KRISTINE GIBSON, of Battle Ground, received some handmade skin care products from a member of the Facebook group Buy Nothing Battle Ground.
ROBIN MACADAM, of Battle Ground, shows a beaded necklace that she is gifting to another member of the Facebook group Buy Nothing Battle Ground.
ROBIN MACADAM, of Battle Ground, said her granddaughter was delighted with the portable high chair she was offered by a member of the Facebook group Buy Nothing Battle Ground.
BATTLE GROUND — After living in Battle Ground for seven years, Robin Macadam didn’t feel like she knew very many people in the community.
“We’re kind of secluded,” she said of their wooded street north of town. “Now I have met a lot of people.”
She credits the Facebook group she started, Buy Nothing Battle Ground, for that.
Macadam was already a member of many free groups, but when she read about Buy Nothing she knew it would be different.
“There are so many other free groups, but they don’t have the personal part to it,” Macadam said.
Macadam started the Buy Nothing Battle Ground group as part of the international Buy Nothing Project. She applied for approval to host a participating page, and studied the style of other community’s pages to learn how they operate.
The group encourages people to post as if talking to a neighbor, rather than use “internet slang.” “We try to not use words like ISO or SOLD. It takes the personal connection out of neighbors,” Macadam said. “You don’t say to your neighbor, ‘ISO cup of sugar.’”
One member requested a bread maker on the group, and another member offered one she no longer needed. It turned out, they lived two houses apart on the same street, but had never met. It was the start of a friendship, and now the recipient cares for her neighbor’s children after school.
“That’s the epitome of what it’s supposed to be,” Macadam said. “Meeting people is the purpose.”
Anything can be offered as a gift on the page — goods of all kinds or services.
Macadam usually spends her time on the group as the page administrator, but she recently had a request for the group. She was going to be having a surgery on her foot, and she would need a wheelchair and a knee scooter, expensive but temporary equipment.
When she posted her request to the group, she quickly received offers of both items to borrow, and they were nicer than she had dared hope.
“Buy Nothing. Give Freely. Share Creatively.” This is the motto of the Buy Nothing Project. It began when two friends, Rebecca Rockefeller and Liesl Clark, created an experimental hyper-local gift economy on Bainbridge Island, in Washington, in 2013. It has become a worldwide effort, growing to more than 280,000 members in 18 nations, with 1,300 groups and more than 1,700 volunteers.
The group uses the platform of Facebook to create member groups. The transparency of this design allows members to see mutual friends they share with relative strangers, they say, which builds trust and connections.
“Our rules are simple,” write the founders. “Post anything you’d like to give away, lend or share amongst neighbors. Ask for anything you’d like to receive for free or borrow. Keep it legal. Keep it civil. No buying or selling, no trades or bartering, we’re strictly a gift economy.”
Kristine Gibson of Battle Ground was one of the first members to join Buy Nothing Battle Ground. She learned about the group when she was picking up a free item that Macadam had posted on a different site.
Gibson is a stay-at-home mom of three kids.
“We’re a paycheck to paycheck family, since my husband is the only one working,” she said. Being a part of the “sharing economy” makes a big difference for her family financially.
Gibson can think of many items throughout her home that came from the group — baby things, clothes, kitchen items.
“I got my whole crib set up from group members,” she said.
Gibson said she comes from an experience of living in poverty.
“So much stuff I have is useful to someone else,” she said.
Gibson tries to engage other members of the group when she has an item to offer. One time, she offered a gift of a giant stuffed monkey, and asked members who wanted it to write a story of the adventure they would go on with the monkey.
Building community has been one of the best outcomes of the group, Gibson said. When she picked up a gift of seeds to start a garden, the giver became a good friend, and their children now play together.
“My husband is sometimes amazed by the things people have given us,” Gibson said. “It’s nice to help other people out, and it’s nice to know people will help me out.”
Find the group Facebook page by searching for Buy Nothing Battle Ground, WA.
