Gilroy - Whether you're looking for a pair of ugly brown socks, a diaper genie, or a toilet, there's one place to turn: the Gilroy Freecycle Web site.

This local 542-member web group is a non-profit, online network open to anyone who wishes to get rid of belongings they no longer need or use. Here, one man's garbage is another man's treasure, but you must obey the number one rule: Everything offered must be free. Among other rules, one cannot use the site for personal business promotion.

Diana Torres of Gilroy was fortunate to find a cat on the online Freecycle group that eventually led to a friendship with the cats original owner, Melinda Soares.

Because Soares already had eight cats, she decided to add the cat she named Oliver on the listing of Freecycle. Part of her message read: "He is in need of a loving home where he can grow old. Oliver is very friendly with children and other pets."

While Torres surfed the listings of bunkbeds, hot tubs, and candle stick boxes, she saw the offer for the 4-month-old white cat.

"He was the most amazing free gift we ever received," she said. "Turns out (Melinda Soares) was pregnant, and we were about to freecycle a whole bunch of baby boy stuff our son had just outgrown, so we gave it all to her for her son, and a friendship blossomed because of it," said Torres who still keeps in touch with her new friend.

Freecycle has 53,000 members in 360 cities including London, Tokyo, Sao Paulo and Melbourne. The original founder, Deron Beal is an Arizona resident, who began the "movement" in 2003 with a single e-mail to 30 or 40 friends and a handful of non-profits in Tucson, Arizona.

With a desire to lessen the amount of garbage headed toward landfills, he hoped community members would communicate with each other and recycle their unwanted items. Ultimately, this network has evolved into a cyber community that has helped foster relationships such as the one between Soares and Torres.

Marta Sherwood, a long time Gilroy resident, remembers borrowing 30 glue guns from a woman in Hollister for a bible study project.

"This lady from Hollister had a box full (of glue guns) and told me to take all of them and return them when we were done," Sherwood said. In turn, Sherwood gave away encyclopedias and books to a fifth grade teacher.

"I leave them on the porch and voila they disappear!" she wrote in an e-mail. "It's a great way to give up some of the things I have because I know someone else will use them. Reduce, Reuse and FREECYCLE!"

Not only does the Web site help reduce garbage sent to the dump, but it has brought the community together. Today, Soares and Torres keep their friendship alive.

"I see (Melinda) all the time at Gilroy Health & Fitness. Her son is in the childcare there, with my son. We always end up talking about cats and kids, although this week I had to give the sad news that I lost the beautiful cat she had given me."

Although Torres lost her cat, the friendship fostered with Soares will last forever.

Betsy Avelar is an intern for the South Valley Newspapers. Reach her at 847-7216 or

bavelar@gilroydispatch.com.

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