File Under "News You Can Use"

Aviva and I recently conducted a training for Head Start. A father told us, "I don't make very much money. In fact most of it goes to child support for my kids. When my kids come visit me, I want to be able to give them stuff, I want to be able to get them the things their friends have, but I just can't afford it. I feel really guilty about not making enough money to buy them the stuff their friends are getting."

We are sure this dad's concerns are echoed in the minds of many many parents these days. Well we have some good news about a concept you may want to check out. It is called FreeCycling. The Freecycle Network™ was started in Tucson, Arizona as a grassroots effort to protect the desert from being overrun by stuff from landfills. Basically the concept is "one person's trash is another person's treasure" and members of each local freecycle group can give or get items free from other people in their local area. How cool does this sound? It is such a great concept it is operational world wide!

Local volunteers in each community help moderate the Internet FreeCycle groups. Membership is FREE. FreeCycle groups are open to individuals and non-profit organizations. FreeCycle members benefit from posting items they need, or giving away items which are no longer useful to them but could be for someone else.

Props my friend Cindy who told me about FreeCycle! I am a FreeCycler. I will share some of our recent FreeCycling experiences.

1. Our sons outgrew their train table and when I posted the table on my local Internet FreeCycle Home Page, we went thru the emails with our sons and they chose who would get the table. Our sons chose to give the table to a family with a 4 year old boy. The boy's dad had recently lost his job and the parents wanted the table as gift for their son's birthday. It made my sons feel really good to give away their table and know it was going to someone who might not otherwise have one.

2. When we headed to Louisiana last Spring, I asked my FreeCycle group for Girlscout uniforms their daughters had outgrown so we could deliver them to a needy troop who's members had lost everything in Hurricane Katrina.

3. I surprised my family with some awesome patio furniture which I received in response to my "WANTED: Patio Furniture" and now we can enjoy our back yard even more.

I am confident there are FreeCyclers who have neck ties they would be willing to part with just in time for Father's Day!