CONSUMERISM Buy Nothing Day targets our disposable culture BY IAN DONNIS

Although the mainstreaming of an unconventional concept sometimes gets the originators’ goat, Greg Gerritt couldn’t be happier about a broad effort to designate the day after Thanksgiving as a time for national service or helping one’s neighbor. "I love the idea," says Gerritt, noting that it comes seven years after members of the Rhode Island Green Party introduced Buy Nothing Day in Providence, and 11 years after Adbusters, the Vancouver-based anti-consumerist magazine, hatched the unorthodox holiday. "People are finally getting the idea that maybe we need to change not just one day, but the nature of consumptiveness."

Buy Nothing Day, celebrated on the day after Thanksgiving since it’s typically the biggest shopping day of the year, was introduced internationally in 1993 to spotlight the adverse effect of consumerism and disposable culture on communities and the environment. The holiday is now observed in more than 40 countries, and the Providence celebration — slated to take place on the State House lawn next Friday, November 28 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. — steadily continues to attract more sponsors and participants.

More than 60 groups have signed up to support the event, ranging from the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless to the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island, Temple Beth-El, Food Not Bombs (which will be donating food), and Recycle-A-Bike (which will be offering bikes to children). There will be music by Phil Edmonds and Friends, and the annual coat exchange offers the chance for hundreds of needy individuals to be a little warmer this winter. "Most of the people who turn out are actually part of the coat exchange," notes Gerritt, a mainstay of the Rhode Island Greens. "They’re either coming to donate a coat, pick up a coat, or they worked on a group that collected coats. A lot of people come by to help out." Those interested in taking part can just show up or write to gerritt@mindspring.com.

In one new twist for Providence’s Buy Nothing Day, a group of high school students from South Kingstown plans to camp out near the State House on the preceding evening to protest the Bush administration’s emphasis on war over social programs. Although the protest drew criticism this week from WHJJ-AM talk-show host John DePetro, who cited it as part of an effort to legitimize homelessness as a lifestyle choice, it seems typical of Buy Nothing Day’s guiding philosophy of doing something positive with little more than volunteers and sweat equity.

Gerritt, for example, estimated the budget for this year’s event at $20 — the cost of making flyers. Meanwhile, so many coats were donated for Buy Nothing Day 2002 that the piping of a portable coat rack built by a union carpenter sagged under their collective weight. "It was very cool," says Gerritt, referring to the level of participation, "other than that we have to replace the coat rack."