (thank you Annette) and the calls have to be placed these last weeks in October. If any of you are available to call (from here at the office on our dime) please let me know and we’ll make an appointment to do it together.

There is a training sessions conducted by Olmstead and ReTree prior to the planting dates.
October25, 2008 – Meet at The Park School, 4625 Harlem Rd., Snyder 1:00pm
If you’ve never planted bare root trees it’s a great idea to go–although it’s not mandatory for each volunteer. Some of us like to go just to drool over Jeff in his galoshes, but I won’t name names! I will keep you posted when they announce it and I will definitely attend one of the sessions myself.

You are helping us, ReTREE WNY, the environment and the City in one swoop–THANKS!

Bring a non-perishable food item the next time you come to The ReSource and earn a 10% discount on your purchase. It doesn’t have to be holiday foods or canned goods. There is a need for pancake mixes, PB & J, oatmeal, drink mixes, sugar, flour, childrens’ lunch food, noodles, spices, cereals, spaghetti sauces, salad dressings, apple sauce, rice, crackers and much more. Every thing you bring will go to St Lukes Mission of Mercy on Sycamore

Today is Michael Gainer’s 35th birthday!  If you see him, pinch him on his cheeks; he deserves it!  While Michael celebrates today, I wanted to remind you to mark your calendar because ReUse will celebrate our 2nd Anniversary (as an organization) in our traditional way–with music, art and merriment!  Join us and 18 local artists who are participating in this year’s 2008 ReFind Arts Exhibition on Thursday, October 23rd from 6:30-10pm.  Come and see how artists have transformed beat up or discarded doors into clever sculptures.  The party is at Grant Street Gallery near the corner of Lafayette and Grant. 
Fudgychewy will perform and I am convinced your shoulders, hips and feet will groove you–you might even make goofy faces.  Click on their logo to hear a sample. This event is free to the public.  We’ll also recognize all our volunteers and supporters who’ve given so much of their time and effort. Michael might get all weepy and sniffle in his cider–it’s probably because he’s getting emotional in his middle 30s.

p.s. Artists may still submit entries until the 15th contact refindarts {at} buffaloreuse(.)org
call for artists

Have you ever walked inside of a painting? If you have, I suspect it was probably confined within the floorplan of an art gallery or museum and it was a temporary installation. But what if your whole neighborhood existed inside of a painting? How long would it last and how long would it take to construct something so large? And what if the city came in and bulldozed your painting? Would you just give up or move to a different neighborhood or different city?
The Heidelberg Project is a unique neighborhood artscape which began 22 years ago when artist, Tyree Guyton transformed one abandoned crack house on his block in Detroit with discarded stuffed animals and remnants of urban life. He finished that house and started another one. He even painted the lots, sidewalks, burned out cars and everything else between. Today the Heidelberg Project, a local landmark, is a two-block area on Detroit’s lower east side and the third most visited tourist site in Detroit!

The Heidelberg Project is structured as a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the morale, lives and neighborhoods through art. “It is not simply art,” says Guyton, “the Heidelberg Project is more like a medicine. You can’t heal the land until you heal the minds of the people.”

Another unique artists’ neighborhood exists in Houston, TX where artist Rick Lowe created a space where artists and the public exchange community back and forth. Project Row Houses transformed 22 dilapidated shotgun houses into studio and exhibition spaces for artists to work and live and share with one another. The artist are selected and rotate out of the row houses every six months.

Please do not dismiss the value artists bring a community. Artists are boundary pushers and they know how to sacrifice and translate vision into reality. To hear more about the Heidelberg Project and Project Row House from the artists themselves, please join us at the Great Lakes Building ReUse Conference 2008! Register for the conference before October 9th to receive the discounted rate.

We hope you’ll be as excited as we are to speak with Tyree Guyton and Jennene Whitfield from Heidelberg Project and our other keynote speakers including:

• Michael W. Groman, Senior Director, Philadelphia Green Program, Philadelphia, PA. Groman’s program transforms and maintains thousands of vacant lots to increase economic investment and improve the quality of life in hundreds of Philadelphia neighborhoods.
• Jay Williams, Mayor of the City of Youngstown, Ohio has no illusions that he resides over a shrinking city, in fact, he fully embraces the “shrinking city” concept. His administration plans to strengthen the urban center through right-sizing; neighborhoods that are emptying out will be converted to greenspace through targeted demolition and development.
• and others in the field of hybrid deconstruction and building reuse.

The conference is about putting you in same room with ideas and policy makers who can enable similar projects for Buffalo (or where ever you’re living).

Great Lakes Building ReUse Conference
November 16 – 18, 2008
Hyatt Regency Buffalo
www.greatlakesreuse.org

1.716.885.4131
2008conference {at} greatlakesreuse(.)org

Super volunteer George Apfel, radio wizard, has created two public service announcements for our upcoming conference. Click on a link below and the spot should play on your computer:

Great Lakes ReUse Conference Announcement 1

Great Lakes ReUse Conference Announcement 2

Thanks, George, great job!

Buffalo ReUse announces our 2nd annual ReFind Arts Exhibition (formerly known as ReArt). This year’s show is Accessing the Imagination and we invite artists to reinterpret doors! It can be art on doors or with doors or of doors. The doors can come from anywhere–your basement, your gramma’s house, your neighbor’s curb. Artists can make functional or nonfunctional pieces–reassemble the door into a bunk bed, a gate to the 4th dimension, or a portrait of Monty Hall! Dip it in wax, string it with neon tubes, cover it with skeleton keys or ketchup, mustard & sweet relish–it’s up to you.

Deadline is October 15, 2008.
(please send jpgs/proposed plan to us so we can jury the show for variety)
Submissions/Questions should be sent to refindarts {at} buffaloreuse(.)org We’ll consider up to 5 works per artist.  $20 entry fee due upon acceptance/dropoff of work.

We do have some beat up doors set aside that “only an artist would love” and they’re just $5 each. We will accept jpgs or link to images of the works.

Please contact us if you’re also interested in assisting with the exhibition: see last year’s show here.