NORMAL - People like getting free things. Trista and Chris Gladish experienced this first hand Saturday when they tried to unload things in the parking lot to donate to the Ecology Action Center's semiannual Free-4-All at an Anderson Park pavilion.

"We didn't even unload it before they came," Trista said. Someone saw the Halloween bob-for-apples bowl before they even got it out of their SUV and over to the exchange area at the pavilion.

They brought baby clothes and toys, and even a set of tires, which the recipient was tying to the top of his pickup truck before they were out of the parking lot.

"It's good for us and for our garage," Trista Gladish said of the giveaway. They didn't take anything home themselves.

Some people only gathered things, others did both giving and taking - all which are fine with the organizers.

Most "free-cyclers" said they liked saving items from the trash bin while finding useful items for themselves, and passing on items to others.

A bicycle was another item that never made it all the way to the pavilion; another bicycle that did was snapped up quickly.

All kinds of artwork, clothing, computers, fax machines, holiday wrapping paper, and kitchen items didn't stay on the benches long either.

There did seem to be everything but a kitchen sink, including flower pots, a clothes dryer lint cleaning set, a crystal whiskey jar, a set of encyclopedias, window blinds and lamps.

"This is a really good thing," said Sharon Jacobs of Bloomington.

"It lets you get rid of stuff you don't want to go to the land fill, and to pass it on," she said. She attended the event Saturday with her mother-law from the El Paso area.

"They're doing a really good job. We appreciate what they do," Jacobs said of the event's organizers.

A Heartland Community College computer networking and systems administration student had particular interest in electronic equipment. "An old laptop was snapped up in a heartbeat," said Thomas Lee of Normal.

Mikki Bell, the Ecology Action Center's educator, said more than 55 people arrived with things to swap in the first half hour - "which is wonderful." Close to 200 attended the four-hour event.

Bell, who taught in Normal-based Unit 5 schools for 25 years, said she was glad to see some of her former students, now with families of their own, taking part in the event.

The fall Free-4-all was postponed from two weeks ago due to bad weather. "It was a good choice," DeAnna Belz, assistant director of Ecology Action Center.

The good weather, combined with other activities in the park, including World Wide Day of Play, netted a good crowd, with hundreds of items changing hands.

The Ecology Action Center holds the Free-4-All twice annually, in April at White Oak Park and in the fall at Anderson Park in Normal, a convenient site for college students.

The rest of the year McLean County residents can exchange items by "free-cycling" on the Web at www.ecologyactioncenter.org.