Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Small town sharing

Mount Beauty is one of those wonderful, perhaps rare, places where there is a strong sense of community, where there is a lot of sharing between residents and where newcomers are welcomed with open arms.
I was reading recently a blog post by Brooke of Slow your home about sharing more and buying less and I thought this really applies to Mount Beauty.
Let me paint you a picture of our lovely little town:
- we have a community run toy library and playgroup where toys and activities are shared between parents
- regular swapping of unwanted items occurs between friends and through freecycle.org
- unwanted items are advertised in the supermarket or left out the front of houses for others to collect
- the local op shop is one of the most successful businesses in our small town
- leaves are collected from around the town in Autumn by locals to put onto their gardens
- coffee grounds from the bakery are given away for people's gardens
- left over bread from the bakery is available for feeding to animals
- local excess blueberries and eggs are available for purchase (low food miles)
- many of our friends share children's clothing, particularly children's ski clothing and gear
Mount Beauty is lucky to boast a well-established culture of sharing.

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