Last updated: 1st September 2004

Ever wonder how hybrid vehicles work or how to cook vegetarian food? Or maybe you've wondered about alternative energy and solar home features. Whatever the case, if you're interested in or just curious about sustainability, the Sustainable Living Fair might be for you.

All mid-Missouri residents are invited to attend the 2004 Sustainable Living Fair, a free event to be held at the Unity Center, 1600 W. Broadway, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 2. Sponsored by the Center for Sustainable Living, the Fair is a great learning opportunity for those who want to make Earth-friendly lifestyle choices. It will include a keynote talk by Mark Lakeman of Portland, Oregon's City Repair Project, 16 informational workshops, booths set up by area organizations promoting sustainable lifestyles, an alternative vehicle display and a free Chili and Cornbread Lunch. For more information or to get a workshop schedule, please call 573-875-0539.

An exciting addition to this year's agenda is a keynote speaker. Mark Lakeman is on the Board of Directors of a non-profit, grassroots organization based in Portland, Oregon called City Repair, which (primarily) creates and beautifies community spaces. Lakeman will speak in the Unity Center sanctuary at 1 p.m. According to the City Repair website, http://www.cityrepair.org, "The City Repair Project is an organized group action that educates and inspires communities and individuals to creatively transform the places where they live. We facilitate artistic and ecologically-oriented placemaking through projects that honor the interconnection of human communities and the natural world."

In 1996, citizen activists, including Lakeman, led an initiative that converted a residential street intersection into a neighborhood public space, and City Repair was born. Among the most ambitious projects City Repair's volunteers have collaborated on since that time, are one of the first mobile tent cities for the homeless called Dignity Village (now an intentional community campaigning to keep their land permit) and a trailer teahouse that travels to build community in the poorest of Portland's neighborhoods called the T-Pony. We hope Lakeman's story will inspire some of our activists to keep going and our community members to dream big!

The 2004 Sustainable Living Fair is sponsored by Peaceworks' Center for Sustainable Living. It is co-sponsored by Unity Center, Columbia Earth Day Coalition, KOPN 89.5 FM, Rock Bridge Christian Church, Green Party of Central Missouri, Students for Progressive Action, Columbia Friends Meeting, Osage Sierra Club, PedNet Coalition, and Sustainable Mizzou.