Doors open at 5pm to set up for the potluck and for games inside (darts and ring swing) and out (weather depending - badminton, tetherball and volleyball; bean bag toss and horseshoes).

Seeking host - Would you be interested in hosting? If so, please contact us.

Activity - Growing Community and Climate Resilience by Regenerating Vermont’s "Soil Sponge"

Why does Vermont suffer from intense flooding while wells are also running dry? How do we create climate resilience, economic resilience, and regional food security in these uncertain times? Come learn with an internationally known teacher, who lives right here in Thetford Center!

Under the right conditions, plants and soil life naturally create a sponge-like infrastructure in soils that soaks up water on a total landscape scale--providing resilience to both flooding and drought and a huge number of other benefits. We have degraded our region’s soils, but we can rapidly rebuild them. We can create cool, safe oases and resilient communities by tending to soil's structural, functional and biological integrity.

Didi Pershouse became deeply involved in the intersection of food systems and health systems while providing care for two decades at the Center for Sustainable Medicine in Thetford Center, and wrote The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities. Her facilitator's manual Understanding Soil Health and Watershed Function has been used in 95 countries, and she now teaches internationally.  She was one of five speakers at the UN Soil Day in 2017. 

Here in Vermont, she serves on the Thetford Planning Commission, the board of supervisors for the White River Natural Resources Conservation District and as a Deacon at the First Congregational Church in Thetford. While serving on the Vermont state appointed Payment for Ecosystem Services and Soil Health Working Group, she helped to reorient the program back to its public roots. She led a successful effort to conserve the Zebedee Headwaters Wetland while serving as a Vermont Conservation Commissioner.

All are welcome.