Danby Resilience Fair
September 6, 2025 Danby Resilience Fair Schedule
Join your neighbors at the Danby Volunteer Fire Department to share skills and have fun! Created by people interested in building strong community, sharing skills and knowledge, and nurturing healthy relationships and well-being together.
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10AM
Low-tek mushroom cultivation! (fire hall)
Grow food from trash! Here's a little blurb we've used in the past
Did you know you can turn trash into delicious mushrooms?? Join us for a hands-on class on low-tek mushroom growing! We will explore different ways to grow edible mushrooms at home and in the garden without the need for special equipment. Each participant will bring home oyster mycelium and the knowledge to turn it into harvestable fungi!
Leather Care - Boots, Bags & Belts (pavilion)
A beginner friendly introduction to caring for leather items (belts, gloves, bags, handles, and shoes). Participants will be introduced to the basic materials needed for leather care (saddle soap, horsehair brush, leather conditioner, wax thread). When cared for correctly, leather items can last decades, however most Americans aren’t taught how to care for leather items in a way that keeps them from cracking and losing durability. The items needed for leather care are affordable, and the process easy to do at home. Please note that this workshop does include use of water and soap, dress accordingly.
Please bring 1-2 items from your own closet/camping/gardening/tool kit for repair. This workshop is specifically for “glove tanned leather” (the shiny leather) regularly used for handbags, belts, bracelets, sandals, and boots, we will not be covering how to care for fur or suede in this program. This is ONLY for 100% leather, the processes used to preserve leather cannot be used on “pleather” or other plastic-based substitutes. If you aren’t sure if your item would work for this program, please contact [email protected] or @sustainablespinster beforehand and share pictures of your item.
Being Resilient is Learning to Breathe and Bend (behind firehall)
Breathwork and Seated Yoga to Manage Stress and Improve Our Health - Any age, ability, and fitness level can participate. Bring a chair or yoga mat, some will be provided.
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11AM
DIY solar installations (fire hall)
Workshop on DIY solar installations, focusing on the advantages of "Direct DC Solar" from the standpoint of reliability and resource usage.
DIY Rain Barrels (pavilion)
A short talk on setting up rain barrels with a handout summary.
Wild Edible Walk (around the grounds)
Let's see what we can find! We'll talk about the process of searching for local wild edibles, what to look for, and the best times of year to find them.
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Noon
Teach your child to read (fire hall)
I wrote a science-based reading curriculum and would like to share tips on how to help children learn to read. I will give a bit of background on the science of how we learn to read, and bring letter tiles for doing exercises. I can show parents how to do this or work with kids.
Permaculture in support of fruit and nut trees (pavilion)
A talk about planting polycultures of plants that support fruit trees and nut trees. I'll go into Permaculture Principles and how they can be used to design an edible food forest.
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1PM
World Cafe Discussion (pavilion)
As a community, what do we have? What do we need? What is our collective vision and how do we get there together?
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1:30PM
Meditative/therapeutic voice & harp with Pamela Goddard (behind firehall)
This would in part be "ambient music" and in part a guided music meditation experience. I can talk about how music can be therapeutic in many ways, and easily accessible. There would be more music and light singing than talking.
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2PM
Finger Lakes ReUse's Strategic Plan (fire hall)
A brief presentatiopn on Finger Lakes ReUse’s impacts over its first 17 years, and its 5 Year Strategic Plan draft for community feedback.
Weaving community: fun with fibers (pavilion)
Spinning demo and inviting children and adults to contribute to a weaving on a simple loom.
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2:30-3PM
Being Resilient is Learning to Breathe and Bend (behind firehall)
Breathwork and Seated Yoga to Manage Stress and Improve Our Health - Any age, ability, and fitness level can participate. Bring a chair or yoga mat, some will be provided.
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3PM
Visioning a Resilient Community Together (pavilion)
We'll all come together to talk about how local "resilience" groups were formed, what we have learned from the experience, and we'll share resources for starting one in your neighborhood. We'll also talk about ideas for responding to community emergencies together. How do we support the volunteer fire department and each other? Who has pumps, generators, chain saws, needed equipment? How do we aid elderly neighbors and make sure everyone is safe?
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4PM
Community Sing - Pamela Goddard and Randall Schmitt will lead us, all are welcome!
Let's lift our voices together!
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6-8PM Annie Old Thyme at Danby Food & Drink
Groups tabling at the event:
* Danby Community and Park
* Sustainable Finger Lakes
* Water coloring workshop for kids
* Green woodworking with traditional tools
* Keeping New York Frack Free and Advancing Renewable Energy New Yorkers for Clean Power
* South Danby Resilience Neighborhood
* Web of Life (soil regeneration)
* Skill share / barter markets
* Indivisible Tompkins
* Siren (alert notifications from Tompkins County)
* Soil Factory
To sign up to table or to volunteer, visit: https://forms.gleaShvtZdXSwXJ8gwk8
Local vendors are welcome to sign up to sell here.