Best Way to Think Inside the Box
EDITORs’ PICK: Akron Sustainer
21 W. North St., Akron
Kaley Foster’s grandfather grew up on Hickory Street, just behind a tire factory, where the Cascade Lofts are now. “This building was slated for demolition and could’ve been a parking lot, but now it’s this place where people gather,” she says. This reuse is the mentality that Foster wanted to spread when she opened the shipping container-cum-classroom Akron Sustainer nearby the lofts in 2016 with the help of a grant. It’s colorful paint job — courtesy of the Art Bomb Brigade — mirrors Foster’s sunny personality with giant blooms in pinks and yellows and leafy trees against an azure metal sky. “My biggest passion is education, getting people to think differently,” she says. Through programming on her Sustainable Saturdays — second Saturdays, April through October — Foster’s expert volunteers have taught attendees how to recycle properly, how to crochet a rug from plastic bags and what reiki is. “Sustainability can be a multitude of things, not just recycling,” she says, “but within yourself as a human, how to use your energy properly to sustain yourself throughout the day, mentally and physically.”