Buy Nothing Day goes statewide next week

Good deeds

November 14, 2007 3:39:52 PM

The local version of Buy Nothing Day, the annual winter coat exchange, will have its most ambitious approach during its 11th incarnation next week, on Friday, November 23, when the mix of anti-consumerism and community spirit will take place at an unprecedented four locations around the state.

More than 10,000 coats have been distributed to needy Rhode Islanders thanks to Buy Nothing Day, which is always held on the day after Thanksgiving, since that signals the official start of the pre-Christmas shopping frenzy. Besides offering an important service and bringing people together, the event also functions as a critique of conspicuous capitalism.

As organizer Greg Gerritt, a mainstay of the Green Party of Rhode Island, puts it in a news release, “We question how, in the richest country in the world, poverty can be so widespread, and this is a day to shine a light on the injustice while doing a tiny bit to remedy it.” He describes Buy Nothing Day as a forum “to provide a community-affirming event that also highlights the destructive nature of consumerism in the Western world; the consumption-driven global warming, destruction of ecosystems, and creation of inequality in our communities.”

This year, the Buy Nothing Day Winter Coat Exchange will be held on the State House Lawn in Providence; at the Blackstone Valley Visitors Center, 175 Main St., Pawtucket; at St Paul’s Church, 12 Marlborough St., Newport; and at St. Francis Church, 114 High St., Wakefield. This marks the first time that the event will be held in Wakefield.

Gerritt says that those wishing to donate a winter coat (or many winter coats, as churches and community groups often collect coats to bring to the event en masse), is encouraged to do so at one of the above-cited locations between 9:30 am and 1 pm on the day of the event. Anyone who needs a winter coat, or winter coats for their family, is most welcome to attend between 10 am and 2 pm and take what coats they need.

Buy Nothing Day, which was conceived by the anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters, takes places in a number of communities in the US and elsewhere. There are more than 60 cosponsors of the Rhode Island version, encompassing community and peace groups, churches, and other organizations.

Gerritt says the participants’ reasons for getting involved are as varied as the people who choose to participate. Some see it as an escape from the marketing mind games and frantic consumer binge that has come to characterize the holiday season, and our culture in general, he says, while others use it to expose the environmental and ethical consequences of over-consumption.

For more info, contact Gerritt at 401.331.0529 or at gerritt@mindspring.com , or Phil Edmonds at 401.273.4650 or at philwhistle@juno.com (Providence); Arthur Plitt at 401.724.8915 or kingarthur02940@yahoo.com (Pawtucket); Maggie Bulmer at 401.849.3537 (Newport); and Tom Abbott at 401.364.0778 (Wakefield).