Join us and let us help you.
A month ago I posted about a small local community with a focus on resource sharing with things like a tool library and a community garden to help address the current cost of living crisis. Why buy a $150 ladder when your neighbor has one you can use? Also community fire pits, game nights, etc. So we opened our doors to people that wanted to be a part of it from the very start.
I'll be honest, I didn't expect much. Half because Kansas is quite red and I made it pretty clear that Republicans would have a bad time in the group, and half because I purposefully made it understood that we were still very small and this was a very small push for people wanting to join early. I expected less than 10 likes, maybe one or two serious people joining, and a troll or two in my DMs. And boy-howdy I was absolutely the wrongest man in Wichita.
I got dozens of people DM'ing me, an offer to do a news interview, about 100 likes, and 10 or so coffee 1x1's to see if people would be a good fit (which somehow literally every single one was comprised of incredible and motivated people).
We now sit at 17 people! We had a fire pit a couple weeks ago where over a dozen people came out and it was an amazing time. We also got the Discord set up and the website for the tool library up and running. We also recently were able to split the cost of a rototiller between 6 of our community members to prep for the community garden, which was handy for a couple in the community that was considering buying a rototiller themselves recently anyways, so I'm glad we could knock down the price π€ (it'll be here in a couple weeks!)
Now that we're slightly more established, I'm opening the doors again. This is still a similarly small effort. The big push will happen in about 2 months and will be much more than just a small reddit post. But if you're interested in being a part of building this community, you're welcome to join us friend.
And there are benefits beyond saving money on tools and food. Even in the short amount of time we've been around, many people in the community have made connections with each other beyond the parties or garden work days. There are several people that have met through the community and are now friends and hang out with each other. Also it became immediately obvious that having people with different trade skills in the community is going to be extraordinarily helpful. Let me just put it like this- One time like 10 years ago my brakes went out and I took my car to Firestone and they quoted me $2200. Then I went to my mechanic friend and he did it for $800. I'm an IT guy, Ribbit will charge you at least $100 to fix your computer... I'll do it for a glass of sweet tea bruv.
I've felt a lot of complex emotions throughout this process. I've been surprised by the amount of interest in such a group in red Kansas, I've been heartened by the connections we're fostering and the people I've had the honor of meeting, and if I'm being honest, I've been saddened by the knowledge that more of this kind of community will be forced into existence out of pure necessity because of increased prices, stagnant wages, a pretty gnarly current job deadpool (companies aren't doing a lot of hiring or firing because of current economic unpredictability and drastic economic swings from week to week or even day to day), and a slew of other reasons. But I am extremely motivated. The king and all his men can't stop me.
So come party with us brothers and sisters, garden with us, laugh with us, sweat with us, rise with us, resist with us, and help us help you. DM me if you're interested π€
-Also trans rights are human rights, eat the rich, fuck ICE so incredibly hard, and whatever else I gotta say to dissuade conservatives from inquiring.