Martinsburg resident Caitlin Carson, right, talks about her ice cream maker with other homeschoolers at the Homeschool Curriculum & Supplies Swap in the Shepherdstown Public Library on Aug. 15. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Homeschoolers from across the region lugged cardboard boxes and bags full of used curriculum and other supplies to the Shepherdstown Public Library on Aug. 15.

The goal for this event, the Homeschool Curriculum & Supplies Swap, was for families to share items that they no longer needed with each other. For organizer Nicole Gonzalez-Knolton, she hoped the swap would help homeschooling families to save a few bucks here and there, by not having to purchase all of the items they would need for their children’s education.

“We hope that we can help the community,” Gonzalez-Knolton said. “Hopefully, people are finding stuff that is useful.”

The homeschool mom of three said she was pleased with the event’s turnout. This was the first swap that her group, Nature Lovers Homeschool Play Group, had held that was open to the public. In the past, the group has always held its in-person swaps at Morgan’s Grove Park, between the 2,000 members in its private Facebook group.

“We were trying to help out fellow parents,” Gonzalez-Knolton said. “We’re always giving stuff away to each other.”

Martinsburg resident Heather French, left, chats with Nicole Gonzalez-Knolton, center, and Erin Short in the Shepherdstown Public Library on Aug. 15. Tabitha Johnston

Admission to the Nature Lovers Homeschool Play Group is limited to those who have met one of its three administrators — Shepherdstown residents Gonzalez-Knolton and Michelle Kwiatkowski and Sharpsburg, Md. resident Erin Short. This event doubled as a means for prospective members to meet and gain approval by the administrators, before the start of the school year.

“It’s a co-op that’s focused on homeschool field trips,” Gonzalez-Knolton said, mentioning that, between all of the members in the group, about three field trips or other events are available for families to participate in every week.

For Short, the group has been a great way to supplement her daughter’s education, as well as a wonderful opportunity for both her and her daughter to socialize on a regular basis.

“It’s a greater opportunity to maintain regular friendships, especially between the people that regularly show,” Short said.

Shorted noted that the group’s co-op has about 80 regular participants in it. Homeschool families who don’t want to be in the co-op, but are willing to organize one field trip a year, are welcome to only join the larger Facebook group.

For some attendees, the swap was an excellent opportunity to make sure they would be admitted into the group when they asked to join it online in the future.

Martinsburg resident Heather French’s oldest child is still in preschool, but she decided to go ahead and attend the swap, to make sure she would be admitted into the group and its co-op in the future.

“I wanted to make sure we had our foot in the door,” French said. “We moved here in January.”

Martinsburg resident Caitlin Carson also attended the event, with the purpose of finding a children’s dictionary and giving away her unused ice cream maker to a family wanting to use it for science or family and consumer sciences projects. She herself was homeschooled by her mother and then began homeschooling her four children, ages 8-13, last year.

“My mom’s been homeschooling for 30 years. Now that I’m starting to do so with my kids, she’s been helping me along. I wasn’t sure if I was up to doing it for a while — it can seem really intimidating,” Carson said. “I had my kids in public school for a while and while so many people in the school system really cared and really tried, there were also a lot of other factors where I felt like homeschooling was going to be better for my kids’ mental health and social health.”