Cape volunteers unite to swap chores
EASTHAM — Lyn Chafetz is a wiz at organizing closets and pulling together profitable yard sales. She's not so adept at plowing up the earth for a garden.
But she needs that done, and done soon, if the fixings for her summer salads are to be picked from the backyard.
So where does she turn for help?
She signed into the Cape Cod Time Bank, a nascent volunteer program in which members exchange services, but not necessarily in quid-pro-quo fashion. Chafetz put in a request for help through the time bank and within short order got e-mails and phone calls with offers for yard work. No one is asking her directly for anything in return.
Although the language of time banks is that of financial institutions, the reality "is people helping people," said John Bangert of Harwich, who helped found Cape Cod Time Bank in March.
Joining the Cape Cod Time Bank gives members access to a Web site (www.capecodtimebank.blogspot.com) where they can list services available or services wanted. Each hour of service given to another member of the time bank earns the doer one time dollar. No material goods are exchanged. Those without computer access will be able to make contact by telephone.
People who join the local time bank automatically earn two time dollars. There is a $10 fee to join — money that goes to support the Web site. But, exceptions could be made for someone "in real financial hardship," Bangert said. "We want to include, not exclude, people."
"This is like bartering, but not bartering," Bangert said. "It isn't 'you do something for me and I'll do something for you.' You might do something for someone and then weeks later someone completely different does something for you."
John Kelley doesn't need his closets organized — or at least he's not admitting to that. What he would like is someone with gardening or landscaping expertise who also belongs to the Cape Cod Time Bank to stop by and maybe accompany him to a gardening center with advice on what plants will work best at his Wellfleet home. Someone else will seek out Chafetz, whose skills also include putting together informational fliers.
Time banks are the brainchild of Edgar S. Cahn, a former speechwriter for Robert Kennedy and a social-justice lawyer. Cahn, who is traveling in Europe and was not available for comment, writes on the TimeBanks USA Web site — www.timebanks.org — that the idea came to him in 1980 after he had a serious heart attack. He felt helpless that he was unable to do anything for those who were helping him to recover. Thinking that others might have similar feelings, he created a system in which people can give as well as receive.
The impetus for the Cape Cod Time Bank comes from the Cape Cod Citizens for Economic Recovery, a coalition launched earlier this year to help people cope with the recession. The idea is to extend communities and social networks.
In some ways the time bank is a throwback to an era when "neighbors helped neighbors without question," Bangert said.
"It was just something you did," he said.
Just about any sort of service can be offered or requested through the site — yard work, cooking, music lessons or rides to and from the store, doctor's appointment or car repair service, he said.
"Say for example you are a senior citizen ... you can offer a multitude of skills like reading books to children, baking cookies, teaching someone to knit or giving a music lesson," Bangert said. "Or maybe you take care of your elderly mother and just need a couple hours to yourself. Someone in the time bank can come to the house and keep your mom company. ..."
The Cape site features offers of transportation, foreign language lessons and someone to play the harp at a dinner party. A retired hairdresser has offered to do at-home haircuts.
The site monitor — in this case Bangert — keeps an eye on accounts and offers, to ensure nothing untoward is offered and to verify that no one's withdrawals exceed their deposits. Neither has been a problem so far, he said.
"Our real problem right now is getting people to make withdrawals," he said. "Everyone is eager to help someone else, but they haven't been taking help themselves."
On the web
For more information or to sign up for the Cape Cod Time Bank, visit www.capecodtimebank.blogspot.com or call John Bangert at 508-432-0545.
To learn more about the national organization oe to join, TimeBanks USA, and time banks around the world, visit www.timebanks.org.
