The Free Market Community: Yes, it really is free!

Dec. 3—A group of Madison Countians is looking to show the community that some things in life are actually free, and they are using social media to do it.

According to its creators, The Free Market Community Facebook group is an inclusive space that is meant to eliminate waste.

Posts can come from any of its 4,575 members at any point of the day or night and its purpose is for people to give things away or to ask for things they want or need. There is no limit on how often members can give or ask, and no one is required to give anything at all.

Three people— Amber VanWinkle, James Kniskern, and Le Ann Marshall— are leading the charge on this endeavor by being active administrators (admins) in the group.

Marshall joined in 2019 after a coworker had given her some hand-me-downs. She said she wanted to give them away when her son outgrew them since they had kindly been given to her for free. While searching for options, she found the Facebook group.

"It went from just a place to give away the stuff that I didn't need — to more of a community. That's what really got me to stick around," Marshall said.

Kniskern—who was running the in-person free market with his wife in Berea before the COVID-19 shutdowns— got involved with the online free market group due to pandemic regulations.

"Before COVID, we would have (the market in) that small room at the Berea library. We would have 115 people cycling through. When COVID happened, that was done, so we only had the online free market to fall back on at that time. There was no other way to do it, and it still functioned," Kniskern recalled.

Since then, the group has gone back to public events. Kniskern said two in-person free markets were held earlier this year with at least 150 people in attendance. He said the group is planning more regular in-person events once a reliable space is acquired.

VanWinkle said she had two motives for starting the online Facebook group.

"I wanted to keep stuff out of landfills. I'm really bothered by the waste in this world. Secondly, I believe that there's enough in this world for everybody," she explained.

This sentiment was echoed by Kniskern, who addressed the importance of both giving away for the intent of passing along, and disposal.

"I want to be ecological. I want to make it so that the capitalists don't have to produce more of these things for us, because we have plenty. We need to either fix it, reuse it, recycle it, or break it apart into its components and recycle those, but we can't do that all the time," he said.

The second pillar for the group— helping people—is a bit of a balancing act for the admins.

VanWinkle explained the online group was a place for anyone to ask for anything legal — whether it is a need or a want.

"A lot of people had this idea that you had to be in need to participate," VanWinkle said.

The other admins agreed, with Kniskern adding, "We've had several people drop out of the group during those times where people would be asking a lot, and in order to keep the group working, we need people to be able to give and receive all over the place."

To those people who disagree with the structure, VanWinkle argues their methods protect the dignity of those who need assistance in the community.

According to the admins, the groups prevents people from having to identify themselves as needing assistance or providing personal or financial information online. VanWinkle said it also gives everyone in the community equal access to free goods and services. This is also why admins emphasize that the group is not a charity.

"I felt like, if you could balance the haves and the have-nots, it would work out better for everybody in the planet," she surmised.

The community aspect is very important to the admin team, who shared stories about the people they met giving stuff away as well as the bonds they have built as a group.

Even COVID shutdowns could not keep the community apart.

"We would put stuff out, and sometimes we would meet the people that would come over from a distance. We'd both have our masks on, and we'd talk to each other," Kniskern recalled.

According to Marshall, "The free market is a way to make Madison County feel smaller, to bring us a little closer together, and make those connections, even if it's just giving stuff away. To me, it brings us a little closer. It makes us neighbors, while also benefiting the earth we live on and keeping things out of the landfills."

The admin team encourages those who wish to join to submit their requests to the Free Market Community Facebook group. To do so, they will need to press the join button, answer the verification questions, and accept the rules. They will begin adding new members in January 2023.