The logo of the Porter County Recycling & Waste Reduction District shows the iconic recycling triangle sitting in the palm of an upturned hand.
The county’s Earth Day event, put on by the district at the Porter County Expo Center Saturday, combined the efforts of many hands to steward the patch of earth that is Porter County.
The annual event offered 60 booths with many focused on reusing items and helping others along the way. At the Fix-It Fair, people were bringing in electronic devices, clocks, clothing and jewelry for free repairs.
Volunteer Liz Engel often donates her time at the textiles and sewing booth that’s part of the fix-it fairs held regularly by the Porter County Public Library System, and said someone suggested doing one for Earth Day. “Everybody’s like, ‘Sure,’” she said.
She and her booth partner Kelly Jurkowski had already put some patches on a jacket, made zipper pull tabs for a bag, and fixed a hole in a pair of jeans by mid-morning. Across the aisle, Jeff Hofferth was troubleshooting what might be wrong with Chesterton resident Beverly Ashton’s all-in-one desktop.
“It won’t boot up,” she said. “I turned it on one day and it went to the DOS screen.”
Next to Hofferth, Adam Johnson patted a projector.
“I think this is done. Once she gets back with the power, we’ll test that,” he said, explaining that the projector had had a burning smell and a scratchy picture, “so we cleaned the lens and took it apart and got a whole bunch of dust out.”
That’s one fewer electronic device for the landfill.
In the farthest reaches of the event, donations were being taken to keep other items useful. At the Donation Station, Joshua Steely came all the way from North Manchester to help and sort items.
“I signed up for The Art Barn volunteer newsletter. I’d never been to Porter County before and I thought it would be interesting,” Steely said.
He said the booth was “absolutely like Goodwill, except these people know we’re not Goodwill, so they’re kind of helping” lug the items and sort them onto tables for various groups like The Art Barn, Gibson Woods Wild Ones, and the new Porter County Children’s Museum, which were requesting specific items.
Opposite the Donation Station, Porter County Councilman Greg Simms, D-3rd, and his wife Pam were taking bicycle donations for the Independent Order of Oddfellows. “We’re thinking it’s a 1939,” Pam Simms said of a white Elgin with a unique chain guard that had just been dropped off.
“Aw man, where’s the kick stand?” Greg Simms said, as a unique squiggle of metal off the end of the back fender was noted. It would originally have held up the kick stand, which had long ago been removed and replaced with a modern one on the side of the bike.
The group puts in some light restoration and puts the bikes back out into circulation as quickly as possible. They had an event the next morning, giving bikes away at New Hope Church in Valparaiso.
“We’ve had people – that’s now they get to work,” Pam said, “and the chain keeps falling off and they don’t know how to fix it.”
“This one’s from the ‘70s,” Greg said, pointing to a 10-speed leaning against the wall. “I’ll put new tires on it, air it up, and we’re ready to roll.”
In the vendor space, Ralph Swisher, of Valparaiso, was ushering around two of the seven grandchildren he brought to the event for one of his family’s annual excursions. “We come every year,” he said, while grandsons Michael and Liam Lentner, of Wheatfield, clutch goody bags filled with saplings among other things.
“I recycle and believe in taking care of our environment, and I try to impress that to all of my 14 grandchildren. The other ones are around here somewhere.”
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
