CONTACT: Meghan Crane, Village Building Convergence Publicity Coordinator
503-235-8946
vbcpublicity@cityrepair.org
www.cityreapair.org

The City Repair Project hosts the 2007 Village Building Convergence: Educating, Inspiring, and Activating the Portland Community

Portland, OR – March 20, 2007 – The City Repair Project announces the 7th Annual Village Building Convergence (VBC) at sites across Portland from May 18-27, 2007. This year’s VBC (or Village Building Convergence) theme - 7 Generations Beyond: A 200 Year Story of Portland - was chosen to remember the impact our actions today will have on generations to come. Through local and direct participation, the Village Building Convergence creates empowerment with an emphasis on longer-term visions and decision-making.

Each year, the VBC is held to promote human-scale community action. Over 30 private sites, institutions, schools, and neighborhoods will create community-based projects for community improvement, which will be implemented during the Village Building Convergence. This year’s Village Building Convergence will include feature projects ranging from building ecoroofs to garden construction and with locations in SE, SW, NE, NW and N Portland. As well as site projects, the VBC includes workshops, speakers, live music, and entertainment. A full effort will be made to recycle all materials, promote bicycle riding to sites, and create a zero waste zone at the evening event site.

The City Repair Project is an organized group action that educates and inspires communities and individuals to creatively transform the places where they live. The City Repair Project facilitates artistic and ecologically-oriented placemaking through projects that honor the interconnection of human communities and the natural world. The Village Building Convergence is primarily planned, designed, organized, built and run by volunteers, and on a minimal budget. We are honored to share this framework for running a large, non-corporate, ecologically-sustainable community event with other organizations in Portland and beyond.

Please help us keep this event fabulously community-supported by volunteering or donating. For additional information on volunteering, please contact Maralena Murphy at 617-406-8299 (cell) or vbcvolunteer@cityrepair.org. For general inquiries, please contact Meghan Crane vbcpublicity@cityrepair.org.