FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Arnold Strong
arnold@brightneighbor.com
503-428-0579
This Holiday Season Portlanders Can Swap “Regifted” Items Online
Swapping Stuff With Neighbors Helps Build Community Bonds That Last Beyond The Holidays
Portland, Ore., December 16, 2011 – Portland social media company Bright Neighbor, LLC. has a simple vision this holiday season: to take ‘regifting’ to new levels by encouraging neighbors to swap items as a way to build block-by-block camaraderie.
In 2007, Bright Neighbor pioneered the online sharing economy by launching a neighbor-to-neighbor social media site designed to lower living costs while increasing sustainability.
“Regifting helps circulate useful items among a community and it’s a great way to start building connections with your neighbors,” says Arnold Strong, Bright Neighbor’s CEO. “It can get new relationships started between people living close to one another that flourish beyond the holidays.”
Bright Neighbor has over five thousand users across all ninety-five Portland neighborhoods, and over the past several years has pioneered multiple projects to build hyper-local community, including neighborhood fruit tree pruning and grafting. The company has inspired other startups to launch sharing-memed social media sites, and plans to launch a new version of the website in 2012.
“We built our system to help people thrive in a hard economy,” says Randy White, Bright Neighbor’s Founder. “People are looking to save money, and they are staying home more. Along with that comes the desire to expand their social circle where they live, and we make that easier than Facebook.”
The Portland Bright Neighbor website includes the ability for community members to list events free of charge, and encourages users to both swap online and get out in the real world to meet their neighbors. Portlanders wishing to add items they are seeking to regift simply login at www.portland.brightneighbor.com, and add their items with they keyword “regift” in the description. They can then search for matching goods for trade close by. The company is betting that this season will see increased swapping among neighbors as a way to inject cheer into a tough economy. “What makes us feel great is when people get together offline for swapping events and can bond over additional interests they may have, leading to friendships at the local level,” says Strong. “The best way to improve our economy is to find out how we can help one another since everyone has something of value they can offer.”
About Bright Neighbor, LLC.
Bright Neighbor is a sharing economy marketplace that enables the scaling up of the long standing American tradition of thrift. The company is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and has multiple deployments of its technology system deployed in cities and with private customers including Portland General Electric. The company works to foster local trade, barter, and resource sharing to increase community sustainability while decreasing human impacts to the planet.
To learn more about Bright Neighbor, LLC, see www.brightneighbor.com. To join the Portland Bright Neighbor network, see: www.portland.brightneighbor.com.
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