\FREECYCLE  (CONT)

of the slowest rates in the country.

However, West Virginia has more than two dozen Freecycle groups, with thousands of members offering a service Gernell says many people need.

"Even at Salvation Army and Goodwill, you still have to pay for things," she says "With the cost of living the way it is and gas prices the way they are, the prices there are still way more than some people can afford."

Heather Edwards, a moderator of the Martinsburg-Berkeley County group in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle, finds great deals for her four children, who range from 9 months to 15 years old.

"I got a humongous plastic playhouse for the kids," she says. "It costs about $400 new."

Edwards, 35, often drives to Hagerstown, Md., to gather her Freecycle finds.

"They have everything from Sunday coupons to refrigerators," she says. "Yesterday it was a whole dining suite -- a table and six chairs."

She urges novices to post more offers than requests, to avoid being greedy and to use common sense in arranging pickups to ensure personal safety.

Andi Bassett, a Morgantown mom with five children ages 20 months to 10 years, says she'll soon be donating a batch of baby clothes.

"The most appealing thing to me is finding someone who wants my 'junk,' that it's useful to them and they are thankful for my unwanted stuff," she wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "And the same is true of other people's 'junk' that is useful to me: I am thankful for it. Freecycle just puts people together."

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