If your New Year’s resolutions include getting organized, or if you are working to keep unwanted media items like old CDs, magazines and books out of the waste stream, the first-ever Swap Meet organized by the Brockport Timebank and Center for a New American Dream of WNY may be a great way for you to kick off 2016.
The event is planned for Saturday, January 23 from 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon in the Duryea Room at the Seymour Library in Brockport.
“January’s Swap will be media themed and we welcome all members from the community to come and swap their old books, DVDs, CDs, magazines, audio books, video games, etc., for new-to-you media,” says Jena Buckwell, who worked together with friends to form the Brockport Timebank a few months ago.
“My husband and I were previously part of a timebank in Staunton, Virginia, where we lived for about a year before moving to the Brockport area (in November 2014),” she explains. “The Brockport Timebank is really small – about eight members – and the Media Swap will be a way for us to reach out and gain more members.”
According to timebanks.org, timebanks are, “a way of giving and receiving to build supportive networks and strong communities.”
Buckwell says the Center for a New American Dream is a non-profit, based primarily out of Maryland. “I became familiar with their mission while living in Virginia where many of their primary staff members live and work. I recently became a regional coordinator for Western New York. New Dream has a few different outreach campaigns involving a variety of topics ranging from helping parents reduce the amount of advertising their children encounter from day to day, to helping people organize community sharing programs – like the timebank or swaps – to giving guidance on enjoying a less consumer-based holiday season.”
According to newdream.org, the Center for a New American Dream seeks to cultivate a new American dream that emphasizes community, ecological sustainability and celebration of non-material values.
Buckwell says informational booths regarding the Brockport Timebank and the Center for the New American Dream of WNY will be set up during the January 23 Swap for anyone who is interested in learning more.
The Swap will be an “open swap,” she adds. “We encourage people to bring items, but it’s not a requirement. We want people to use the opportunity to clear up some of their own clutter by sharing their old things with others. This won’t be an ‘item for item’ swap and people can come and go as they please during the event timeframe. All items that remain will be donated, either to the library or Goodwill.”
This will hopefully be the first of a series of additional themed swap meets, Buckwell says.
K. Gabalski photo
