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Market specializes in give-and-take

Even kids, such as Patricia Brooks, 5, strolled away  with stuff during the Really Really Free Market on Sunday, May 17, at Garden Station in Dayton.

Teesha McClam Even kids, such as Patricia Brooks, 5, strolled away  with stuff during the Really Really Free Market on Sunday, May 17, at Garden Station in Dayton.

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Photos: Really Really Free Market

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By Amelia Robinson, Staff Writer Updated 5:56 PM Wednesday, May 20, 2009

DAYTON — Tamra Wallace went to Garden Market with a few boxes of shirts, slacks and coats — stuff she wanted out of her Dayton home.

The artist left with the first painting Christine Gaffney ever painted — a black angel with bright white wings.

No money was exchanged, but it was all good.

Gaffney, a 25-year-old Dayton resident and student at Columbus College of Art and Design, liked the piece she painted at age 16 just fine, but had more art than room.

And that’s how things went all day long at the first ever Really Really Free Market on Sunday, May 17, at the downtown community garden, near the intersection of Fourth Street and Wayne Avenue.

There were no sales receipts, price tags or credit card machines.

People brought goods, services and items with which they wished to part. They left the market — the brainchild of Dayton artist and bartender Jennifer Breman — with things they either needed or wanted.

Sue Marchal of Miami Twp. and her daughter, Carla Marchal, of Dayton found an assortment of cookbooks from David Hurwitz’s popular, free bookmobile, a white pickup truck covered in decorative paraphernalia ranging from Barbie doll heads to used Newcastle Brown Ale bottle caps.

The Marchals loved the concept of the day, and Carla vowed to return with bar stools and other items taking up room in her mother’s home.

“It is paying it forward,” Sue Marchal said. “It’s a way to share what you have. Especially in this economy, not everybody is going to be able to afford what they need.”

Janet Crew of Dayton found a few shirts and pairs of pants for her son.

“I think it is beautiful,” she said, adding that she will share items during the next market planned for October. “I have plenty of stuff I don’t need.”

Oakwood resident Erin Vasconcelos attended the market with her boyfriend and her 2- and 4-year-old sons.

They donated toys, belts and kids’ clothes and picked up a tricyle.

Vasconcelos said the day’s principle was simple.

“People really need things and people really need to get rid of things,” she said.

Visit www.myspace.com/rrfmdayton for more information.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2384 or arobinson@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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