As we reflect on 2024, we’re filled with pride and gratitude for the incredible milestones and moments that shaped this year at Girls Garage. Whether crafting community projects, hosting innovative workshops, or celebrating the people who make this work possible, 2024 was a testament to the power of creativity, collaboration, and community.

Let’s take a look back at 24 standout moments that made this year unforgettable:

1. 1. We completed our first full year in the new space! Moving into a bigger space meant more space to dream even bigger as each of our classes got its own dedicated work zones. Here’s to many more years in this wonderful workshop we call home!
   2. Employees from Cello & Maudru, Clark Construction, NOVO Construction, Overaa Construction, and Turner Construction traveled to Girls Garage to meet current high school builders and recent alumni. This incredible event connected our amazing students with industry professionals where discussions ranged from internship opportunities to overcoming barriers in the workplace. One student was even offered an internship from Turner Construction because of this event!
   3. Clementine the forklift joined the ranks! Through a generous donation from the Eames Institute, Clementine has significantly improved our efficiency. With a 3,000 lb lift capacity and tight turn radius, this 4-wheel electric forklift made moving heavy materials, assembling structures, and loading projects much easier.
   4. With a cohort of adult women and gender-expansive folks led by instructors Augusta Sitney and Evie Ortiz, our Womxn in the Workshop class marked an exciting start to adult programming in the new workshop space. Over the course of four weeks, each of our students built a collapsible step stool and celebrated with a dinner together. We’ll be bringing back this class for spring 2025!
   5. Our in-house riso expert, Bethany Kaylor, led two “Intro the Risograph Printing” weekend workshops in the spring. She even collaborated with the National Alopecia Areata Foundation to lead a workshop for Bay Area tweens and teens fostering creativity and self-expression around the theme of living with alopecia.
   6. For our THIRD project for Growing Leaders, our Advanced Design/Build students spent their winter and spring sessions building an epic chicken coop. The watermelon-themed California “bungalow” coop was transported to Willard Middle School, where students spent a long day assembling it on-site, resulting in a functional and whimsical home for 24 chickens!
   7. Through a collaboration between our NEW Architecture + Activism studio and our Construction + Community cohort, our students designed and built a community altar space for Community Works West, whose work centers implementing restorative justice programs. This project was also a partnership with Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, a multi-disciplinary firm and non-profit with the mission to end mass incarceration and structural inequity.
   8. Guest artist’s Seth Vargas and Michelle “Meng” Nguyen co-instructed our Protest + Print class in the winter. Our students got a taste of sign painting fundamentals, from mixing the paint to steadying their strokes, and got a crash course in risograph printing. They used these skills to create “Signs of Solidarity” with messages like “Uplift those in pain and “Fight for women.
   9. Down the street from our new workspace are three beautiful redwood planters and a new ADA-accessible picnic table at the Bay Area Outreach Recreation Program. These ADA picnic tables, built by our Construction + Community winter cohort, could fit three wheelchair users on one side, making enjoying a meal with friends much easier!
   10. Throughout the spring, our Protest + Print students experimented with a new tool: the heat press! Students chose imagery of individuals they admired and transformed them into bold graphics and direct-to-film transfers. What resulted is an eclectic mix of visually striking unique t-shirts.
   11. We gave Petaluma Bounty’s La Tercera Community Garden a glow-up! Over the summer, our Young Women’s + Design Building Institute (30 high school students) and Advanced Design/Build (12 high school students) summer cohorts worked together to build 12 planter boxes, 8 Adirondack chairs, an extravagant garden mosaic, AND a stunning shade house, completing the garden’s glow-up.
   12. During Builder Bootcamp this summer, our middle school students built a seven-foot wooden cat sculpture that sits right outside Berkeley Animal Care Services! With its bright green ears, this sculpture greets people as they enter the animal shelter and is even visible from the Gilman Pedestrian Bridge and the highway.
   13. Just a few months ago, our Advanced Design/Build team finished their prototype for a Murphy bed design meant for Tiny Spirit Village, a housing initiative aimed at providing shelter for unhoused and transitional youth. It is a versatile piece of furniture that will address the spatial constraints and the daily needs of the youth who will use it every day. Our upcoming winter team will produce and install seven of these beds!
   14. In June, we had the joy of leading a ramp-building workshop for Skate Like a Girl after visiting Willard Middle School. Instructor Allison Oropallo showed participants how to use a chop saw, jigsaw, drill, and driver. Together, they built two stellar skate ramps that will be used for years to come.
   15. We said goodbye to Bethany Kaylor in July and welcomed Marjerrie Masicat to the GG team! After 4 years of dedicated work as our Communications Manager (and more!), Bethany transitioned to an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa. Bethany will continue to support our efforts as a Development Consultant. In November, Marjerrie joined the GG team as our new Community Storyteller Coordinator!
   16. In November, we hosted a happy hour at Fieldwork Brewery with support from East Bay Tow, Inc., who was matching donations all evening! Staff, board members, alumni, parents, corporate sponsors, project clients, and longtime friends were all present and we managed to raise over $6,000.
   17. In the last 4 years, the Girls Garage team has welcomed 11 babies (9 who have been born and 2 in utero!) to the family! We pride ourselves on being an organization run by womxn whose work is so intrinsically related to moving the matriarchy forward. Here we welcome motherhood with open arms and continuously expand our roles as leaders in this industry.
   18. Building outdoor furniture in community spaces, including the redwood picnic tables we built for the Agroecology Institute and the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, has allowed us to expand functionality for food and land justice organizations doing incredible work in the Bay Area.
   19. Say hello to our two new instructors to the Girls Garage team this year: Evie Ortiz (left) and Miriam Klein Stahl (right)! Evie joined at the beginning of the year and co-teaches Construction + Community with shop manager Augusta Sitney. We welcomed Miriam this summer and co-teaches Protest + Print with HyeYoon Song. Both come with years (decades!) of experience building, teaching, and art-making.
   20. This year has brought about foundational support of approximately $415K from both new and repeat foundations. Not only that but we also received $364K from individuals and corporations! Shout out to our Director of Development, Kristy Higares, who works tirelessly to maintain our relationships with funders!
   21. For the third year in a row now, our staff and instructors were given professional development stipends to expand their creative practice. This is just one way we try to cultivate a work culture rooted in joy and learning! From artist residencies in France to art therapy conferences, color theory classes, and professional coaching sessions, the GG staff has grown so much this year!
   22. The first holiday market + garage sale in the new space was a huge success! We invited some of our favorite local womxn- and BIPOC-owned small businesses to vend at this incredible event. In the workshop, we were selling some gently used tools, vintage GG swag, laptops, and even a few fully stocked DeWalt toolboxes. It was a joyful event filled with laughter and love; we can’t wait to see everyone again next year!
       
   23. Right after our holiday market, Girls Garage staff, instructors, and board members all around the Bay Area scuttled together for our yearly staff dinner! While we host this event every year, this particular dinner at Rintaro in San Francisco felt electric as we introduced several new staff members to the team.
   24. Looking into 2025, we are excited to share that we’re working with Rebuilding Together East Bay Network, a non-profit providing essential repairs to help our neighbors stay in their homes. We’ll work together to renovate a home for an elderly couple in West Berkeley in the new year. This is just the beginning of our budding partnership and we hope to take on building ADUs and affordable housing next!

   As we reflect on 2024, we’re reminded of the strength, passion, and purpose that drive our community. Girls Garage is more than a workspace—it’s a place where dreams take shape and relationships are forged. As we carry these successes into 2025, we’re energized by the possibilities ahead and grateful for everyone who helped make this year so impactful!