In Rhode Island on November 26, 2010, there are winter coat exchanges in these locations:
- Providence (10-2pm) ~ State House lawn (across from Mall)
- Pawtucket (10-2pm) ~ Pawtucket Visitors Center, 175 Main St
- Wakefield (10-noon) ~ St. Francis Church, 114 High St
- Newport (10-noon) ~ St. Paul's Church, 12 West Marlborough St
- Barrington (10-noon) ~ Bayside Family YMCA
- Woonsocket (10-noon) ~ St. Ann's Arts and Cultural Center, 84 Cumberland St
The Winter Coat Exchange events are coming up fast! Every site runs just a bit differently so here is an update on the specifics for each site.
For Providence we can use some volunteers to help move the coat racks and boxes of hangars from storage to the site. This takes place at 8:30 on Friday the 26th. We also need volunteers to help move the racks and hangars back to storage beginning at about 1:30. Email or call Greg Gerritt (contact info at end of post) if you can help. If you have a van or pickup truck that would really be helpful, but all help is much appreciated. Volunteers are welcome all day at the event, and you can just show up to help if you wish. We are keeping an eye on the sky and will let everyone know if we will be outside by the Statehouse or at St. Johns as soon as we can figure out the weather.
In Pawtucket, coat collection has already started, with boxes for donations already set up in City Hall, at the Blackstone Valley Visitors Center, at Memorial Hospital, and other places around town. Of course it is always extremely interesting to bring them the day of the event, and that is highly encouraged, but for those who can not attend on the 26th, the collection boxes offer an alternative.
In Wakefield, the Thunder Mist Health Center at 1 River St is accepting coats during business hours that will be taken to St Francis in Wakefield on the 26th for distribution. On the 26th the Wakefield site is open from 10 to NOON.
The Newport site at St Paul's is also only open from 10 to Noon on the 26th. St Paul’s runs a soup kitchen all year round and the coats that are not distributed on the 26th are available all winter when the soup kitchen is serving.
Barrington is our newest site, and we are grateful to the Bayside Family YMCA for offering to host. This site will be open on the 26th for collection and distribution from 10 to NOON, but there is a place to drop off coats at the Y from now until Thanksgiving.
My guess is that all of the sites would welcome volunteers, so please feel free to contact the local leader for each site to let them know you can help.
It is not a RI logistic but for those who are interested, the Kentucky effort was able to get a one-minute video editorial on the local tv news. The speaker is Ted Loebenberg, who after working with us extensively on the Coat Exchange for a number of years, moved to KY and is spreading the word.
http://www.wave3.com/category/22970/hot-button-editorials
Phil Edmonds has been a huge presence in our BND efforts from day 1. And he too is in the habit or writing a BND essay each year. You previously saw mine, here is Phil's. Greg
Why We Participate in Buy Nothing Day
On Friday, November 26th, 10AM-2PM, the 14th Annual Buy Nothing Day Winter Coat Exchange will take place on the State House lawn across from the Providence Place mall. Buy Nothing Day began in 1992 by Adbusters Media Foundation in Vancouver, Canada as a way to resist the advertising industry that abets over-consumption by causing people to feel unfulfilled with what they have. Since then, Buy Nothing Day has evolved into a global phenomenon creating awareness of how entangled we are in the web of consumerism.
One may ask: shouldn't we be spending more to shore up our economy? Let's face it – our present day global economy is crumbling. Spending to "save" this economy is futile because the demand for material resources now outstrips the natural world's ability to meet it. There is abundant scientific evidence that humanity is living unsustainable, that is due, in a large measure, to our methods of production and consumption. Sustainable, in a broad sense, is the capacity to endure. In ecology, the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans, it is the potential for long-term maintenance of well-being, which in turn depends on the well-being of the natural world and the responsible use of its resources.
On Buy Nothing Day, we know that not shopping for one day will not have much, if any, impact. Yet, as consumers we have much potential. The quote from Hope's Edge by Frances Moore Lappe and Anna Lappe sums it up: What we choose to buy, where we choose to shop, even whether we choose to be part of campaigns...all this is not a homage to some weighty obligation; it's a celebration of the world we want...My choices as a consumer used to feel so small, but now I'm convinced they have real power. Together we are a sleeping giant and, awakened, we can really stir things up.
Rather than passively accept the layoffs and the other ravages of a globally competitive economy driven by the bottom line, we and our neighbors can consciously redirect our wealth so as to strengthen our local economies, our local communities, and to include people who have been left out.
Here in Providence, as part of International Buy Nothing Day, we hold a winter coat exchange where people can drop off clean coats that are in good condition, and anyone wanting a coat can come by to pick one up. This event, now in it's fourteenth year, is so much more than just feeling good about sharing. Buy Nothing Day helps increase awareness of our spending habits and about mass consumerism and its effects on our lives and the world around us. Buy Nothing Day is the symbol that changing our consumer habits can be a powerful force of social change. This is why we participate in Buy Nothing Day.
Come join us on the State House lawn on November 26th in a celebratory spirit of sharing and re-affirm our commitment to curb our spending habits so that the generations to come may have a livable planet.
[In R.I., Buy Nothing Day Winter Coat Exchanges now take place at six different sites]
For more information: Greg Gerritt: 331-0529; [email protected]; Phil Edmonds 461-3683; [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
