Member Ane Crabtree's Story

Member, Ane Crabtree wrote this story about her experience with the time bank...

Just wanted to share a story of time bank generosity with you. I just finished producing my sweetheart, Roy Hurst's, short film this week. we had very limited funds to make the film, and beyond worrying about how to finish the project, we wanted to make sure that our film crew and cast, most of which were working for free, would get a decent meal everyday. In a sense, our crew was "working for their supper". All of our funds went into renting equipment and insurance...with little to nothing left over for anything else-let alone food. I kept praying for a way to make a film that would be a good memory and a good experience for all of those involved....i also wanted to achieve the impossible......having the crew look forward to a home cooked meal everyday. One that was delicious, filling, and gave them energy. they say that the food on a job can make or break a project and I tend to agree. In our case, food equaled payment and respect for the crew.

Nervous, I put up an email in the new format via yahoo for the time bank, but got no responses..... clearly, people thought I was delusional, or I inadvertently put the email up wrong. Not to be deterred, I assumed the role of stalker and scoured the time bank community for any folks that had a love for cooking, or had posted services that were food related. To my surprise, I found people who had been chefs before, some had even owned restaurants before...and one of them had worked in catering for a film crew in her past. I wrote a letter explaining my plan-half expecting people to 1)laugh 2)be busy 3)run in the opposite direction.
Instead, I found five angels-time bankers who wanted to feed us-one time banker would provide food each day for five days. Some of these fine folks took my calls while they were on the road getting ready to perform, others had just adopted a new dog and found time to feed 18 strangers, some had babies, other businesses to take care of during the day and/or night....all decided to help out, simply because they were members of this very special time bank.

I don't know about you, but I find it very difficult , generally, to ask for help. I don't know if it's from years of city living, or that society has moved so fast, that we sometimes forget about the simplicity of being neighborly, or helpful, or trusting. what the time bank stands for, for me, is truly that....a place where old fashioned structure stands firm. It's enlightening and wonderful thing to experience!

To Lee Conger, Leigh Shelton, Andrea Barbosa, Angela Correa, and Jennie Cook, thank you so much for not only making the most delicious meals possible-
but to the smiles and full bellies that were the result of your fine cooking! Food is love, and you gave lots of of it! We appreciate you.

What did the film crew do for the first three days of shooting without the time bank's help? Well, I will say that it was yummy, but not half as healthy!
We ate from Patra's burgers on sunset, where we were shooting, Miss Melanie's soul food express, and a home cooked meal from Roy's friends/family whose house we were using for a location. We enjoyed the time bank's chefs most of all!

To give back to the time bank community, ten of the cast and crew showed up to the fundraiser at 1642. I've included some photos below.

Thank you for helping to make our big little film a successful one.
And to anyone at all who needs help-CALL ME!!! I have a lot of hours to give back to the timebank.

kindest,

ane crabtree