April 23 2011 Spring Swap Meet Successful!

[Ann Renee Kreilkamp]

Thanks to great, unanticipated, and unexpected publicity from the H-T at the last minute (our publicity had been a bit too close to the event for comfort, due to the fact that we couldn't get the Atrium of the Shower's Building on the final weekend of April, but had to settle for April 23), our first of two planned Swap Meets for this year, sponsored by the Community Exchange Group of Transition Bloomington, went off without a hitch and a good bit of wonderful stuff. Eight tables worth, plus floor furniture. Everything, including a kitchen sink! A few photos:

 

She loved her new beads!

 

Our mission, to educate and demonstrate for the general public various ways to cultivate "An abundant life without cash," has now taken its first step into concrete manifestation. Besides swaps, we will promote time banks and the Bloomington, Indiana section of the global Community Exchange System (www.ces.org.za).

 

For our Fall Swap, we'll make sure we've got more lead time for people to clean out their closets and donate. 

 

One anecdote from our first swap event is worth telling here. A little girl came in with her father. She was delighted that there were some stuffed animals to choose from. 

Her father, however, said to me, after hearing that everything was free, said, "Well I appreciate the idea, but I'm suspicious of its execution." He looked over to the gleaming kitchen sink. "You mean that's free?" 

 

"Yes."

 

"What's the catch?

 

"Nothing. In the swap, you give to strangers and you receive from strangers."

 

Which reminds me: the H-T article included this great quote, if I do say so myself, since I said it: "It's to begin a transition to an economy that partially runs on sharing with each other, as opposed to buying from each other."

 

A number of people helped pull this off. Want to thank Doug, Rhonda, Mark, Abby, Mary, Jennifer, Lucille, Steve, and Colin especially. It was a great time, and we even hauled a few boxes of leftovers to Goodwill.