The 31st annual Clark Public Utilities (CPU) Home and Garden Idea Fair, one of the region’s largest plant sales and home and garden shows, is returning on Saturday, April 26 and Sunday, April 27 at the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds.
More than 150 local businesses, vendors and service providers will exhibit the latest interior and exterior designs, appliances and upgrades, and home amenities for every lifestyle and budget, a press release by the utility states.
This year’s expanded garden showcase also features plant sales, with some nurseries offering hard-to-find plant varieties, pollinator-friendly native plants, and a wide variety of popular hanging baskets.
“Clark Public Utilities curated this year’s show to offer relevant home and garden improvement ideas that reflect our community’s wide range of life stages and experiences,” said Clark Public Utilities Marketing and Events Specialist Maxie Mayer, in the release. “There’s truly something for everyone, and as a nonprofit utility, we hope to inspire our customers to get the maximum value out of the power and water we deliver, and that we all need to make daily life comfortable at home, inside and out.”
In the “Your Home, Your Utility” Clark Public Utilities area, guests are welcome to sit at the “kitchen table” or explore “their home” to learn about energy-saving strategies to lower utility costs, efficiency upgrades and available incentives, and how to stay safe around electricity
inside and outdoors—in addition to many other features.
“Inflation has been an issue we’ve all been dealing with for some time and there’s been some uncertainty in the markets lately,” CPU media specialist Dameon Pesanti said, “and we know that our customers are really wanting to get the most out of their personal budgets and we wanted to be responsive to that and we wanted to really build a space that can help people understand how we can help them reduce their utility expenses.”
Pesanti said the space will feel like a house to better visualize the information CPU staffers will provide visitors. The area will also feature outdoor native plant pollinator gardens, examples of what to plant under and around utility lines and more.
In the spirit of something for everybody, kids will once again have lots of opportunities for imaginative, hands-on fun in the Clark Public Utilities PowerZone Live area, an all-ages activity space that’s part children’s museum, part interactive and educational play and part creation station, the release states.
On the midway before the entrance to the event center, the Children’s Entrepreneur Market will feature the biggest business ideas from Clark County’s youngest business leaders and a Farmers Market featuring fresh and delicious local artisan goods.
Admission is free, but donations of non-perishable items for local food banks or cash contributions to the utility’s Operation Warm Heart assistance program are encouraged.
Event Center parking is $6 per vehicle. Free parking vouchers are available with advanced registration to donate blood during the show with Bloodworks Northwest.
Hours for the event are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, April 26 and 27, at the Clark County Event Center, 17402 NE Delfel Rd. Ridgefield.
Additional show and blood donation information is available at clarkpublicutilities.com/HGIF.
