4th Annual Skill Share is Sunday, January 19 from 1:00-3:00PM

Join the Silver Spring Timebank for its 4th annual Skill Share which showcases the unique talents of our Timebank members. It will be held at the Silver Spring Civic Center on Veterans Plaza in downtown Silver Spring. It is FREE and open to the public. Come have fun and learn something new for the New Year! Stay for an hour or even for two. Bring friends and family, and please share event details far and wide.

There will be six short talks plus a variety of exciting Q&A topics and demonstrations:

Talks include

1:00-1:05 PM - Gather Folks/ Announcements

1:05-1:20 PM - Raising Your Credit Score - Christopher Cruise

1:25-1:40 PM - The Eco-Friendly Kitty: How to Reduce Your Cat's Carbon Footprint  - Tanya DeKona

1:45-2:00 PM - Yoga for Healthy Aging and Strong Bones - Debbie Helfeld

2:05-2:20 PM - Making a Living Working Remotely - Michaela Pacesova

2:25-2:40 PM - Create a Tribute Video on YouTube - Phil Shapiro

2:45-3:00 PM - Making Effective Infographics - Natasha Isler  

Q&A topics and demonstrations available anytime between 1:00 - 3:00 PM

- Basic Bike Maintenance

- 10 Budget-friendly Ways to Give Your Room a Facelift

- Helping the Elderly: Ask the Social Worker

- Career Counseling

- Handmade Photo Collages

- Travel in the Developing World

- Mindfulness through Gardening 

- Smart Money Matters

- SoulCollage(R)

- Your Next Car

- Aura Readings

- Ask a Recycling Expert

- Silver Spring Timebank Help Desk: open for all who have questions about timebanking or using the hOurworld software for exchanges. Timebank applicants can receive new member activation at the Skill Share.

We are a GREEN event and want to eliminate printed documents, so here is a file with the event handouts - keep checking it as we will be updated it with new materials as our speakers and tablers submit them.

The Silver Spring Civic Center at Veterans Plaza is on Ellsworth Drive between Fenton St. and Cedar St. 

*By metro:  Eight-minute walk north from the Silver Spring Metro Station. 

*By bus:   Metrobus F4 and Ride-On #16, #17 and #20 (along Fenton St.).  Metrobus J4 and Ride-On #15 and #19 (corner of Wayne Ave & Fenton St.).  Metrobus Z6 and Z8 and Ride-On #9 and #12 (along Colesville Rd.). Metrobus Q and Y lines (along Georgia Ave and Wayne Ave.).

*By car: Free weekend parking at the Town Square Garage on Ellsworth Drive. (Do NOT park in the Whole Foods lot.)

For videos about the Silver Spring Timebank and past Skill Shares, see our website. And, watch our FB event page  and Twitter page for updates about this event. We look forward to seeing you there! 

Free Yard "Sale"

The Free Yard “Sale“ that we held on Saturday October 19th from 2:00 to 3:30 pm was a great success! It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a great turnout of both members and non-members of the SSTB. Many items found a new home and the ones leftover were taken to The Pennyworth Shop, the Adventist Community Services of Greater Washington (ACSGW), the Friends of the Library, Montgomery County: Wheaton Bookstore and The Humane Rescue Alliance. Thanks to Kathy Jentz, the whole event team and all the volunteers who helped at this swap! Here are some opinions and pictures from our swap participants:

"I'm happy to find these Legos. They're for my three-year-old. His cousin has Legos, and now he does too."

"I like this. You give a couple of things, and you get a couple of things. And everyone's happy."

"I took away more than I should have."

"I was looking for storage to help my ten-year-old keep his room organized. I was glad to find this basket."

"I have cat lovers and dog lovers back home where I used to live. I'm going to send them these cards I found today. I'll send a batch to the dog lovers and a batch to the cat lovers. I'm a guinea pig lover myself."

"There's a woman here who collects sun faces. She brought this nice one, and I'm going to grab it. I create websites, and I'm doing one for a solar company. I'm going to use pictures of sun faces as buttons on the site."

"I'm saving these dishes aside for a family who got burned out of their house."

 "I love this plant holder. I wouldn't have known it was hand-made, but Anne said her sister made it for her back in the 70s."

 "Even Lily the dog picked out something to take home! This stuffed reindeer."

Summer Potluck Social

We had a wonderful crowd for our summer potluck social at the Cissel-Saxon American Legion Post 41 on Sunday, August 11 from 4:00 - 7:00 p.m. It was a terrific opportunity to meet other timebank members and enjoy some delicious dishes, including extra yummy desserts.

We were thrilled to discover the American Legion Post 41 as a location for gathering and they have already become a member of the Timebank. Stay tuned for information about our next social for the holidays!

Sewing and Craft Supplies Swap

I love finding half-done projects, and I love bringing mine.  It's exciting to know that someone else will finish the project and get to wear the dress.  -Tanya 

I found a book on drawing animals I can use with my art kids. Every six weeks, we do a different animal.  -Tina

This is fabulous.  I found some yarn I can use to help my mother's church.  They make prayer shawls.  Anyone can come and take one, for any reason.  So they have to have a lot of them. -Kendra

I'm ahead of the game:  I'm taking only one bag of stuff with me, but I brought two here.  Also, I've managed not to take any of my own things back with me!  -Eileen 

I found a cake cookbook -- one cake for each state in the U.S., with the recipes and the history of each cake.  I might give this to my mom, but I'll spend some time looking at it first.  -Andrea

I just wanted to get rid of my stuff and not get more, but I did pick up some things for other people.  I found these wooden knitting needles that my aunt likes.  They're very hard to find.  -Emma 

I found the wherewithal to reupholster my ottoman, and I got a fabric here that will go with what I have at home -- or close enough.  I also found a couple of upholstery supply items that will help me do the reupholstering.  -Connie 

Here are some darning eggs, but even if you don't take one, you can do your darning, using a lightbulb instead.  -Mary 

I found stuff for my office and for my own art, along with every other project I have EVER considered.  -Donna 

The fun of this starts when I go through everything at home to decide what to bring.  I hope to find materials for card-making which helps me feel creative even though I'm not artistic.  -Kendra

I came because I was the mule to carry my wife's silk screening and reupholstery materials she was donating.  But I found the one thing I wanted -- this small pallette knife for doing my oil painting.  -Joe 

I'm collecting these seashells.  I play with them at home.  Some of these I don't even have!  But I need a lot of shells so I can have fun.  -Sofia 

I came here looking for 1-inch elastic and a zipper.  I found them right away.  So now I get to look at kids' stuff.  -Aisha

I found some yarn to make a baby blanket for a friend's baby.  It means so much to make it yourself.  When I had my daughter, I was given a home-made blanket.  We got about ten others that are nice, but that one is special.  I know she was thinking about us the whole time she was making it.  So now I'll do that for my friend.  -Olga 

I am a winner:  I've been thinking of making a DK Tweed sweater for a long time, and look at all the yarn I found for it!  I also took some acrylic for a friend at church who makes hats for the homeless.  -Mary

I'm glad someone will do something with the stuff I brought, rather than leaving it sitting in my closet.  And now I'm just looking at things, hoping to find nothing to bring back to my closet!  -Claire 

I found this yarn to give to my mom for her hospital-baby knitting group.  -Kathy

This will be very useful for me, this covered bead tray.  I got three.  I use them for my jewelry and other things I don't want to get dusty.  I also got this Vogue pattern that I'm excited about.  -Julia 

The first thing I'll do is make a mess in my basement while I spread out everything out and go through it.  I have some really nice goodies here.  I make hats from felt, and I'll make my own felt from this yarn.  -Pat  

I'm hearing a lot of people talking about the psychological and other benefits of these swaps:  It takes such a load off, to clear these things out and know that they're going to be used by someone else.  Plus there's the charge people get from bringing home something new to them.  And I'm always glad to see that the swap attracts people from all different socioeconomic levels in the community.  And then there's CREATE Arts Center which will get all the materials that people haven't taken.  This is how we can help those served by another group while also making that group more visible in the community through our event.  -Jonathan 

Garden Tool Repair Cafe at the GreenFest was a big hit

The 5th annual Montgomery County GreenFest was held on Sunday, April 28 at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton. The theme of this event was simple, yet powerful: Where the County comes together, learns together and takes action together! It was also Brookside Garden’s 50th birthday and Earth Day: talk about the perfect combo! Thousands of residents, and a few from overseas, arrived in droves to participate in the celebrations and the atmosphere bursted with energy.

In the same spirit of community service, the Silver Spring Timebank set up shop in the atrium with a Garden Tool Repair Café. Attendees were welcomed with a warm and friendly smile from greeters who engaged them in talking about the timebank and how they could join our growing community. The repair team included five timebank members who were armed with equipment to sharpen, lubricate, and shine tools such as grass shears, mattocks, and loppers to name a few. They also shared tips on aftercare to make sure the tools had maximum shelf life.

The traffic flowed and had peak times but that didn’t faze our garden tool experts; they multitasked so perfectly that it one could only wonder if this is what Santa’s workshop looks like! 

All in all, it was a great turnout and a true partnership in serving the Montgomery County community.

Many thanks to SSTB members Anisa Yusuf for writing this article and to Saunya Connelly for organizing all the SSTB volunteers for this event.

Save the Date: April 28 for our Garden Tool Repair Cafe at the Montgomery County GreenFest

As part of the Montgomery County GreenFest the Silver Spring Timebank will be hosting a Garden Tool "Repair Cafe" .

Sunday, April 28 from 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Brookside Gardens
1800 Glenallen Avenue, Wheaton

Members of the Silver Spring Timebank will be on-hand to help clean, sharpen, and repair garden hand tools such as pruners, hedge clippers, trowels, and weeders. No electric or gas-powered tools, please.

Bring in your tools for a tune-up and lesson on garden tool maintenance.

This event is FREE and open to the public. Shuttle service is available from Glenmont Metro. We hope Timebank members will attend to support this wonderful community event!

Variety of expertise featured at the Skill Share and Repair Cafe 2019

Basic crochet and knitting instruction, proper use of kitchen knives, and bicycle maintenance and repair are just a few of the many skills highlighted at the third annual Silver Spring Timebank Skill Share and Repair Café held Feb. 10 at the Silver Spring Civic Building.  

The free event, open to the public, featured talks and demonstrations by timebank members, as well as opportunities to ask questions and to have small items repaired. Talks on green living, gardening, food preparation, and social media marketing were very popular.

In addition, Dale Brown gave helpful tips on how to find new homes for things you no longer want, as she described creative ways to do this beyond donating to a generic charity.  

Other talks included Edward Constable, an experienced home cook, who shared knife skills and tips, with a reminder to keep your knives sharp. He advised, “Sharp knives slice food, but dull knives are the ones that cut fingers.” A talk on art journaling for your health by Madeline Caliendo also included useful information.

At one repair table, Karl Kosok, aka Mr. Fixit, repaired an heirloom lamp for Karen Onthank—it was a lamp she had received from her grandparents when she went away to college. She said, “It is wonderful to be able to use the lamp again because it has such good memories.”

At other tables, Tanya DeKona helped visitors with pottery repair for several types of items; Fricka Ling answered diverse questions about bicycle repair and offered tips on where to ride in the metropolitan area; Simon Mauk, who also can do book repair, gave advice on furniture repair; and Jennifer Okosun, director of a babysitting service that goes onsite for special events, offered suggestions for successful babysitting.

Eleni Barber, a licensed social worker, was helpful to quite a few people seeking information about elder care. She said, “This is a unique opportunity for other people to get free advice on elder care. It is also very satisfying to me to share my skills and to make connections with the people I meet here.”

Other areas where attendees could find expert advice were houseplant care with Lisa Jacobson, and how to make sauerkraut in your home kitchen by Linda Andrews.

SSTB is a timebank in which people exchange their services for hours of credit that are “banked” so they can use the credit later for other services they may need. No cash is exchanged.  In addition to the website linked to above, more information about the timebank can be found on Twitter and Facebook.

This article was written by SSTB member Donna Sasser and posted on Source of the Spring at
https://www.sourceofthespring.com/general-news/events/skills/#.XG1rMpNKii5. Photos courtesy of SSTB members Mark Paster and Laura Kranis.