By Jena Davison
Madison Magazine
Special To Channel 3000

Last December, ten-year-old Ally Odeen learned the true meaning of Christmas. After surveying her pile of outgrown toys, an idea occurred to her. Sell it all on eBay! Make millions! But it didn't take long for Odeen to change her mind.

Upon reading some heartbreaking "wanted" posts on her mom Chris's Freecycle.org forum, Odeen decided that she wanted to help families in need. She realized that if she did not, then they would simply have to miss out on Christmas that year. So Odeen set out to begin her great toy giveaway.

With the help of her mom and the Madison Freecycle network, Odeen was able to personalize gift packages for over thirty-five families with toys that were in perfectly good condition, but simply collecting dust in her house.

Odeen's gift giveaway embodies the core tenets of the Freecycle network: giving back to the community; reusing perfectly good, but rarely used, items; keeping stuff out of landfills; and helping those in need.

The "Other" Economy

Freecycle is a "worldwide gifting economy," with a mission of "building local communities by keeping good stuff out of landfills," explains Freecycle founder Deron Beal.

Freecycle facilitates a free exchange of items, and according to Dorothy Krause, one of the three Madison Freecycle group moderators, all posted items must be legal, free and with no strings attached. No barter, discussions or service posts are allowed, she added.

Besides those minor restrictions, anything goes. That is, anything anyone could possibly need. There are four types of posts: an "offer" post, or an item up for grabs; a "wanted" post if someone if seeking something in particular; a "taken" post, politely notifying members that the item has been claimed; and a "received" post, meaning the item has been located.

Items range from the common to the obscure. Krause mentions that in the past people have offered gardening items, appliances, children's clothing and a range of furniture--from estate furniture to leftovers from rummage sales. She says there have even been offers for houses in situations where they were too good to demolish, but needed to be moved off-site.

"There are people offering fully functional appliances and computers and people offering half a bottle of cologne … and people have a mutual respect for any level of participation," says Freecycle member Bruce Winkler.

And you never know what someone may need. Chris Odeen says that she has never posted anything that someone has not wanted. She even offered grass plugs that were leftovers from a gardening project and sure enough, someone's puppy had been ripping up the lawn, and the owner needed the grass to fill in the holes.

The exchanges are arranged exclusively through the Internet. Members must join the Yahoo! group in order to view the posts or to post items themselves. Once accepted into the group, members become part of the email list, where they will receive messages for some, all or none of the transactions, depending on personal preference.

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