Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Guisepi Spadafora | Free Tea Party

Guisepi Spadafora Free Tea Party
I met Guisepi while on a pit stop in downtown Olympia on my way out to the Olympic Peninsula. I asked to take his photo for the blog because I really liked his style and he suggested we walk down the block and take the photo in front of his converted school bus. Once we got there he explained that he travels all over the country with Edna-Lu The-Teabus sharing free tea with people. He has completely repurposed this school bus and created a beautful living room-esque sanctuary to bring people together, drink tea and share a sense of community. The inside is all re-done with seating and cabinets made of wood and he has installed a fridge powered by solar energy, wood heated stove and a sink with filtered water heated by the engine of the bus... which by the way runs off of vegetable oil. Amazing.

Guisepi was in Olympia to serve tea to people for the Procession of the Species Celebration that was happening that day. I had never heard of this event but apparently we stopped in Olympia on their busiest day of the year. The parade draws about 30,000 people and is a celebration of Earth day.

I wish that we could have stuck around. It would have been fun to see the festivities unfold later in the morning and I really would have loved to have a cup of tea with Guisepi. What an incredible thing he is doing. Definitely check out Free Tea Party's website and follow where Guisepi and Edna are at in their travels on Facebook. My heart melted when I read all of the sponsors and people supporting what he is doing. It is so rare to find someone driven simply by the desire to make the world a better place. I imagine that anyone who meets Guisepi or learns about what he is doing with Edna immediately wants to get behind it or take part. I know I did. 

repurposed school bus Edna traveling tea party bus

repurposed school bus Edna traveling tea party bus

Guisepi Spadafora Free Tea Party converted school bus



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