Communecos was formed as a non-profit to house our educational and social enterprise projects in spring 2011 just prior to opening of the Recyclique headquarters at 2811 Hillsborough Rd. We celebrated our 1st anniversary on Sat. June 2, 2012 with a potluck lunch, a demo on Crocheting with TARN (T-Shirt Yarn), and a very popular afternoon workshop on “How Bamboo will Save the World.”
Educational Friday workshops in the last year have included topics such as the hazards of natural gas fracking, a workshop on vermicomposting, a film on the mortgage foreclosure crisis, how to grow and breed heirloom tomatoes, 
a book talk by Stephen Hren on his “Sustainable Underground” book, film, session on energy retrofits for households, film and talk on concentrated solar thermal, the film: “Garbage Warrior” on sustainable building with tires and earth, a bee-keeping workshop by Dave Fruchtenicht, film “The Inside Job” on the financial melt-down, Intro to Aquaponics, a dramatic enactment of “Rosie, the Riveter” by Sally Drucker, municipal energy retrofit programs for households, concentrated solar thermal (w/ film), solar oven making, “Global Gardener” film on permaculture, a talk by Jeff Ensminger on NEEM and the Cuba garden model, and a talk and slides on the SEEDS community garden project.
[Our grand opening in early June 2011 included a day of urban garden events, including talks by local botanist and horticultural expert Frank Hyman, a demonstration of Ruth Stout's No-Work gardening system, and a rain-barrel (link to rain-barrel page) installation.]
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Our enviro-ed events use a suggested donation system, usually in the $5-15 range, and no one is turned away from an event for inability to pay, as long as there is room.
Other Saturday afternoon how-to workshop topics include: rain barrel making and painting, mask-making, crocheting with plastic bag material (PLARN), aromatherapy and essential oils, composting, pranic healing, journal making, paper-making, a solar oven cook-off, and African drumming.
A few workshops have set fees, and RSVP is needed for some due to space limits, for more info: email: Sandy at yikes.contact @ gmail.com.
We also do rain barrel making/painting and water-saving workshops for special groups. Rain barrel making and painting is fun and educational — a great way to introduce sustainability themes to young people.
- We are doing a series of six parent and child workshops created through Living Social –one Sat. a month April – Sept. 2012.
- And we have done rain barrel making workshops as part of the Green Tracks program of the Durham Economic Resource Center, and for SEEDS. We did rain barrel painting workshops for the summer programs of J-Ruth Manor and Frog Hollow Outdoor Outfitters in 2012. In the past we have done painting sessions for high school, church and scout groups and at YO-Durham.
- We held a 3-day rain barrel painting booth at the Eno Festival in July 2012 for the fourth year in a row. We’ve also done this at Durham Centerfest and Chapel Hill’s Earth Action Day in past years. Contact us at yikes.contact @ gmail.com if you are interested in holding such an event for your church, scouting or community group. Our fees are low, esp. for non-profits, and we offer a 20% discount on purchase of barrels to those who wish to paint their own barrel at one of our workshops.
Our Eco-Lounge educational space has also served as a resource for a global warming reading group, a money/debt reading group, a group planning an eco-village in Efland, the ROFFA sustainable food research team, Transitions Durham and the Education Committee of Occupy Durham, and Chris’s world-saving justice league. If you would like to use our space for a community meeting that is in line with our mission, email us at yikes.contact @ gmail.com. We appreciate donations for use of the space and our staff time to open/close the building.
Other recent sustainability projects we have helped organize include the Green Tracks Training Program (2011-2012) for six cohorts of Durham Economic Resource Center students, funded by a Golden Leaf Foundation grant; and a Renewable Energy Seminar held on Thursday afternoons during the spring term of 2012 at the NC School of Science & Mathematics. This series was videotaped for distance learning programs in NC high schools and is available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL87250C51BB97E4F6.
Please see our History Page for detail on projects in the 2007 – 2010 period.
Click here to view flyers from our past events.