A Knox College professor who moonlights as a Galesburg alderman has launched a community-building idea focused on donating time.
Peter Schwartzman says the Time Bank of Galesburg aims to help community members help each other. The fifth ward alderman tells WGIL it works on a concept of depositing and withdrawing time.
“There might be a member that needs their lawn mowed,” Schwartzman says. “So, ok, you can give your time. If that’s something you’re capable of doing, you can give that hour of your time to that person and then you get a credit in the bank. That person will have received an hour of time from the time bank and so they will have a withdrawal.”
The idea started about five years ago under the now defunct Galesburg Regional Economic Development Association. Schwartzman and his partner, Glad Rags owner Tricia Zelazny, helped get the project back up and running.
“I was looking at other time banks around the country and was seeing it as a very interesting way to reengage people and reconnect people,” he says.
Galesburgil.timebanks.org shows the project has seven members, a number Schwartzman says he expects to grow over time. A meeting is tentatively planned for next month to further inform the community.
