A Celebration of our 3rd Anniversary

Thank you Robin Larkin of Cabrini Immigrant Services, for preparing this beautiful recap of Roots & Wings' first three years!

South Church Celebrates Roots & Wings!

You're invited to a worship service featuring music, photos and stories

This Sunday, April 14, at 10 AM

at South Church, 343, Broadway, Dobbs Ferry. Directions.

All are welcome!

Roots & Wings' STORIES. Pictures of GARDENERS and journeyers. South Church VOICES on food, nourishment, and sustainability. "MOTHER EARTH" sung by the South Church CHOIR. Alex's CREPES. A chance to PLANT a seed. Robert SCHUMANN'S Novellette #1. . .   

Transition Training a Success

A group of 40 participants immersed themselves in Transition Training last weekend . . .  learning how to organize a movement for sustainable change in their community. One of the best parts was meeting new friends and being inspired by their stories! 

It was great meeting you this weekend. Nice to know Westchester/Putnam counties are seeded with people like you!

Lisa from Larchmont’s Committee on the Environment

It was great spending the weekend with you immersed in the very special world of Transition. I won't soon forget it, AND we will hopefully build upon it little by little, steadily expanding and putting to use what we learned. Again, thanks to everyone involved, and especially to our wonderful facilitators and to those in Roots and Wings who made it all possible, and to Transition Hastings for feeding us! 

Deb from KidsGrowGreener.com

This weekend was exceptional and I am deeply grateful to everyone who participated for sharing their time and their hope and their energy. 

Pauline from Transition Westchester

Thank you all. . . . What a fabulous experience South Church, Roots and Wings, Transition Westchester, The Rivertowns Transition towns and the participants that you magnitized to the training provided for us. We are basking in a Westchester glow that has me smiling from ear to ear as I type this.

We are deeply appreciative and grateful for the warmth and compassion that enveloped us all this past weekend.

Pamela , Certified Transition Trainer. Mid-Atlantic Regional Transition Hub, of Transition US

Thank you Roots and Wings for the wonderful Transition Training workshop. 

Jessica from GreenDrinksGreenwich

Transition Training in Dobbs Ferry on February 1 - 3

Don't miss this local opportunity to benefit from world-renowned Transition Training. Learn to build strong and resilient communities that can weather all kinds of storms!

Local Resilience: A Transition Town Weekend with trainers Tina Clarke and Pamela Boyce Simms 

• Spans Friday, February 1, 6:00 – 9:00, dinner included; Saturday, February 2, 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM, lunch included; to Sunday, February 3, 1:00 – 6:00 PM, dinner included
• at South Church, 343 Broadway, Dobbs Ferry, NY
• $140 for weekend / $50 for students (minimum age 14). 
• REGISTER HERE!
• No one turned away for lack of funds. For scholarships contact Kathy: 914-693-7389 / kpokoik@verizon.net
• This training is sponsored by Roots & Wings, the sustainable initiative of South Church, and is cosponsored by Transition Hastings and Transition Westchester

For those that see today’s diminishing oil supplies, economic disparities and climate chaos as just the tip of the iceberg, change is necessary. But how? That’s where the Transition Network comes in. Transition is a community-organizing plan that responds to the realities of climate change and the shrinking supplies of cheap energy. It evolved in the UK in 2006, and quickly moved from towns in Ireland to neighborhoods in Portugal, from cities in Brazil to rural communities in Slovenia, from urban locations in Australia to islands off the coast of Canada.

There are now 1075 Transition initiatives worldwide, with 323 in the United States alone.  It’s a movement that has a toehold in Westchester County, too, with groups in Katonah, Ossining, and Hastings. Common goals of Transition Towns include energy descent plans, rebuilding the local economy, supportive relationships with friends and neighbors, and growing food year round.

Says John Bell, founder of Transition Westchester, “We’ve just been through Hurricane Sandy. We’ve seen the first gas lines since the 70s. Something is changing. Transition Training will help you understand what is changing and will give you tools to deal with these changes.” 

“Hurricane Sandy reminded us that our first responders are our neighbors,” adds Elizabeth Marouk-Coe, one of the founders of Transition Hastings. “There couldn’t be a better time for this training.

ABOUT TRANSITION TRAINING

TRAINER Tina Clarke

Tina Clarke, who worked with Greenpeace USA and Bill McKibben’s Global360 before becoming a certified Transition Trainer, opens the gathering by presenting the reality of the planet's state of being and how to share these facts with others. Participants envision a post-Transition world together, and Clarke offers tools to make the vision reality. Working groups are set up to move towns towards resilient sustainability.

TRAINER
Pamela
Boyce
Simms

Pamela Boyce Simms, an activist who has worked sustainable initiatives in Africa and within the Tibetan Buddhist community, calls climate change “the eye of the needle, as our planet does what it needs to do.” She focuses on inner worlds’ transition—the emotional, psychological and spiritual dimension of the Transitioning process using Joanna Macy's "deep ecology," self-exploration exercises.

 “When I was laid off, I found myself craving community,” says Elizabeth Marouk-Coe, of Hastings, NY. “I wanted to start new and be part of the solution, rather than part of the system. I met someone in a parking lot and she said to me, ‘Have you heard of Transition?’ I am now one of the founding members of Transition Hastings. My neighbors and I are now sharing a generator and a storehouse. We’re bartering. We’re hoping to map all of the neighborhoods in Hastings and put public readiness practices in place.”

Pauline Schneider, one of the founders of Transition Katonah, went through Transition Training two years ago. She says,  “I loved watching Tina Clarke take a room full of strangers and turn us into a loving close-knit community. We are still in touch with each other. Transition is fun.”

Go (Compost) Team!

Breaking news... South Church is composting!

It's been happening in fits and starts for the past year, and now, thanks to the tireless work of Chris Cole-Olsewski, a team is in place to bring our compost from the South Church kitchen compost bins to the new and improved outdoor compost bins near The Kitchen Garden.

Introducing the Team and the days they will be bringing the indoor compost bucket to the outdoor bins:

• Chris Cole Olsewski -  Sundays

• Solange Viggiano - Tuesdays

• Maureen Buckley Fox - Fridays

• Jessica Groth - who will turn the outdoor compost as needed

What YOU need to do:  if you are working in kitchen, put your coffee grounds, filters, tea bags, used paper napkins, crumbs you sweep off the counters, stale broken cookies, fruit peels, pizza crusts and more into the green compost bucket. 

A good compost heap is the key to growing good food.

Spend an evening with a legendary NYC community garden organizer