meet our team: Rachel Witt

Rachel Witt is UpCycle’s Shop Manager and has been with us for 2 ½ years. She was essential in keeping UpCycle running throughout the pandemic and has been instrumental in transforming our shop first when we moved in March of 2022 and again now as we redesign the space for growth. Rachel is an Alexandria native who, other than college and grad school, has lived here her entire life. She is a proud mom of two “wonderful boys,” Liam (10) and Toby (7), who are frequent UpCycle participants and occasional shop helpers. (Rachel also hand-painted​ the sign outside our door!)

When did you begin working with UpCycle?
I started in the fall of 2020 when the Kennedy Center was shut down due to the pandemic. In addition to my work at UpCycle, I am the Properties Coordinator for Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center. 

You are also an artist. Tell us about your work.
I have a Masters of Fine Arts in scenic design and have worked locally as a freelance scenic painter, education and marketing director for MVCCT, BBQ catering for Rockland's, and pottery instructor and artist. I am a teacher and founding member of Alexandria Clay Co-Op, a local pottery studio with over 100 members. I was just recently juried into the Scope Gallery at the Torpedo Factory and my first show with them will be in May.

What’s your favorite reusable material? Why?
There are so many options!  If I had to choose just one, I would probably say old photographic slides. I love the glimpses into people's lives that they give you and have had fun turning them into lampshades.

What do you love most about working at UpCycle?
I love finding ways to organize and arrange the chaotic mix of items that come into the shop in such a manner that it inspires people to look at them in ways they may not have before.  I also love being one of the first to see what comes in as donations and helping people find new and creative uses for the unlikeliest of items. 

Share a fun UpCycle memory.
What comes to mind first is a huge donation of yarn we had come in a couple of months ago.  I received an email stating they had 1600 skeins of yarn to bring in and my mind started to reel.  How much space does 1600 skeins of yarn take up?  Where were we going to put it?  How were we going to process it?  Then they sent the most amazing spreadsheet, where they had listed every piece of information possible about every skein in the donation. It was beautiful. I mentioned the donation to one of the pottery studio colleagues who is also a knitter and the next day she had a small army set to come in and help us sort, bag, and price everything.  The lasting impression of this donation was one of community, a willingness to help and love for the material which I believe is at the heart of UpCycle.

What’s your (current) favorite book?
I just finished listening to Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and was blown away by both the narrative and the narration. It is such a beautiful examination of how to live in a symbiotic relationship with the earth.  The author also has a lovely voice and it was a joy to listen to.

If you could have only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
This is an impossible question as I strongly feel that variety is the spice of life! If I had to pick one thing it would probably be pizza because it comes in so many different shapes and types and you could always vary toppings (is that cheating?).

What’s your superpower?
Problem solving. I love turning a problem over and trying to look at it from as many points of view as necessary to find a solution and then trying to poke holes in it to make sure it is sound.  I think anything is solvable given enough time, you just have to be willing to step outside the box.