Lorie Cahill might have developed a touch of co-op fever.
Cahill is president of Green Acres Cooperative in Kalispell, Mont. She also serves as Director for the ROC Association’s Mountain-West region.
She was fresh off a weekend training for ROC leaders from across Montana, and had just finished checking out ROC USA’s recently revamped website.
That’s when the fever took hold. She and her husband, Marty, had read about Town and Country Estates becoming the 200th ROC, and then the fundraising campaign to benefit a playground construction effort at Park Plaza Cooperative in Fridley, Minn.
“Hi Paul, sitting here with Marty and I got the idea that in the spirit of ROCS helping ROCs, Green Acres would love to make a donation as a co-op to Park Plaza,” she wrote to ROC USA President Paul Bradley, adding that she’d like to encourage other ROCs to follow suit. I think it would be very meaningful to support our fellow ROCs.”
The Green Acres Board agreed and, not surprisingly, Bradley did, too.
“Lorie’s actually tapping into one of the basics of a strong cooperative economy,” Bradley said. “Cooperation among cooperatives is actually No. 6 on the list of 7 International Cooperative Principles.”
Those principles serve as the model for every cooperative, including each ROC that works with ROC USA Network. The other principles are:
- Voluntary and open membership;
- Democratic member control;
- Member economic participation;
- Autonomy and independence;
- Education, training and information; and
- Concern for community.
The fundraising effort, a new feature at rocusa.org, sends 100 percent of all tax-deductible donations to the Park Plaza project, which Seefeld introduced to a national audience recently on National Public Radio. Donations can be made easily online by visiting rocusa.org and clicking on Fund a Community Project.