Greetings Kindistas! I’m excited to introduce myself as Kindista’s newly appointed Volunteer Coordinator.  

Over the past three years, a small team of development volunteers has invested thousands of hours of their lives to tirelessly building new functionality and creating a smoother Kindista user experience. Until recently, we had yet to rally the volunteer support needed to properly introduce Kindista to the world. And more importantly, we haven’t thrown any big parties!

As Kindista’s new Volunteer Coordinator, I’m here to change that. I’m helping organize our highly anticipated and long-overdue launch party! It will coincide with the upcoming holiday season of gratitude and generosity and we’re inviting you to join the celebration, wherever you are.

We’re calling our event Kindista Holiday Market: Buy Nothing and Share Freely . It will take place on Buy Nothing Day, the day after Thanksgiving (otherwise known as Black Friday). Rather than stepping away from our celebrations of gratitude to consume, let’s change Black to Green, and extend our notions of family to include a broader community. Music, laughter and joy will be some highlights of the event. We invite those who live away from Eugene to participate in their own ways, formally or informally, by gathering together in celebration and gratitude.

Here’s what we are planning in Eugene, OR:

• Free flea market where we come together to share underused items from our closets, attics, garages, pantries, cellars, and sheds, and express gratitude for what we receive
• Dance floor with a live DJ and local bands
• Performance art, community connecting activities, and words from our Mayor
• Bodywork, intuitive readings, and other healing arts from local practitioners, again, at no cost
• and a HUGE Thanksgiving leftovers potluck feast!

Check out the event page on Kindista for the complete schedule, location, and ways to get involved! And please visit our facebook event page to invite your friends.

We’ll have tables set up at the event for folks to unload their gently used belongings; and computers will be open for registration with Kindista and for leaving statements of gratitude. This will help orient new folks to Kindista’s reputation system, and help build trust in our community.

For those of you in Eugene, we could use more volunteers to help give Kindista the superb launch it deserves. From greeting to dishes to decor and more, we could still use any and all assistance on the day of the event. Please contact me if you’d like to be involved!

For anyone outside Eugene, I am excited to help organize outside events to help launch Kindista in your local communities. I can hook you up with press releases for this coming Buy Nothing Day, November 27th, and help you create posters and fliers for your local event.  

We hope you are inspired to create and participate however you desire. But most of all, we hope you will join us on Buy-Nothing-and-Share-Freely day and help spread the word!

With enthusiasm,

Skye Rios, Kindista Volunteer Coordinator

skye@kindista.org