COMMON SENSE COMMUNITIES

It is a poorly kept secret that the economic downturn has affected every community, even upscale communities found on the north shore of Chicago. Small shops that have wholeheartedly supported local organizations in the past have not been exempt from these struggles.

It is time to move beyond the shame and silent suffering. I believe our community needs to explore how to stabilize both our residential neighborhoods as well as well as our local businesses, neighbor to neighbor.

Do you have ideas how to make this happen? Please consider joining my book club or at least contact Jeanne Beckman at winnetkacommons@jeannebeckman.com

Here's a way to recycle what you no longer need, to share someone else's cast-offs, and to keep the cycle of sharing among local volunteers. Here's how they describe their network:

"Welcome! The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,655 groups with 6,257,000 members across the globe. 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. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by entering it into the search box above or by clicking on “Browse Groups” above the search box. Have fun!"

I have benefited from other's generosity on Freecycle, and I encourage you to see how you can participate. Here's a link to help you find a group near you: http://www.freecycle.org/

I have used primarily the Wilmette (Illinois) Freecycle (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WilmetteFreeCycle/) although I also receive postings from Highland Park