Joy Waters

Photo from Joy Waters

Sharing is caring, and according to Joy Waters, our Islands are the perfect place to instill a sharing economy.

Waters believes in sharing goods and resources as an economic model. To promote the idea, she (along with Positive Media Hawaii) has partnered with Transition Oahu and Sustainable UH to bring ShareFest Honolulu to life.

While ShareFest Honolulu is new to the Islands, Waters has high hopes for how it can benefit the community.

Volunteers organize the free festival, and there is no vending, which means nothing is for sale.

“Only stuff and skills freely offered,” Waters explains.

ShareFest Honolulu is slated for Sept. 20 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the University of Hawaii at Manoa Sustainability Courtyard, and will feature interactive booths and more.

At the heart of ShareFest Honolulu is Waters’ vision of sharing resources rather than consuming new ones. “I personally love sharing,” she says. “I benefit a lot from sharing.”

She views a sharing economy as an alternative that can run alongside the money system.

“The sharing economy says that we can use this behavior called sharing and build an economic model around it that has positive impacts on the community,” she says.

ShareFest Honolulu is the perfect venue to show the community how sharing can offer up great benefits. There are interactive booths, including T-shirt upcycling, which allows patrons to bring in old, unwanted T-shirts and provides a platform to turn them into something brand new, such as a bag.

A DIY (do-it-yourself) tent will be set up, and those who sign up can offer listeners a 30-minute snippet of the knowledge they possess.

“Everyone knows something they can share and other people might want to learn,” says Waters. The DIY tent can cover topics ranging from rust-proofing lawn furniture to juggling.

While Waters has spent numerous hours organizing ShareFest Honolulu, she also will sponsor a Tasty and Meatless Pop-Up food booth featuring free vegan food samples.

She hopes the sharing economy ShareFest Honolulu encourages will provide a structure around volunteerism, as well.

“The person volunteering doesn’t feel depleted because they’re going to get something back, and the person receiving the volunteer benefits doesn’t feel like they’re always taking,” Waters explains.

“People don’t realize they have these skills, and they’re valuable. Through sharing we realize how rich we all are.”

For more information on ShareFest Honolulu, including a list of booths, visit positivemediahawaii.com/sharefest-honolulu.