Testimonials about the Sunnyside Family Swap Shop and Play Space:

[…]If you’re looking for some good news in these all-too-depressing economic times, check out what’s been going on over the past few months on the corner of Southeast 35th Avenue and Yamhill Street.

In a once decaying space in the grand old Sunnyside United Methodist Church, for 12 hours a day, six days a week, children now tumble through indoor play structures. Grown-ups gather for weekly meet-ups and companionship, and families of all shapes and sizes give what they don’t need and take what they do.[…]

From
Radical rummage
Give-some-take-some exchange has a bigger purpose
BY AUDREY VAN BUSKIRK in The Portland Tribune, Apr 8, 2008
Read the full article

Thanks!
This is the best kept secret in town. I cannot ask for a better way to build community, to have a safe place for our kids to play, to share similar values with other families and to save our planet!
- Fanny Gonzalez-MkKaney

We recently moved to Portland from the east coast and feel like the co-op embodies everything we love about the culture here.
- The Helzers

Our child isn’t one who normally plays independently for very long. This space has helped him achieve this goal.
- Kerrie and Chris Waymire

This indoor park has been a godsend for me and my 2 kids during the rainy weather!
- The Rubins

Testimonials about the annual Useful Goods Exchange:

The Sunnyside Swap Shop Co-op is the creation of Karen Hery, community builder and spoken word artist, in response to the pending forces of peak oil and global warming and the need she sees for a bigger sense of community in our lives and neighborhoods.

In June 2006, shortly after moving to the Sunnyside neighborhood in Southeast Portland from San Jose, California, Karen Hery approached Sarah Taylor, principal of Sunnyside Environmental School, an environmentally focused K-8th Portland Public School, to see if she could launch her Swap Shop vision by hosting a Back-to-School Clothing Exchange at the start of the next school year. In late August, the school gym filled up with infant to adult clothes and over 200 Sunnyside School and neighborhood families started off the school year in recycled clothing.

A presentation to the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association later that fall resulted in a successful small neighborhood grant application. This grant funded the Useful Goods Exchange held at Sunnyside Environmental School over Earth Day weekend in April, 2007 where over 500 people swapped over 5000 items (clothing, furniture, toys, books, household goods.) Proceeds from a rummage sale at that event provided seed money to fund the marketing of the Sunnyside Family Swap Shop and Play Space.

In the Spring of 2007, Karen Hery and two other community members were instrumental in the formation of the Sunnyside Community Renovation Project - a joint effort between community members and the Sunnyside United Methodist Church to renovate church space for community use including a five room space for the Sunnyside Family Swap Shop and Play Space.

As founding families were being recruited for the swap shop and Play Space, another Back-to-School Exchange was held at Sunnyside Environmental School in September, 2007. This time the event included backpacks, school supplies and bicycles as well as clothes. Grant money is in the works to fund the Useful Goods Exchange again in the Spring of 2007.

The Sunnyside Family Swap Shop and Play Space opened with 85 founding families on October 1st, 2007. Renovations continued through the fall to complete the spaces of this swap and play environment. Co-op members and church members joined for a joint potluck in November, 2007 to celebrate the successful first month of this community effort. A new member drive is held every January, April, July and October building up towards the overall goal of 200 member families who share in the cost and labor of running this co-operative place for swapping, playing, socializing and networking.

The long term vision of the Sunnyside Swap Shop Co-op is to continue to host annual swapping events open to all and provide ongoing places for co-op members to gather, swap, socialize and recreate while leaving a lighter footprint on the planet.

Sunnyside Swap Shop Co-op is a growing and evolving grass roots effort to “do it differently” for a healthy planet and healthy community. We provide ways to reduce, reuse and recycle household goods for simpler, more affordable living while placing a lighter footprint on the planet.

The Co-op runs annual swap events and develops ongoing cooperatives that allow sharing and caring between neighbors in the Sunnyside neighborhood.

The first ongoing cooperative we have established is called The Sunnyside Family Swap Shop and Play Space. It opened as an indoor play space this fall in a portion of Sunnyside United Methodist at the corner of SE Yamhill and SE 35th and expands this July to include an outdoor play area as well.

The Swap Shop provides an inviting place for children to play in the Sunnyside neighborhood, a year-round place for member families to exchange useful goods (clothing, toys, books, art supplies, baby equipment, etc.) and a place for parents to network with and support each other. Eighty five founding families joined this cooperative in the fall of 2007. Membership grew to 100 families by winter time and to 120 in the spring. There is open enrollment for families to join at the start of each quarter in the months of January, April, July, and October until the member capacity of 200 active member families is met.

The Swap Shop Co-op also hosts two swapping events each year open to all who wish to participate: a Back to School Exchange in the Fall and the Useful Goods Exchange in the Spring. Both are held at Sunnyside Environmental School in the Sunnyside Neighborhood.

To help both the Swap Shop and other organizations that provide new life for used clothing, the Sunnyside Swap Shop Co-op organizes the Clothes with Heart Clothing Circuit the second Thursday of each month, collecting clothing at Sunnyside Environmental School and at Sunnyside United Methodist Church and then sorting and sharing the clothing with a variety of organizations including the Sunnyside Swap Shop Co-op, the meal and shelter programs at Sunnyside United Methodist Church, the Portland Public Schools Clothing Center, Letty Owens home for mothers of young children recovering from addiction and Dress for Success.

The Sunnyside Swap Shop Co-op is proud to support local artists as paid entertainers at regular Swap Shop events and to highlight local artists in special gallery showings at our space through out the year.