A few years ago, Becky moved into a new house in Cardiff. She was excited about the big garden that it had but, like many others, she couldn’t afford to buy a lawnmower to maintain it. Becky didn’t drive, and most of her friends lived out of the area, so there wasn’t an easy way to just borrow one.
It was around that time that she first learned about Library of Things from an article she read on Shareable.net about the Toronto Tool Library.
Soon after, Becky decided to replicate the idea, and along with a small team successfully opened “Benthyg” (that’s Welsh for borrow), the first Library of Things in Wales!
That’s just one of the thousands of stories we’ve heard from Shareable readers over the years about how our work has impacted them. It’s exactly why we continue to publish new stories every week about people-powered solutions that are effective…and just waiting to be replicated.
But for every story like Becky’s, there are countless others who have yet to learn about a Shareable-style solution for meeting a need in their community.
It’s for all the others, that we ask you to make a financial contribution.
As Neal mentioned in an email to readers last week, the results from our recent survey, show that 75% of Shareable readers have connected with an alternative economic method or service (like a tool library, timebank, or cooperative) as a result of reading an article on our website and nearly 20% of readers, like Becky, actually started a community project that would benefit others!
In addition to Becky, we also heard from Kim in Australia who began reading Shareable because she believes that community resilience and environmental management should be a top priority for maintaining our security and survival during these COVID times.
And from Rae in Washington state who responded saying that they really appreciate how Shareable assists folks who are attempting to implement new community solutions by providing support and contacts of others who have already done it.
The feedback we received from the 455 survey responses represents just a small sample size of the tens of thousands who read our stories every month, and we’re already integrating the suggestions we received about how we can improve our work.
But, like everything we do at Shareable, this will only be possible with your support.
P.S. We know that many of our readers are not in a position to make a large contribution. But like the story of Stone Soup, if everyone gave a little, it would add up to a lot. Please consider chipping in a few dollars, as whatever you give will go a long way.
