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

Fall Season of Rivertowns Green Film Series begins this Thursday!

You are invited to attend a free screening of Symphony of the Soil

A beautiful and moving film that explores the complexity and mystery of soil--and its connection to climate change, our health... and our future

Thursday, October 18 at 7 PM, FREE

at Greenburgh Hebrew Center

515 Broadway, Dobbs Ferry

If you missed Symphony of the Soil's screening at Stone Barns earlier this year, see it with the Rivertowns Interfaith GREEN Film Series this Thursday evening, October 18th, at 7 PM!

Symphony of the Soil premiered at the March 2012 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital. It is the most recent film from filmmaker Deborah Koons Garcia, best known for her internationally acclaimed 2004 film,The Future of Food. 

A special work-in-progress version of Symphony of the Soil was shown at U.C. Berkeley as The Hans Jenny Memorial Lecture in the spring of 2010. The film includes several of the university’s distinguished soil scientists. This special version was also shown at Yale University and California State University at Fresno, as part of the school’s 100th Anniversary Celebration. More food is grown in Fresno County than any place in the world.

Symphony of the Soilis a 104-minute documentary feature film that connects soil health to human health. Filmed on four continents and sharing the voices ofsome of the world’s most esteemed soil scientists, farmers and activists, the film portrays soil as a protagonist of our planetary story. 

SOIL: "A cloak of loose, soft material, held to the earth’s hard surface by gravity, is all that lies between life and lifelessness." 

Director of photography John Chater’s breathtaking photography — along 

with Academy Award-winning composer Todd Boekelheide’s mystical compositions — takes the audience on a magical trip around the world and down into the mysterious ecosystem under our feet, truly blending science and art into a spectacular symphony.

Questions - Kathy Dean at 914-693-7389 or kpokoik@verizon.net

Sponsored by the Rivertowns Interfaith Green Film Series ofSouth Presbyterian Church’s Roots & Wings, First Unitarian Society of Westchester and Greenburgh Hebrew Center. Each film is followed by a discussion the following month. For our 2012 -2013 season, click here. 

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SYMPHONY OF THE SOIL reviews, news, more

Watch a clip here

Huffington Post 

Featured at 2012 BioChar Conference

Interview with filmmaker 

Deborah Koons Garcia

The circular ways of the Labyrinth

Year two of the labyrinth and we’re still finding our way.

     Thanks to Linda Herring and Linda Azif who have talked to the gardeners at Sprainbrook about the best way to nourish the plants along the Roots & Wings labyrinth's paths. They are putting “Coast of Maine” mix of potting soil, compost and other things that help lighten the soil into the current, somewhat packed soil to aerate it and to allow the plant roots to grow deep not horizontal. 

     We hope the Sat. Oct. 6th at 9:30 am-ish will be the date people will come with donations for planting in the perennial labyrinth garden.  Watch here for the final date.

     There’s now an official WELCOME as you enter the labyrinth. This stone is resonant with South Church history. It has sat, partially buried, by the side “bridal entrance” of the church for decades perhaps. Because of its sturdy but formal shape, and because it is about a foot deep, we know it was  South Church’s original “upping block” used for mounting horses or “carriage stone” used for stepping into horse drawn carriages. Local artist Cheryl Hajjar carved the Welcome, and local contractor Dave Person buried it in its current resting place.

Is it too much to say that now, when you walk into the labyrinth, you are following in the footsteps of generations who've come to connect with the divine? This welcome stone has good energy!

Dear Friends of our Planet,

On September 9^th at 1:30, Roots & Wings is participating in an Interfaith Blessing of the Trees in Dobbs Ferry. A developer has purchased 5 acres of land and is planning to cut down 352 trees. Some of these trees are hundreds of years old and the woods they create include the habitats of many species, all of whom will be displaced once destruction/construction begins. See the slideshow on the right for more information. 

This Blessing has been fashioned after a Buddhist Ordination of the Trees in recognition of their right to life. 

Please join us to bless these trees and this land and help us bear witness to the sanctity of life.