The entire Board and Staff of TVCR were so excited to bring Trash Bash back to the Valley this year. The event has existed in one form or another for almost two decades and it never ceases to amaze! After a two year hiatus, we wondered if our Trashionistas were still out there, saving and hoarding all those non-recyclable materials that everyone hates to send to the landfill. Luckily, we had an outpouring of support from our entire community. Our Idaho Falls new affiliate even came up to cover this amazing local event! We started the night with tunes from local musician, Joe Champlin, who also happens to work at our Transfer Station. He even played a few songs on a guitar that he salvaged from work and saved from the landfill!
Not only did community members show up as Trashionistas and guests/judges for the Trashion Show, but our local businesses and nonprofits stepped up to make it a night to remember! It all started with a fun Trashionista Build Night hosted by Teton Arts, where people came to work on their outfits and connect as a community. The event itself was held for the first time in the beautiful barn at Moose Creek Ranch. The entire staff could not have been more helpful, donating their space, time and energy to helping us create the perfect setting. The bar was generously stocked by Grand Teton Brewing, Highpoint Cider and BRJ Beverages. Because of these wonderful businesses, we were able to have a low-waste bar as the drinks provided were low-fill, mislabeled, or low inventory meaning they would have otherwise gone to waste. The free food selections were provided by Victor Valley Market and CRC’s Food for Good Program. Our friends at Mountain Roots Education brought over their amazing pizza oven, serving up fresh and hot pizza by the slice with toppings from Cosmic Apple Farm and Winter Winds Farm. And that is not the end of the generosity TVCR was given for the event! MD Nursery helped us make the whole event feel festive with beautiful flower arrangements in upcycled vases. All of our amazing pictures come from TVCR supporter and wonderful community member, Tricia Seibold. Finally, RAD Curbside helped us keep Trash Bash a low-waste event, despite the name, by providing recycling. In fact, for the whole event we ended up with only half a 24-gallon trash can worth of waste! The pizza plates have been composted in our executive director’s backyard and the rest of the materials were either recycled or reused for another purpose.
Our Trashionistas were certainly the stars of the show, creating outfits with anything from billboards to lift tickets! Their creativity and imagination took items that most folks would toss in the trash without a second thought and turned them into works of art. MC extraordinaire, Milissa West, did an amazing job bringing everyone down the runway and she had quite a wonderful Trashionista outfit as well. Everyone truly embodied TVCR’s goal of encouraging people to think critically about the waste we create and choose to reduce, reuse and recycle instead. We had four categories for cash prizes furnished by our generous sponsors, Sabines Soft Furnishing, Pine Needle Embroidery and Needle and Shred.
Needle and Shred’s $50 Youth Category:
We had the largest turnout of Youth Trashionistas that Trash Bash has ever seen! We were amazed by the creativity of these young minds. They used cardboard, magazines, old screen doors, and fabric sample scraps to create outfits that wowed the crowd!
Our Youth Category winner was June Eberly, 10, wearing a National Geographic dress, cardboard wings, and earrings made of skateboards!
Needle and Shred’s $50 Accessory Category:
While all the Trashionistas had amazing accessories, our winner was Anastasia Andreas with her “Jellyfish Disco” piece. It was made using compact disks, retired umbrellas, plastic beading from a room divider she’s had since high school, cut up discarded camel back plastic, cellophane, bottle caps, vhs tape, carpet samples, curtain samples, toothbrushes, disposable contact lens cases, blue jean waistbands, bubble wrap, and more. Anastasia definitely takes the cake for most reuse items as well!
Pine Needle Embroidery’s $100 Wearable Category
We had to look twice before we realized that this category’s winner, Laura Vetsch, was actually a Trashionista! Laura styled this chic shirt and skirt combo out of an old Teton Valley Health billboard. Look out, she may have just started the Valley-wide trend of billboard dresses
Sabine’s Soft furnishing $150 Couture Category
All of Moose Creek Ranch came to a standstill when our final Trashionista took the runway in this show stopping gown. Maria Fadden took home the grand prize for her amazing outfit that she had been working on since March! She created the large billowing skirt from used Targhee lift tickets that were hand sewn onto a plastic sheet. She fashioned the tickets to show the silhouette of our fantastic Grand Teton mountain range. Her bodice was also made from lift tickets and it represents the birds that soar above our beautiful Valley. Thank you, Maria for bringing this work of art to Trash Bash 2022!!
TVCR is overjoyed with the outpouring of community support for Trash Bash 2022! We are already thinking about next year and how we can make the event even better. Thank you to all who came and all who have supported TVCR for the last 25 years!
