“They’re marigolds,” Chris Poland looks up to the ledge outside his second-floor bedroom window where he planted the flowers in an unexpected pair of pots. “Marigolds in cowboy boots!” Although it’s unusual to see boots that were once blooming, Chris Poland says he regularly repurposed things like this, often after riding around his bike finding things left behind in back alleys. “I stumbled upon this bag with a free sign,” Chris says. “And it had an old camera in it.” A video camera that recorded on a mini tape, that was likely discarded because its technology is so outdated. “I didn’t really know about [how to use] it,” Chris says. “So, I left it in a box for two years.” In the meantime, Chris started playing competitive bicycle polo. “It’s kind of like hockey on bikes,” Chris says. But instead of skates, sticks and a puck, you ride around trying to hit a ball into a net with a mallet. “Not many people do ski poles,” Chris smiles as he pulls out the custom mallet he made that’s topped with a ski-pole grip he discovered. He also found some abandoned orange construction fencing that he cut into circles and attached to the rims to use as wheel guards to protect his bike spokes from being bent by opposing mallets. “Now I can’t go back [to regular wheel guards],” Chris laughs. “The orange is so good!” And Chris is so good at the sport of bicycle polo, he’s played in tournaments around the world and was recently invited to compete in Whitehorse. “So, I have a friend who happens to being throwing a film festival in Whitehorse,” Chris says. His friend also looks for the unexpected possibility of things and spent months collecting thousands of aluminum cans, so he could buy a film projector to play the movies. “He called it the Cans Film Festival,” Chris laughs at the twist on the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. So, Chris taught himself how to use that old camera and enlisted his friends to help make a movie, although he’d never made one before. After competing in his bicycle polo game, Chris screened the short comedy at the film festival and was inspired to see where cultivating community recycling cans could end up. “When it’s cold, when people need connection up there,” Chris says. “It brings people together.” So, now that he’s back home, Chris will keep searching for things that he can make useful again in unexpected ways. “It’s really nice to be able to take the time to do something special,” Chris says. “And make people smile.” Which is why Chris is planning to replant those marigolds. Because although these boots were made for walking—Chris knows that’s not all they’ll do.
