REBUILD update

[Terra Heilman]

Forgive me if you're getting this message twice. I wanted to include the update here as well.

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to give you a quick update. The REBUILD program was set to begin officially (with funding from the Department of Ecology) on July 1st. Unfortunately, on June 30th, we got a message saying that because the state budget is not finalized, and therefore, neither is Ecology's, they would not be signing agreements with any of the grant award winners. They also do not have an exact ETA for that. (We have since received an email saying fall - beginning of 2026 for award decisions for this grant.) 

Needless to say, this was a huge blow. I've worked hard to keep up with deliverables and am very happy to report the below statistics for our first "official" (but unfortunately unpaid) month of the program. At this time, we are in a holding pattern. I was exploring some alternative funding avenues so that we could be building the program while we wait for Ecology, but the Humane Society has declined to accept donations on behalf of our program, at this time. 

All of this brings me to 2 things:

1. I'm taking the next week off and going to my "happy place" which is camping out in the woods. I will have very limited connectivity until August 11th. (Just taking a little break from the stress of waiting and wondering...)

2. In a very preliminary way, I'm considering what the future of REBUILD might look like if the funding does not come through. I think at the very least, we would need some space to engage in the waste reduction activities of sorting, transporting out to various organizations, etc. 

If you have any ideas or suggestions for me, I'd be happy to discuss them. Feel free to respond to this email or text me at 503-329-5590 and I will reply as soon as I'm able, likely after August 11. I'm still hopeful we'll get our funding and have at least 1.5 years to build this very special and unique program, which has already had some huge successes! 

For the month of July, REBUILD volunteers:

Diverted ~3k lbs of landfill-bound materials. These materials were either: shared with other organizations who could utilize them, repaired, upcycled and/or readied for sale at the ReTails thrift store. Almost 90 distinct items were included in this count that were upcycled or repaired. 10 volunteers gave 85 hours of their time to achieve this. Thank you!

-Terra