A big thanks to Shea’s Buffalo for being the venue, Join us, JANUARY 24th, 2010!
You were there when the Hero Family was announced, You were there when Buffalo ReUse performed the Green Demolition, You were there when volunteers from PUSH and Re-Tree WNY built the community gardens, You were there when Americorps and others descended on the block and over 70 houses in the neighborhood got a facelift, You were there when David Homes built the brand new house!…Now you can be there as all of Buffalo celebrates the national spotlight! On behalf of PUSH Buffalo, Buffalo ReUse, Re-Tree WNY, and WNY Americorps, as well as The Powell Family–we hope you will join us all.

Doors open at 7pm Folks can meet The Powell Family, mingle, and learn about the ways they can volunteer and contribute to future neighborhood improvements. Channel 7 (WKBW) will feature a documentary of behind-the-scenes footage of the 106 hours of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition while the cast, volunteers, and neighborhood worked around the clock. Finally, from 8-10pm ABC will broadcast the Special Buffalo Episode and we’ll all watch together as the story unfolds.

We hope that everyone will come and celebrate the national spotlight on Buffalo and the neighborhood revitalization igniting across The Queen City!

TICKETS:  Tickets will be available on Friday, January 15th. All tickets will be distributed in advance of the evening’s events.  Tickets to be obtained from Shea’s Box Office. Tickets are complimentary, limit of 2 per person. No tickets at the door, unless they are still available.

The Shea’s Box Office is located at 650 Main Street and is open  M-F 10 a – 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 am– 2 pm   Event Parking is available on Pearl Street, Washington St. etc.

**This event is on FACEBOOK. Please, invite all your friends!!

Tue, December 29, 6pm – 7pm
Where: 464 Auburn Ave (map)

Click and see Who got ABC Gum, an earring rack, a LOVEly sleeve (don’t ask), a book on home repair, an alien incubator, a mug you can swim in, festive oven mits, a denture kit … these are a few of the not so favorite things folks gave away at our last 2 holiday parties.

Please join us for our little holiday tradition and time to relax and be cozy together.  No one will reveal who gave what, so you don’t have to worry about hurting anyone’s feelins!  Bring some comfort food or a hot toddie concoction and something you want to get rid of!

“How was your weekend?”  “What are you doing this weekend?”  What do most folks talk about around the watercooler?  Sports and American Idol may be about the only things that are fairly safe –politics, religion, the hottie in Logistics with the tanned, firm and bulging… You see how it can quickly devolve into controversy, fisticuffs, gossip or make fellow co-workers blush.
We have a better idea!  Talk about US–Buffalo ReUse!

I remember how excited Tysha was when her boss asked her what she was “up to” and she was just as excited to share all the ways she helped us.  Hang our calendar near the watercooler or give them to your employees as a holiday gift and soon your employees could be sharing how they are helping to improve Buffalo!  The calendar is full of interesting photos of volunteers, deconstruction projects and unique inventory we’ve salvaged.  It will help inspire your employees all year long!  I used to have a co-worker that tortured me about her haircuts; she gave me endless details 3 weeks prior to her appointment.  I won’t tell you how badly I wanted to take a pair of scissors and just get it over with myself.

You could also sign up your office for one of our Vacation from Your Vocation Days where they come out and volunteer with us for a Friday morning or an afternoon and we’ll make them pancakes or grilled cheese sandwiches.  Marsha’s Keller Williams group did that for their Red Day–so did HSBC! Your employees have lots of other skills besides collating, flipping patties and filling out TPS reports–and even if they don’t–we’ll teach them some more.  They’ll feel good helping the community and so will you!

You may already know that Buffalo ReUse has enjoyed working with Americorps WNY’s ABLE Program and Americorps Recovery for this last year.  We already miss Matt & Micki.  We know that Rachel and Ben will be leaving later in 2010.  Much of what our Community Programs have accomplished would not be possible without their hard work.  Buffalo ReUse is looking for 2 more VERY MOTIVATED folks with a heart for the community. We’re now accepting packets for a ReSource Educator and a Green Space Coordinator under Americorps WNY’s Service Corp Program. This means you get paid by Americorps (which is like the Peace Corps except you stay local) via a stipend for one year; there is also an award to pay down your student loans once you complete your service.

Both positions are full-time and hard work.  Both positions focus on rebuilding sustainable neighborhoods and both report to the Director of Community Programs.  Together, they represent a renewed commitment to providing information and access to resources and an improved quality of life for our neighbors.
Share this opportunity with folks you’d highly recommend.  We need to fill these positions quickly as the start date is January.   To read the full job descriptions please click on their respective link.

The ReSource Educator– a Jack/Jane of all trades with a knack for teaching

Green Space Coordinator– an urban farmer with a knack for teaching

Incomplete applications will not be considered. To all applicants, please make sure your packet details your experience in the field and that each file of your packet contains your last name.  Impressive packets will receive follow up questions and a phone interview; top candidates must also have a second interview on-site and must complete an Americorps Orientation session.

Thanks to an idea and some support by Bill & Melanie Wolski of Briarwood Farm, we are proud to announce that we’ll have a 12month wall calendar available for gift-giving this year.  If you know someone who would appreciate knowing the date, holidays and moon phases for 2010 combined with some great photos of volunteers, shenanigans and reuse treasures–this may be the gift for them!  On top of all that, they’ll know you donated proceeds to our Community Programs on their behalf!

The calendars are $20.00. There will be a limited supply so we are accepting pre-orders. You can pay online at this page. A big THANKS to Brittany Webster, a design student at Daemen, for donating her time and talents to make this calendar a reality.  We know you will be proud to hang this up at your home or office!

An easy way to help out your friends and Buffalo ReUse is to grab a bundle of our holiday coupons to insert into your Seasons Greetings cards. It is perfect for the person working on a rehab or looking for building materials.  They’ll be surprised that our inventory includes brick, lumber, lighting, cabinets, plumbing, antiques and more.

We can give you as many coupons as you need.  They are available for pickup at The ReSource.  We can also give you a stack to include in the programs at your favorite church, Christmas pageant, concert or even for your coworkers’ stockings!  Please give us a call or stop in to pick up a bundle today.  716-885-4131

This weekend we have a change of plans–we need to switch gears and focus on building our covered addition at the ReSource so that we can store our sinks and tubs and toilets for the winter and not lose our inventory to the elements.

We need lots of folks to help–no skills necessary.  We just need a little muscle and extra hands.  We’ll start things off with a pancake breakfast so that you have energy and motivation to spare!

Saturday we’ll start working at 9am–pancakes available from 8-11. Sunday we’ll start working at 10am. We’ll work until dark.  Please dress in layers–make sure your feet and ears are going to be warm and dry–otherwise you’ll wimp out for sure ; )

We, at Buffalo ReUse–all the staff and board members– want to simply say, Thank You.

Thank you so much for your continued support.  Whether you donated a sink or a cheesecake or some tools or a pizza or 4hrs of your time wiping down inventory or gave one of us a ride to the hardware store or raked leaves and dropped them into our compost or made phone calls on our behalf or helped install a toilet at the office–we deeply appreciate all the big and little things you do for us.  We are not successful without you.  We hope you have a warm holiday filled with friendship and … maybe a piece of turkey cake!

Black Friday is approaching and like most retailers we too hope to get our books in the black. We suspect that if you are the kind of folk who line up at 4am for deals on electronics, Elmo accessories and tube socks–we’re probably not on your shopping spree itinerary! However, if you did plan to shop at our used building materials store on Friday, November 27, 2009 we wanted to reward you with a very special discount of 27% off.
We also wanted to remind you that your used or surplus building materials, tools and appliances are worth a tax deduction which might help you get in the black too. Drop off or schedule a pickup of those materials today–contact havematerial {at} buffaloreuse(.)org
We’ll be decreasing our regular hours for the winter season. Starting December 1st, we’ll be open TUES-Saturday from 10am-6pm and Sunday from noon-4pm. To put it simply, we’ll be opening two hours later each day. And, finally, we wanted to announce our HOLIDAY CLOSING. The store and offices will close Dec24 and remain closed except by appointment through Tues, January 5th 2010. We’ll still be reachable via info {at} buffaloreuse(.)org so please let us know and we’ll do our best to meet your needs. We do hope to see you at our annual ReGifting Party mark your calendars for December 29th!

Friday morning, November 13, 2009 Buffalo ReUse will be begin Green Demolition and salvage of another west side property at 369 Normal Ave.  The house is already slated for demolition.  “It made sense to go ahead and continue with further improvements to the street since the rest of the block is getting a facelift.  The neighborhood is getting a real morale boost,” said Michael Gainer, Founder and Director of Programs, at Buffalo ReUse.  “All of Buffalo should be proud that there will be such a huge spotlight on the City, the grassroots efforts and the generosity that has resulted from this opportunity.

Materials harvested from the demolition, such as roof joists, rafters, wall studs, interior trim, bricks and foundation stone, will be sold to the general public at low cost from Buffalo ReUse’s ReSource retail store at 298 Northampton Street in Buffalo and used to fund ReUse’s job creation and community revitalization programs.

Eric Walker, Lead Organizer for People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH), said “PUSH is taking a block by block approach, working in the community to stabilize this neighborhood. Jimmy Strach, who lives next door, has saved his Victorian home from the wrecking ball. When a guy makes a huge personal investment and saves a house from demo, we need to draw a line, take a stand and back him up on it. We also need to help community residents reclaim vacant spaces in ways that enhance and improve their quality of life. Green demolition of this house is a win-win for the neighborhood and for Buffalo.”

Buffalo ReUse sees green demolition as another way to reduce housing costs by using reclaimed lumber and other building materials from Buffalo’s large surplus of vacant houses, rather than crunch it up and throw it away at great expense.  By employing state-of-the-art green demolition techniques, Buffalo ReUse can harvest lumber efficiently and sell it to the public at costs averaging half of new material.

David Stapleton of David Homes and his team of builders welcomed the opportunity to build a new energy efficient house for the Powell family of 228 Massachusetts Ave on Buffalo’s West Side; however, there was one major obstacle in the way–the 2.5 story woodframe house the family had been living in for 4 years.  Buffalo ReUse got the call when the Project Manager was looking for a local contractor that could help them achieve an LEED Emerald Award for material reclamation, recycling and landfill diversion.  Buffalo ReUse is WNY’s first and only nonprofit Green Demolition and Salvage Crew.  They have been developing green demolition in Buffalo for over 2 years now.  Buffalo ReUse consulted with deconstruction guru, David Bennink.

David Bennink, of RE-USE Consulting, has been perfecting hybrid deconstruction for over 15 years and he has managed hundreds of green demolition projects across the country.  The biggest challenge of taking down the house was the time deadline.  “… but once I walked the building, I knew that Buffalo Reuse and I could pull off this project and my focus turned to doing it safely and finding the best way to represent the building deconstruction industry in this national spotlight.  It is likely that the building weighed about 80-100 tons not including the foundation or porch stone, or 150-175 tons with it, and of that we diverted an estimated 75% including a large volume of foundation stone hauled offsite for processing and reuse. ”

Buffalo ReUse’s rapid green demolition of the Powell’s old house was a demonstration of the practicality and economic feasibility of the technique–the house was deconstructed in under 17 hours! Our hope is that green demolition will soon be the mainstream method of demolition and the first choice for builders and municipalities in need of demolition.  Beyond reducing building costs, Buffalo’s “problem” of vacant houses can be turned into an opportunity to create jobs, train young people, fund community improvement programs and offer low-cost building materials to the public.

Volunteers from the public and Americorps WNY were directed on-site by ReUse staff and shown how to pull up flooring, prep wall panels and cut the joists in the attic so that the house could be taken apart efficiently and safely.  Hundreds of volunteers swarmed the house and salvaged interior finishes like window and door trim, baseboards, the stairwell and even piled 6 pallets of brick and 4 pallets of sandstone and limestone.  The Show chose select pieces from within the house to incorporate into its new furnishings and honor the history of the house and the family’s experiences.  Other house parts were carted off for use in adjacent houses and improvement projects in the neighborhood.
Buffalo ReUse DTech, Carrie Nader, commented, “It was great, if I needed a tool or something, I shouted for it and suddenly it appeared.  So many people were processing panels and loading trucks–all the material just disappeared.”  Amanda Alessandra operated the 10K telescopic forklift all night.  She has been a DTech Crew Leader for more than a year, “It was really a different experience to have an audience cheering for our progress as we separated each panel of the house and dropped it to the ground.”
Board Members of Buffalo ReUse were onhand to get dirty, perform safety checks, assist with cutting up the house, sorting materials, loading the trucks or spur the crowd to cheer on the Deconstruction Crew and Volunteers.
Everyone at Buffalo ReUse is proud to be a part of making a clear path of progress for the Powell family and all of Buffalo’s neighborhoods.