Mixson’s First Mini-House Makes its Debut at Earth Day Celebration

Although we don’t foresee building many more of these, I think everyone who saw Mixson’s little house at the Park Circle Earth Day Festival, on April 19, has to agree that it turned out just gorgeous. Thanks, of course, to the dozens of young artists who lent their talent with sidewalk chalk to its AAC walls and tar paper roof. Built by Damien Allen, Mixson’s construction manager, the house was a three-story walk-up that made up for its lack of windows with the incredible abstract art that covered it from top to bottom. We even got a few anarchy symbols, I suppose to make it a bit more edgy. David and I talked later in the day, when most of the home had been decorated, about how we expected some windows, or a dog, or flowers…yet, as you can see, names, abstract symbols, simple color studies, and in one special case, an eel, dominated the decor.

In addition to the house, of course, we had all of our Mixson information as well as a whole bunch of flower and vegetable seeds generously donated by Marty Duke, of the garden shop on E. Montague. They were a huge hit, and although we must have had at least 200 packets, they were gone in about three hours. Tons of people stopped by to find out about Mixson, and most took away brochures and business cards. Alys told us, too, that each time she drove by the Mixson site (three times to check how things were going) there were curious people wandering around, scoping it out.

We all had a wonderful time at the celebration, which had participants ranging from the Charleston Water System to the Charleston Aquarium, which brought some turtles, to reptile organizations with beautiful snakes, to EarthFare, to a wonderful group called Water Mission that creates water filtration systems for villages in undeveloped countries. If you missed it this year, make sure you go next time! It’s wonderfully encouraging to see the hundreds of groups in our area that are making real efforts to improve our environment.

Picture of the scene at Park Circle; note the Birkenstocks in the foreground.