Folk Building Article

Seconds Please!
Family Support Networks Within Our Folk

"The Seconds Please! Clothing Exchange Program is not a charity, but rather an exchange program where children receive clothing and educational materials, and in turn, their representative donates other materials in order for the exchange program to continue. Concurrently, these representatives will remain in contact with Seconds Please!, and help others down the road, creating a support network for our Folk."

The Folk of SIGRDRIFA began the Seconds Please! Program in hopes that one day our people will be able to rely on ourselves. Instead of looking to Government programs and capitalists that think of us as consumers, we have the ability to take care of our own. Seconds Please! is a worldwide program, but you too can accomplish these goals within your circle of friends and family.

Starting a support network within your immediate circle is simple, but can be time consuming in the beginning. There are four major steps that need to be taken to make a clothing exchange prosper.
• First, get together with those who want to participate and decide on the person who is going to accept and distribute all items.
• Second, after everyone has “donated” the items they no longer need, do an “inventory” of those items and make a list of type, size, quantity, gender, etc.
• Third, distribute those items to the person(s) that is best suited to receive them (i.e. clothing, toys etc. that will fit their child). Also, keep a list of who and what has been given.
• Fourth, once the people that are participating in this exchange no longer need the items that were given to them, re-collect them (or new items) and re-distribute those items to the next in-line.

It is always best to start out with basics, so you do not feel like you have an over load of items. Also, because you are involving people that live locally, you can begin with virtually no monetary foundation. Listed below are the essentials that all mothers use.
• Clothing of all sizes
• Diapers
• Bottles, pacifiers
• Baby monitors/Intercoms
• Bedding: sheets, blankets, receiving blankets etc.

Once your exchange has been established, and you have been distributing items with ease, you can start collecting other useful items.
• Toys for all ages
• Books for all ages (especially educational books)
• Learning videos/movies
• Music – tapes/CD’s

Once you have begun your exchange program, and everything seems to be going as hoped, you might want to get everyone participating a little deeper.
• Coupons - Most family oriented magazines offer manufacture coupons for diapers, bottles etc. These always come in handy. They usually last for at least three months, and can be used in almost all stores. Get everyone clipping.
• Underground economy – Set “shopping” dates. Gather everyone and go to the thrift stores: Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc. These offer excellent deals on EVERYTHING. Fortunately, larger stores give these thrift stores unsold new items. You can almost always find new items for a tenth of the price. Also, try your local “dollar” type stores, or yard sales. You can find clothing for under a dollar.
• Sewing – Learn how to sew. Get together with friends, and make your child’s clothing. The price for most fabrics by yard is cheaper then store bought clothing. The quality is also better. This works when you are either making your child’s clothes, or if you are making them strictly for your exchange. In either case, they will eventually be passed along.

These ideas are also good when people without children want to help. It involves everyone, in this type of exchange. When buying items, remember that you can buy things that you may not necessarily need at the moment, but can always be used in the future. Remember to keep everything in one place and to update your “inventory” list. It makes things much easier when the time comes to distribute.

Once all of this is said and done, and your local exchange is prospering, it is time to network. You might not have what a member of your exchange desperately needs, but the exchange programs in the next town, state, or across the country may. We at Seconds Please! hope that once local clothing exchange programs start, they will contact us and we can network them with another exchange program. If we can accomplish providing our Folk with the basics of life, there is no telling what else we can do as a people.

Besides the obvious accomplishments that we can achieve with this type of program, we will also be teaching our children a life-long lesson: share with others, be loyal to your kin, be honorable to your Folk, care when a fellow brother or sister is less fortunate. The list is endless. Involving yourself and your family in the betterment of our people is a lesson that cannot be taught anywhere else.

If you or anyone you know is interested in the Seconds Please! program, have an idea, or want to start an exchange of your own, and would like more information, feel free to contact us at:
Seconds Please!
PMB #319,
800 NE Tenney Road, Suite 110
Vancouver, WA 98685

or via e-mail at:SIG_SP@sigrdrifa.net

Kristy
- SIGRDRIFA -