Free to good home

Naomi Martin has found a charitable outlet for items collecting dust in her home. She sits down at her computer and offers her unused items on The Freecycle Network.

The idea behind Freecycle is to match up people who need things with people who have things to give away.

Martin, a Clovis mother, has been a frequent user of Freecycle since March. She is one of 422 members of the local chapter that Clovis, Portales and Cannon Air Force Base.

She said she has given away among other things clothes, an electric mixer, a fridge and a swamp cooler.

Martin said she prefers Freecycle to other online sites where items are sold.

“It’s better because it’s local,” she said. “We don’t have to pay for shipping and you can get the stuff the same day usually.”

Martin said all the contacts she’s made have been friendly. She said the only issue is that sometimes people don’t pick up items after they say they want them.

“But otherwise, it’s just good,” she said. “I really like Freecycle because I hate to give away items that people will just trash or not really take care of. Usually people (on Freecycle) that want the stuff really do value it and put it to use.”

Amy Smith stopped at Martin’s home Thursday to pick up a twin bed frame. Smith and Martin have given items to one another four times through the Web site.

Sarah Wheeler of Portales started the local Freecycle group in 2004 after she read about it. She found that there wasn’t a local group and decided to start one.

“It took a little while to really take off. We had maybe 15 to 20 members at first but it steadily kept growing,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler also volunteers as the moderator for the group.

Freecycle is only for what is called gifting. No money is to be exchanged. Everything listed must be legal, free and appropriate for all ages, according to Freecycle.org.

Wheeler said most people follow the rules.

“There really hasn’t been anything that wasn’t suppose to be on the list,” Wheeler said.

She said Freecycle has several benefits.

“It’s beneficial because people in our community that can’t afford some of the stuff can get things they need,” she said. “Also you can get rid of larger things such as refrigerators and mattresses.

The creator and executive director of Freecycle, Deron Beal, said it’s local people such as Wheeler, who sacrifice their time, that makes Freecycle work.

“It’s the locals in the communities that make it work,” he said. “Without them we couldn’t change the world one gift at a time.”

Beal said the Freecycle Network began with one e-mail sent to about 30 friends and a handful of non-profit organizations in 2003 in Tuscon, Ariz.

“It snowballed from the get go. I was afraid a month in with 600 members that it was too large to manage,” Beal said.

But that wasn’t the case. The network continued to grow with groups popping up all across the country. The organization hit 2 million members in February 2006. Currently, there are more than 5 million members is 85 countries.

Though Beal began Freecycle from an environmental stand point, attempting to keep massive amounts of useable items out of landfills, he said it’s moved beyond that.

“I think it’s evolved beyond its environmental mission to involve a very community driven mission too,” he said. “I didn’t think about the community growth initially. If you empower people individually to make a difference they will.”