CalMAX Connection: Summer 2005

CalMAX asks its users to report their successful connections when they occur. Exchanges occur between different people and organizations from all facets of the community. We have discovered a number of interesting ones and would like to share them with you. These recent exchanges help illustrate how one person’s unwanted items can be of great value to someone else. If you have an interesting exchange, please let us know about it so we can share it with everyone.

Beer, Bee Keepers, and Dogs—Oh My!

Most beer drinkers are familiar with the award-winning Sierra Nevada Brewing Company (SNBC). Being the tenth-largest brewer in the U.S. means A LOT of hops are being processed into beer in Chico, California (the brewery processed 512,000 pounds of hops in 2004 alone).

The hops come from the growers packed in 3- x 5-foot burlap sacks and then cut open by brewery staff. Burlap is a natural textile usually made from jute or hemp plants and has a wide variety of uses worldwide. With a constant ongoing supply of cut burlap sacks available, Ruth Martin, SNBC’s Quality Assurance Technician and Waste Reduction Coordinator, spread the word about the burlap sacks through an “available” ad in CalMAX. Slowly, people with reuse ideas began requesting the sacks. Now the burlap sacks are so popular that SNBC no longer needs to advertise them.

Who uses the thousands of burlap bags? Local beekeepers, landscapers, theater companies, and pet bed makers, to name a few. Beekeepers burn pieces of burlap to create smoke to calm the bees or to contain the bees when working with the apiaries. Landscapers have many uses for burlap—for soil and wind erosion, shade cloths, and for protecting the root balls of trees and shrubs when transplanting.

A local theater company needed several sacks to create a natural and rustic theater curtain for a particular production. Pet bed makers especially welcomed the burlap sacks because hops are a natural flea repellant. So after filling and stitching up the sacks, pets have a comfortable bed to lie on.

Picturesque Valley of the Moon

For more than 30 years, the Boys & Girls Club Valley of the Moon, located in Sonoma County, has helped provide a safe, positive, and constructive environment for young people. Throughout the year, the club finds that it has unneeded items, either through their own surplus or perhaps from a donation that was not quite right for their organization.

The Boys & Girls Club uses CalMAX for placing those surplus items. Recently, the club found that it had some miscellaneous photography equipment that was donated by a board member. Unfortunately the club was unable to put it to use but knew someone in their community could use it. They placed an ad in CalMAX, and within a few weeks a Bay Area photographer happily picked up the item.

The club also recently received a donations of dozens of sewing and other craft projects—too many for them to use. So, after placing a CalMAX ad, a local women’s program was happy to put them to use for their clients.

Swapping Improves the Spirit

For almost 20 years, the Kobey Corporation has been operating Kobey’s Swap Meet in San Diego. It started small with just 13 sellers and 200 buyers at the first one, but it has grown tremendously to become the third largest swap meet on the West Coast. The swap meet draws more than 30,000 shoppers and 1,000 sellers weekly.

The Kobey Corporation currently operates Friday through Sunday in the San Diego Sports Arena parking lot. They use chain link fencing to define the space within the swap meet. Recently, Michael McGrath, the Kobey Corporation’s special project manager, found about 65 20-foot sections of 4-foot high fencing the company no longer needed nor wanted to continue storing. McGrath placed an ad in CalMAX.

Soon after, Tania Bennett, president and founder of Mustang-Spirit, a nonprofit horse rescue organization in San Bernardino County, saw the ad on the CalMAX website (www.CalMAX.org) , she thought the fence panels could be put to good use at their facilities. Bennett contacted McGrath and arranged to pick up the fencing. Mustang-Spirit now uses the panels as temporary feeding corrals at two of their horse foster facilities.

Bennett founded Mustang-Spirit in 2002 with a mission to foster and rehabilitate neglected, abused, and wild horses. The need for horse rescue is enormous in California and the U.S.—in just three years, Mustang-Spirit has rescued more than 350 horses nationwide. Bennett works hard to make sure the horses receive the care and attention they need. She allows qualified and responsible individuals to adopt the horses after they have been rehabilitated.

McGrath found CalMAX easy to use and was happy with the results, thinking “this is too good to be true.” He plans to use CalMAX again when he needs to find new life for his unwanted items.

Tania Bennett is continually looking for more materials for Mustang-Spirit. Currently, she is in need of horse corrals, materials for horse corrals (for example, pipes that can be welded), fencing, trees (to provide shade for the horses), and any other horse-related items. She hopes another CalMAX user with these excess materials will see her “wanted” ad and give her a call to arrange another exchange.

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Last updated: August 01, 2008