Welcome to my Wednesday Night Blog - C I O ! (Check it Out)

The Fun Website for tonight is -- FREECYCLE Network.

I thought we could start the New Year on a positive note, hearing about people who help each other, while at the same helping the environment as well as our resources.

The name Freecycle is different than "recycle" - instead of throwing an item away (or recycling it,) you give it away, free.

I heard about this cool Website sometime last year, when it was featured in a local News Station. They talked about a woman whose husband had lost his job as a truck driver and she was temporarily unemployed, living in a rented, unfurnished apartment with her infant son. Her name is Laura Gernell, a 32 year old mom from Marmet, south of Charleston. Then she heard about a place where people gave away perfectly good things to strangers - no money changing hands, no questions asked - she figured out that she had nothing to lose, so she joined The Freecycle Network.

Laura says "I wasn't looking to furnish my whole apartment," I was just looking for the basics, just something to sit on." She received emails from 3 people, was able to get a free sofa and used it since 2004 until this past summer, when the springs gave out. Today she runs West Virginia's largest Freecycle group, with 2,100 members, helping people find homes for things they no longer want.

Browse FREECYCLE Network through their tabs: HOME. BROWSE GROUPS. FAQ. ABOUT FREECYCLE. DONATE. STORE.

In BROWSE GROUPS you get to the core of who they are. "Freecycle Network is made up of 4,211 groups with 4,276,000+ members across the World. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Membership is Free and everything you post must be FREE, legal and appropriate for all ages."

In FAQ you'll find their Mission. "Our mission is to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources and eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community."

In STORE you can check the cool bumper stickers and other things that you can purchase to help this Network.

The Executive Director and Founder, Deron Beal tells many heartwarming stories about some of the people within this Network: the American Indian tribe that collected used prom dresses for girls in need; the Katrina evacuee who furnished a new home; the 98-yr. old man who collects and assembles bicycle parts, then gives what he's built to children; the woman in Austin, TX who collected items for an orphanage in Haiti, then got FedEx to deliver the shipping container for free.

Mr. Beal who lives in Tucson, AZ, says "It's just all sorts of countless acts of random kindness". Call they corny, call them cliche, but Freecycle is built on principles that work: ONE person can make a difference. Giving is better than receiving. One person's trash is another's treasure. Commit an act of kindness and it will be returned. His Network grew to 800 members almost overnight, after a newspaper story started spreading the word.

Beal says that about 30,000 people join the Freecycle Network weekly, with the single largest group in London, some 40,000 strong. "It's very much a viral sort of growth and randomly beautiful," he says.

You can volunteer - join the thousands of volunteers who help with passion and commitment behind the scenes.

You can find this wonderful, progressive Website at www.Freecycle.org

We can all do our part for the environment, one person at a time.

Thank you for joining me tonight, and Best Wishes for a wonderful New Year, 2008.

EDIT and UPDATE (5-17-08)

As per Kellie's comment below, Freecycle is not run by Yahoo! When I had something that I wanted to give away free a few months ago, every time that I connected to Freecycle, I had to go through Yahoo. My apologies for the misunderstanding.

Here's a Snip to show you what I'm talking about.