Posts Tagged ‘earth day’


Nothing but a Barrel

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

A few years ago, when we set out to get involved in making Rain Barrels and selling other Home and Garden products at Metro-Detroit Green Fairs, we never thought it would turn out so incredibly well. The community involvement with green fairs, charities, school and churches has helped shape our business, continuing over a hundred years of Rubin family involvement in the drum and barrel industry. Now, at Maxi, as the summer comes to a close, so does a chapter of our lives. The Green season is over, there no more events until next Spring/Summer. We all set our sights on the numerous things we have neglected due to the hustle and bustle of the season. We won’t be hibernating this winter, but a part of us will. The Green part.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the events we were involved in (a list is provided at the end of this post). However, certain moments, or days, stand out when looking back from the corner of the autumn and winter seasons. I want to share my favorite “highlights” from this summer with all of you.

Two tents down! Currently, both of our tents need repair. One, we have no idea what happened to, and the other a storm almost swept away! At the St. Clair Shores Green Fair in the Park it was a beautiful day until warnings of a oncoming storm started to spread across the fair (since the Dream Cruise was happening on Woodward Ave. simultaneously, we just checked their twitter feed) Even though the vendors and patrons were advised to leave a little early in hopes of missing the brunt of the storm, we were among the last out of there, and our tent nearly didn’t make it out at all. I went to grab the truck for our final load of Rain Barrels, and when I arrived to our location I find my father (Richard) holding onto a tent that was in shambles. He looked like he was holding onto it for dear life, in high winds and heavy rain. This was a very intense end to a great event.

HOT, HOT, HOT! All of you remember that heat wave in June? Well we can’t forget it. We had three events planned almost simultaneously for that weekend of heat. Friday I spent in Armada while the rest of the Maxi staff was at the Ferndale Live Green Fair. I guess this is one time I lucked out, since at the Lavender Festival in Armada we had a location in the shade and the fair was on grass, not pavement. The staff at the Live Green Fair said it was sweltering hot as the intense sun reflected up from the ground. Also, the way the booths were set up didn’t allow a lot of airflow. On Sunday, I made my way to Ferndale, my father and I did the best we could, but I was definitely suffering during tear down, and was afraid I was going to pass out. My Dad had to stick me in the car with the AC on to get me to stop acting loopy. I am pretty sure I was a second away from heat stroke.

We enjoyed all of the events this year, these two weekends were exceptionally interesting, check out the list below for all of our events this year, and watch out for even more next year! Hope to see you next summer at some of our Green Events!

I tried to remember them all and hopefully, got them all of them here. Click on each to learn more. This list doesn’t include all of the Rain Barrel workshops we have done, just a few of them.

If you know of an event in Metro-Detroit (really anywhere in Michigan) that you would like us to bring our sustainable living setup including Rain Barrels, Composting, and Container Gardening, please let us know. Drop me an email at joshua@maxicontianer.com with the details.

Enjoy this slideshow of photos from our “Green Fairs” Collection of photoset’s on Flickr!

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Green Fairs…Grosse Pointe Farms, Plymouth, Rochester…

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

Rain Barrels and Strawberry Planter

Maxi Container kicked of the spring season this year with a busy schedule. We participated in Green Fairs in Grosse Pointe, Plymouth, and Rochester.  Community based events like these are a good way for us to meet the public and get feedback on our products, while educating people about water conservation, composting and container gardening. This past year we have redesigned our home and garden products, added new ones, and increased our commitment to green living by getting as heavily involved in these type of events.

Local Motion Green hosted an Earth Day Celebration on April 30. This was the first time Maxi had gone to Grosse Pointe Farms, and the response was tremendous. We had a great time talking to people who were excited about gardening and sustainability. The atmosphere was excellent with live music and events for kids too! Maxi also donated fiber drums to be used as recycling bins at Grosse Pointe Academy. You can read the whole article here.

The next weekend was the Plymouth Green Street Fair, May 6, 7, 8.  Last year this was a great weekend, full of fun and friends. (Joshua and Richard are from nearby Farmington Hills) This year it was nothing less. Maxi was met with huge response on our Rain Barrels. We sold out! It was a fun filled weekend, which included a musical performance from American Idol runner-up Crystal Bowersox. They dyed the fountain green and even had a FLASHMOB (public choreographed dance) randomly in the center of downtown. Overall we had a wonderful time in Plymouth. (It helped that our tent was across from the amazing Plymouth Coffee Bean.) To view pictures from the event click here.

Last weekend (May 13, 14, 15) was the Rochester Green Living Festival, which has a strong reputation as being one of the premier green fairs in Metro-Detroit. They provide a rich experience, full of activities, entertainment and green vendors. There is something for everybody. The festival started as an Earth Day Expo and has grown significantly over the past few years. Unfortunately, this year was plagued with bad weather. On and off showers on Saturday detoured some, but we still did well. Sunday was a wash out, too cold for most to want to leave the house, with almost no attendees. Maxi still enjoyed being in Rochester for the first time, meeting all of the eco-conscious people looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint and live a more sustainable life. Thank you Rochester and we hope for better weather next year!

Our upcoming events are the Ferndale Live Green Fair July 15-17, which takes place in Downtown Ferndale (9 mile and Woodward Ave.). The same weekend, on Saturday July 16, our very own Joshua Rubin will be in Armada, MI at the Lavender Festival, giving a Rain Barrel workshop/class. Maxi will also be at Birmingham’s Green Breeze on July 23, on Old Woodward between Maple and Brown Street. Please come out and join us at these GREEN events!

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Local Motion Green – Earth Day Fair

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

Bottles and Cans Painting

On Saturday April 30, 2011 Richard and Joshua Rubin represented Maxi at the Grosse Pointe Farms Earth Day “Green” Fair. The fair was hosted by Local Motion Green, a grass-roots organization involved in helping raise public awareness by putting on community-based events. Their mission is to illuminate the links between environmental toxins and negative health consequences, in an effort to influence personal and industrial behavior, as well as promoting improved health and quality of life. Melissa Sargeant, (Education Coordinator) of Local Motion contacted Maxi asking if we would like to be involved, and we are sure glad she did. This is one event we definitely did not want to miss!

The fair took place under one big tent in the Richardson Elementary parking lot. From 10am – 4pm, the lot was buzzing with activity, full of interested people wishing to reduce their carbon footprint by going green. Of course we had our Rain Barrels, Compost Tumblers, and new for this season, our Container Gardening display. Maxi also donated four fiber drums to be decorated by children and repurposed as recycling bins at the Grosse Pointe Academy. (Maxi believes in teaching green practices at an early age, see our article about Michigan Green Schools and our OPrep article about recycling in the classroom.)

Maxi had a great time meeting people and explaining our mission and about our products. We would like to formally say thank you to Local Motion Green for contacting us and look forward to working together in the future.

To view all the photos from the event check out the slideshow below.

For more information about Local Motion Green give them a call at 313-881-2263 or send them an email.

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Local Motion Earth Day Fair – Grosse Pointe Farms

Saturday, April 30th, 2011

Having a great time at Local Motion’s Earth Day Fair! Lots of cool green vendors and awesome people celebrating earth month. Shout out to the Sierra Club, Greening Detroit, and The Greening of Detroit as well. GREEN EVERYTHING!Green Fair Talking to People