On a chilly Sunday afternoon, a line of people wraps around the Irving Middle School Rec Center in Norman. They’re attending Red Dirt Collective’s mutual aid fair, where people can get food, clothes, and other resources at no cost.
“We’re kind of just trying to have everything in one place so people can walk across the street and get the stuff they need and also connect with each other and have conversations and get to know their neighbors,” said Ashley Creed, Red Dirt Collective’s director of mutual aid.
Creed describes mutual aid as a network of care that focuses on community members giving and receiving help from each other.
“Knowing you have people you can rely on and that they can rely on you also is where the ‘mutual’ part comes in. It's done out of solidarity. Knowing that our struggles are all kind of tied together and our success and health and I guess happiness really are all tied to each other,” she said.
Creed said Red Dirt Collective’s mutual aid efforts began with distributing care packages at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With COVID happening, a lot of people wanted to participate in something and, I guess, help just in a really scary time for everybody,” she said.
Through donations from the community, Creed said the organization distributed around 700 packages of food and supplies to people living in low-income apartments. Over time, the idea to gather more resources for more people emerged.
Since 2021, Red Dirt Collective has hosted a quarterly mutual aid fair at the Irving Middle School Rec Center. Organizations like the Cleveland County Health Department and nonprofits like Period OKC set up tables in the gymnasium where they can give out information and resources. Creed said the mutual aid fair model is an effective way of distributing aid.
“Most of the groceries are gone, you know, by the time the thing's over. I've heard a personal account from someone that they've been able to get their kids’ clothes strictly through the mutual aid fair since 2021. So, I think that's pretty cool,” Creed said.
But, the mutual aid fairs offer more than necessities like food and clothing. Face painting, arts and crafts, and live music are also part of the event. Little Read Wagon, a nonprofit that provides books, reading glasses, and other materials to help make reading accessible, has participated in all of Red Dirt Collective’s mutual aid fairs. Founder Lisa Gerard said she’s learned books and reading are important to people for many different reasons.
“There are a lot of people that tell me reading is an escape for them from their circumstances.
There are people who are looking for self-help kinds of books, people looking for cookbooks. There are people who look for Bibles because that's a spiritual thing for them,” she said.
Ariel Sullivan is a cosmetologist and Red Dirt Collective volunteer. She said haircuts, which she provides at the mutual aid fairs, are an important part of a person’s well-being.
“Self-care is so important and so overlooked in our world. It's like a haircut, a massage or getting your clothing mended or your bike repaired. It's like we tend to just let those things wait. But that's the benefit of this. You can get your food and sign up for SoonerCare, but you can also get your haircut and all that stuff and feel like a full person, a whole person,” Sullivan said.
Beyond providing resources, Sullivan said the mutual aid fairs offer something even more valuable — community.
“I see people that have been coming here because they need the resources and then they turn into a volunteer. There’s friendships that have been built. A lot of the people here, I only know them because of the Red Dirt Collective. But now, we've gone out and done stuff in the wild in the world,” she said.
Creed said around 200 people attended this mutual aid fair. The highest turnout they’ve ever seen was more than 600. Their next event will be held in late February.
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