Recycling at the Isle of Wight County Fair

I don't talk about my job much on this blog, but since my volunteers and I worked so very hard to pull this project together and it was part of my life at home for some time as well, I decided to share some pictures from the Fair.

Each year I have varying responsibilities related to our County Fair. This year the goal was to advertise the recycling program, Isle Be Green. I had a volunteer to come to me and offer her assistance because she really liked the program and wanted to help get the word out. So, we decided to turn trash to garden treasure! We literally dumpster dived for many items you'll see in the pictures, gave them a facelift, and then repurposed them into garden art. Enjoy!



Yes, that was an old ironing board as a directional sign!



Some may say tacky, but we say beauty! Look closely for the plastic bottle chandelier!



My co-worker, Gloria, was a super awesome helper this year! She hasn't learned to avoid offering to help me at Fair time. Anything I am involved in requires manual labor, mud, rain, sweat, and exhaustion!



My co-workers collected and cleaned the labels off of all the bottles shown in the pics. Thank goodness for friends!



Dynamo made this lovely bottle tree (yes, while he had his cast on)!



This great creation was made by my volunteer JoAnne! She made this fabulous spider named "Spideroo" out of a trash can, pool vacuum hose, and reflectors we found at the dump.



He even had baby spiders made out of lighbulbs...



The screen doors were salvaged, painted, and embellished with stained glass from a local church. My other co-worker cleaned the "gunk" off the glass, which was quite a job!



The stars of the show were the plastic bag animals made by the local elementary school students. In partnership with a local VA Beach artist, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, and Isle of Wight County Elementary Schools, students were taught to turn trash to treasure! The "guts" of these animals are plastic bags, the legs and other extremeties are made with recycled cardboard, wire, etc. and then they used paper mache to cover them. They were fantastic!

This is super hornet with his bling!



And, cardinals, lions, and bulldogs!





And penguins...



And, horses...



We also had three awesome crafts for the kids to do! Overall, it was a fun time. But, we are exhausted. And, Dynamo was so kind to come and help me all day on Saturday and Sunday with the "booth." He was a huge help! It takes a village to teach recycling let me tell you! We also got to walk around a little and enjoy a funnel cake together. He's such a trooper to put up with this for 8 Fairs now!

I hope y'all had a great weekend!