Many of us have realized that we have a lot of “stuff” accumulating and that the Free Box really provides a place for us to let things go, flow and be able to manifest the perfect piece of clothing, tool or accessory to our homes. The Crestone Energy Exchange (CEX) has formed a partnership with Neighbors Helping Neighbors (NHN), Crestone Creative Trade and the Crestone Energy Fair to get this community treasure back up and running. We appreciate your patience as it’s not just as simple as taking the board down and saying we are open. To have a successful long-term resource that is sustainable takes a lot of planning and consideration.
We began this process by hosting meetings with the above organizations to discuss liability, insurance, cleaning, safety, maintenance and coordination of the overall project. Next, we completed a survey to determine the interest of the community supporting the Free Box and what we are all willing to contribute to make its operation smooth. These results were compiled and can be viewed on our website: crestoneenergyexchange.org. Our third step was presenting to the Town of Crestone Board of Trustees. We are very grateful that they will be supporting the project by paying for the monthly dumpster fees and have made a generous contribution of $1200 to get moving on the reconstruction.
While our plans were to have the Grand Re-Opening on the 4th of July, the timing just wasn’t happening due to several circumstances. Thank you to NHN for donating the remaining clothing from their annual yard sale, as we were able to display it and host a temporary Free Box at the 4th of July. Thanks to Mary Lowers, Nick Nevares and many others for all of their hard work storing and moving these items for all of us!
We are excited to announce that the Free Box repairs have started and we want to thank Steve Storm, Maori Baca, Matthew Lyon Clark, Taylor Shelton, Noah Pulver and Tony Cannata for stepping up to help with this redesign and construction. Taylor is contacting all of our survey respondents to clarify how they can help with the monthly care and upkeep. Our intention is to create a monthly rotating schedule where organizations, businesses or individual groups of friends can “Adopt A Month” of the Free Box. This rotates the leadership and truly makes it the responsibility of the entire community to keep this open.
There is also one more step before we can reopen! Let’s make this a beautiful space that represents the values and guidelines of gifting and receiving. We are looking for a team of artists/painters to design a mural and other artwork to brighten up the structure and messages that encourage people to be responsible and in integrity when they drop off items. This is not a place to drop off your broken, dirty, ripped and other items that would be considered trash. Think of this as an “Empowered Exchange” area and what you give is a reflection of how you take care of yourself and others in our community.
If you would like to support our efforts or join our email list, please send a message to crestoneenergyexchange@gmail.com stating your interest, like our Facebook page or visit our website crestoneenergyexhange.org.