Member Spotlight: Kathy Jentz
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Long-time Silver Spring Timebank member, Kathy Jentz, joined the timebank soon after it launched in January 2015. She had attended a community potluck where SSTB founding members discussed timebanking and other community building strategies which really interested her. Kathy recalls initially hearing about the SSTB from The Center for the New American Dream, an organization that among other things helped Americans build community and celebrate non-material values.
As an early SSTB member, Kathy was actively involved in coordinating the SSTB swaps with the Events team. Some of the items swapped were:
Toys, Games, Puzzles, Sporting Equipment, and Musical Instruments
Office, Art, and School Supplies
Tools
Clothing
Card and Crafting Supplies
Kitchen Items
Books
Kathy also helped to organize and host the SSTB Skill Share events. These events were both in-person and virtual and had a festive feel to them as SSTB members shared snippets of their talents. For example, attendees could learn how to repair a bicycle, do art journaling, travel well on the cheap, improve knife skills in the kitchen, and much, much more.
Learn more about the Swaps here: https://www.sstimebank.org/search?q=swaps; and the Skill Share events here: https://www.sstimebank.org/search?q=Skill%20share
Kathy Introduces Dana Wise’s Skill Share presentation about bicycle maintenance.
Kathy said it was a special honor for her to have Edgar Cahn, “a wonderful pioneer and a trailblazer to the timebank movement “ attend one of the Skill Share events! Cahn was so impressed with the SSTB Skill Share, he said that timebanks everywhere should duplicate these events!
Over the years, Kathy has offered various things in the timebank from social media coaching to help with reupholstering furniture. She said she prefers to offer things she is not doing professionally, but has skills in, so she can keep those skills from getting rusty.
One timebank offer Kathy especially enjoyed doing was baking cupcakes for a member's special event. Knowing they were homemade and delicious and going to a special event for a member brought Kathy great pleasure!
Some of the offers at the timebank Kathy likes to take advantage of are rides to the airport and to business meetings. Kathy lives a car-free life, so transportation offerings are especially beneficial to her. She also had someone help install an electrical outlet which was a tremendous help. One especially pleasurable offering Kathy took advantage of was from SSTB member Boosaba Tantisunthorn. Kathy was decorating for the annual Cherry Blossom Parade, "Petal Porches" and Boosaba helped Kathy by creating stencils of cherry blossoms and flamingos! Kathy's theme was "Let's Flamingle" and she used the stencils and spray chalk to decorate the sidewalk with a trail of cherry blossom flowers and a parade of flamingos along the fence line!
Moving forward, Kathy said she will likely update her offerings to keep them fresh. One thing she very much enjoys about the SSTB is getting to know others in the community and also participating in the "alternative economy" that values all participants equally and is outside of the capitalist system.
One thing Kathy would LOVE to see is someone else step up to revive the swaps. They were wonderful events and so much fun! Perhaps a new person(s) with new energy will see it with fresh eyes and expand it in a whole new direction!