“Ven a una Fiesta!” We can’t dance without you! Join everyone at ReUse on Friday, Februrary 19 for music and dancing at our fundraiser hosted by El Buen Amigo located at 114 Elmwood Avenue! Get your tickets now or at the door.

Enjoy Latin food & bebidos, a live band, a member of the Latin Jazz Project, plus a pre-show salsa lesson for those who don’t know which direction to shake their hips. We hope to see you there! Call 716-885-6343 for details.

For ticket information click here.

Ticket sales contribute to Buffalo ReUse’s mission of neighborhood revitalization and community programs.

Turns out the producers of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition were SO impressed with the City of Good Neighbors that they would like to make a return to Buffalo! This would be the FIRST TIME they have come to a city twice (can I get a “Let’s go Buffalo!” chant?). Says Casting Supervisor Morgan Fahey: “We are looking for the deserving people and inspiring families that America can really root for.”

To be eligible, a family must own their own single family home and be able to show producers how a makeover will make a huge difference in their lives. Families can apply – or you can nominate a member of your community – by sending a short description of the family story to castingwesternnewyork {at} gmail(.)com. Each nomination must include the names and ages of every member of the household along with a description of the major challenges withing the home. All nominations must also include a contact phone number.

More info can be found at the Extreme Makeover website, which you can visit by clicking here.

The deadline for nominations is February 26th, 2010 so don’t delay!!! Let’s really show America what WNY is made of.

From David Bennink, our teacher, mentor and biggest supporter:

To Buffalo Reuse -

This is a note to let you know how thankful we are for what you accomplished on the Extreme Home Makeover television show. When I say ‘we’, I mean all of us in the reusable building materials industry who can recognize the benefits to our industry of high-profile success stories such as your Powell project.

I was amazed to see how much time was dedicated to the subjects of building deconstruction, construction waste management, and building material reuse. Watching intently, I noted at least 6-10 instances where our industry had a role in the show. My trip to Buffalo to help take the house down had two purposes, to make Buffalo Reuse look good and the industry as a whole look like a viable option and we accomplished both on this show.
Read the rest of this entry »

A big thanks to all who came out last night to watch the show together and to support Buffalo ReUse, PUSH Buffalo, Re-Tree WNY and WNY Americorps

Photos here!

Only six FIVE days until Buffalo gets together to watch the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition TV show that made such a huge impact on our city last November. Details here.

We’re EXTREMELY proud of the part we played when we joined the huge volunteer team of contractors, suppliers, businesses and thousands of individual citizens. Our green demolition of the Powell’s old home helped David Homes achieve an Emerald Level LEED certification for the entire project (first ever in NY State!). Here are some of the things we were able to accomplish in our green demo:

• Did it in only 15 hours
• Achieved a 97% rate of diversion (by weight). This makes an EXTREME impact on what would usually go the landfill and be “thrown away”
• Preserved parts of the old house for use in the new house
• Made wood, interior furnishings, stone and other parts of the old house available for reuse in the new house, throughout the neighborhood and from our store
• Showed the world the economic viability of green demolition and the future of green jobs in Buffalo

Come to the premiere January 24! Get your free tickets at the Shea’s box office.

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!!

Our continued and generous supporters at the The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo are creating a new website and they would like your input. The website will connect Western New Yorkers interested in environmental news and activities to the many environmental organizations doing great work in our region.  Sounds awesome to us!

Complete the survey (it takes just a couple minutes) by January 15, 2010, and you will be entered to win an iPod nano or $100! To be eligible to win a survey prize, you must live in Western New York. Click here to access the survey.

Green on, WNYers!

Bring one dozen; leave with 5 dozen!

Here’s your opportunity to give-get-give for the season:

ReUse those old cookie tins, aluminum pie trays or even your Wegman’s salad/sub take away trays by filling them with holiday goodies!

Bring a dozen or so homemade goodies (cookies, candies, bit size snacks) and take home a bigger assortment to give to your friends, co-workers, family and strangers too. We’ll make some candies and cookies together and enjoy each other’s company. Feel free to bring a bottle of wine or cider.

Friday, December 18th from 5-8pm @ 158 Eaton St.

Other things to share: tissue paper, metallic markers, stickers or holiday themed stamps so that we can decorate the cookie containers.

If you bring your recipe card we’ll consolidate them all for distribution.

And of course, bring the kids!

Hope to see you there, and happy holidays!!

“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!