The Whit Online

Issue date: 4/19/07 Section: Features

That warm fuzzy feeling you get doing something nice for someone without expecting anything in return was an unexpected gift Tara Blanda received from a modern cyber network with old-fashioned values.

Freecycle.org is a Web site anyone can use to find something they need or to give away something they don't to members of their local community.

"It feels good to give something you don't necessarily need anymore to someone you know can use it," said Blanda, 28, a waitress from Westville. "It's like paying it forward."

Blanda recalled posting an offer for baby items about a year and a half ago and got an e-mail response from another interested member.

"When I opened my door there was a woman on my porch who was eight to nine months pregnant and overly grateful for the things I had to give her," she said. "She told me about how her house had just burnt down and I felt compelled to give everything I could to her."

When that woman left that day with over 15 things packed into her car, including a Diaper Genie, a baby tub and piles of clothing, both women walked away with something more then they had imagined.

That's essentially how Freecycle, which has more than 4,000 active communities nationwide, works.

Each community is managed by moderators, who choose to communicate on a first name basis only, and carefully protect the privacy and safety of Freecycle members. Vickie, the 54-year-old self-employed volunteer moderator for the 281-member Vineland chapter, stressed how much the group helps those in need, including displaced families, the disabled and senior citizens.

"The Vineland Freecycle group members are very caring and giving," Vickie said. "This also has been my warmest pleasure to see the kindness that comes from people."

"The members unite to gift an item to a member that has a need. Just recently I had a member gift a good running vehicle," she said. "Yes, for free!"

According to the network's Web site, Freecycle started in May of 2003 in downtown Tucson, AZ with a series of e-mail exchanges to get rid of warehouse items without cluttering the landfills. What it turned into, though, was the grassroots and entirely nonprofit Freecycle Network which today provides over three million members in over 75 countries with an electronic forum for recycling the things they don't need anymore to people nearby, instead of just throwing them in the trash.

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