A Wonderful Potluck Kicked Off 2026

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More than thirty Timebank members and guests buzzed with laughter and great conversation at our first in-person social for the new year! The Casual Potluck was a wonderful opportunity to connect with new and longtime Timebank members of all ages and enjoy a variety of delicious foods and desserts. Some of us are still getting our “social sea legs” back post-quarantine and this was a warm and welcoming opportunity!

Lively conversations spanned timebank exchanges, an adorable new granddaughter, volunteering, finding a new job, making new friends, online dating, mischievous cats, canning new foods, and crafting snow sculptures – what a blast!

Thanks so much to Fatima Mahmud for her hospitality and organizational skills in planning and hosting our Casual Potluck! We greatly appreciate your initiative, leadership, and efforts!

And…

Did you know our Timebank had its 10th anniversary in 2025? Here are some fun facts to celebrate:

  • Dr. Edgar Cahn developed the concept of timebanking in 1980!

  • Some of our original members are still active – 10 years later!

  • We have grown to nearly 500 members!

  • We have exchanged more than 10,000 hours!

  • Our Timebank is 100% managed by volunteers - without any paid staff or dues!

By exchanging neighborly support, we build both economic and social capital in an organic, grassroots way. Swapping services and resources saves us money and helps us make new friends and connections. Social health and feeling part of a community are important to our overall health and well-being. Cheers to our Timebank’s next 10 years! How can we all keep it going strong?

  • Make an exchange

  • Post a new offer

  • Host a social event

  • Join a group

  • Recruit a friend to join

  • Attend a Leadership or Events Committee meeting – new members are welcome! (Check the calendar at sstimebank.org or email silverspringtimebank@gmail.com for details.)

Best wishes for a Happy and Healthy 2026!

Thank you to timebank member Lisa Cook for writing this article. Lisa earned timebank time for her efforts. There are all kinds of ways you can help the timebank and earn hours, too! Contact silverspringtimebank@gmail.com to learn more.



Silver Spring TimeBank Participates in a Fundraising Flea Market!

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By Madeline Caliendo


They say it takes a village to raise a child.  It also takes a village to successfully participate in a quick-turn-around fundraising event like a Flea Market!   The Silver Spring Time Bank (SSTB) did just that on Saturday, May 17, 2025, when we participated in a Flea Market hosted by the Washington Ukrainian Humanitarian Center at St. Andrew's Church, 15100 New Hampshire Ave. Silver Spring, MD.

 

In total twenty-two (22) SSTB members rallied together on short notice to make the event a HUGE success.  SSTB members donated goods to sell, helped transport goods from donors to the sales table, helped set up the selling area, sold goods to passing patrons, spoke about SSTB  to passersby, took photos to document the event, packed up leftover items for SSTB to donate to charity after the sale, and helped with a myriad of the other tasks that go into making an event like this a success!  As noted, twenty-two (22) timebank members offered their time and/or donated belongings to help with this fundraiser. Each earned timebank hours which they can now use for services from other members.  


You may ask yourself WHY does a Timebank whose members exchange hours (not dollars) need to raise money?  That's a good question and the answer is easy.  It is to pay for administrative costs like the website and the like that cannot be secured via an exchange. 


In addition to raising enough money to pay the bills that needed to be paid, the SSTB Flea Market was successful in that it connected our organization to a whole new community of potential members who otherwise knew nothing about Timebanking and who showed interest in joining SSTB!  Participating in the event also connected SSTB with a local charity called “Bare Necessities Foundation.”   We donated a few unsold items to them and hope to do more with them in the future. They are also joining the timebank as an organizational member!  https://www.barenecessitiesfoundation.org/ 


Again, THANK YOU to all who participated, and a special thanks to Laura Kranis who spearheaded the effort!

Member Spotlight: Charlotte Schoeneman

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Charlotte Schoeneman has been a member of the SSTB for 10 years. What attracted Charlotte to the timebank was her love of helping neighbors, her desire to build community, and her love of exchanging! The timebank brought all of these elements together!

When she was deciding what to offer at the SSTB, Charlotte looked at what skills she had, what her experiences had been, and where her interests were. Initially Charlotte chose to offer dance instruction, divorce counseling, nutrition counseling, design, and hair cutting.  Recently, she started offering travel planning and trail walking too.

SSTB members Charlotte Schoeneman and Eugenia Park

Of all that she offers, without a doubt the most popular offer to date has been haircutting.  This became especially popular during the pandemic. Charlotte loves how happy everyone is with their haircuts. 

However Charlotte’s  greatest joy has been in providing nutrition counseling!  She just did her first consultation recently, and it was super fun to do. Charlotte is a longtime health-food nut, and she loves sharing her hobby with others..

Charlotte enjoys what others offer at the timebank too. She’s taken advantage of many offers including rides to the airport, massages, bicycle maintenance, gardening and help with downsizing/decluttering. 

While all the services Charlotte received have been helpful, Charlotte found the decluttering with Carrie to be especially helpful. That service came at a particularly stressful time when Charlotte was packing and moving and Carrie was very helpful. Charlotte also shared about a lovely foot reflexology session she had recently too.

Looking to the future, Charlotte intends to keep her offers fresh so that they mirror her interests and talents. That’s why she added trail walking and travel advising as they reflect a new direction in her life. If you want to walk/hike a trail or travel the world and pack light too, Charlotte is your gal!

What Charlotte says she enjoys most about being a member of the SSTB is being part of a community, and being interdependent on neighbors. She thinks this is a factor of social life that is less and less present in the U.S.A. today—though it is fortunately burgeoning here in the timebank!

Many thanks to SSTB member Madeline Caliendo for writing this terrific Member Spotlight! (As a side note–Madeline is one of Charlotte’s “haircutting customers” and she has been over the moon with the cuts she gets from Charlotte!) 

Welcome New Members!

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New SSTB member Lisa Cook has the “social gene”! She’s currently studying for her Masters in Social Work (Ohio State, online) with a focus on people 50+, living alone, not yet retired but prepping for living and aging alone. Did you know that 30% of U.S. households include someone living alone? Lisa has a TEDx talk presentation on “Living Alone, Living Connected” (https://planbconnections.com/about).

When she recently moved back to the D.C. area with her two cats (after living in Minnesota and Florida), she moved back into an apartment complex she has lived in before. There she quickly organized a cat-sitting exchange among her neighbors --- not only is it easy to have your cats looked after when you travel, it has served to introduce neighbors to neighbors.  Lisa is all about connections --- it’s clear she has the “social gene”!

Something else about Lisa --- she loves to write. She has 59 articles posted on her LinkedIn page. And her passion for writing started when she was a girl --- she just keeps filling journals and has 125 volumes on her shelves!

Lisa is really good at starting groups and community-building. In fact, she was recently talking to SSTB member Tina Slater about how in-person Timebank social events have slumped since Covid, and inspired Tina to host the June timebank potluck!

We’re hoping Lisa can help us energize even more connections in the timebank. Welcome to one of our newest members – Lisa Cook!

Many thanks to SSTB member Tina Slater for this wonderful introduction to Lisa!

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!

Edgar Cahn: https://timebanks.org/about-edgar#:~:text=the%20TimeBank%20movement.-,Dr.,build%20strong%20and%20resilient%20communities.

Member Spotlight: Fatima Mahmud

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Fatima Mahmud joined the Silver Spring Time Bank in September 2018 when she needed a long distance ride.   Fatima saw an SSTB flier in her downtown Silver Spring apartment building and a resident on her floor was a member who told her about the timebank.

Sometimes when people join the timebank they can be unsure about what to offer.  Fatima approached her offers analytically. She evaluated all of her skills and the tasks she enjoyed doing in her free time before she wrote any offers, and then decided what to offer.  

Fatima’s offers are a mix of in-person and virtual ways that she can help fellow timebankers. Some of her offers are computer based administrative tasks like organizing computer files and other offers involve helping people around their home or with events. Fatima offers a whopping 27 offers, and provides detailed explanations of each of those offers in her Hourworld profile, so make sure to take a look!

Of all that she offers, Fatima most enjoys taking care of a task that a timebanker is frustrated by.  For example, a few people felt frustrated by the status of various files on their computers and smartphones. Fatima helped them by remoting into their devices and organizing their files in a way that made them very happy.   

Currently,  Fatima spends about 2 hours a week remotely helping a sister timebank, the Ohio Simply Living Timebank (simplyliving.org) collect emails and notifications about local environmental events occurring in Ohio; and national environmental events relevant to the Buckeyes and then records them in a centralized calendar. That timebank taught Fatima how to use their calendar software once (Tockify.com) and shared their Google email account.  Fatima tends to be good with technology and so she picked it up quickly and now manages their weekly calendar data without supervision. Fatima shares that she is great at organizing data.  She created a digital inventory of 474 vinyl albums and 533 CDs for timebanker Kathy Napierala and Fatima couldn't believe that Kathy had 1,007 items until the end of the inventory!

Some SSTB offers Fatima has taken advantage of are car rides, especially longer ones as she doesn’t have a car in downtown Silver Spring. Building relationships with fellow timebankers is an added bonus of being a member of the timebank, Fatima says. Fatima shares that she has had great conversations with timebankers like Kathy Napierala, Sharon Englisch, and Fred Shuback, for instance. 

If you ever wondered what offers to solicit from the timebank, Fatima says she asks members to do things for her that she either doesn't know how to do herself; or solicits advice on topics that she is not knowledgeable about.  For example, Fatima solicited Mindy Shuback to cook for her, and Becky Sherblom, Claire Giammaria, and Mary Campbell to do sewing jobs.  Fatima says there are great people in the SSTB willing and able to help!

Fatima has had some very memorable exchanges. Robert Lawhead converted 20 plus VHS tapes into digital format for her. Lisa Jacobson successfully dyed a stained white  ¾ sleeve baseball shirt pink that had a permanent stain on it, thus bringing it back to life. The work was so good it looked like the shirt was originally pink!  Jennifer Okosun did a great job braiding Fatima’s hair (see photo).

Moving forward, Fatima anticipates continuing with the same 27 offers she currently has on tap. However, if someone knows Fatima and her skills and suggests she offer another of her skills then she would certainly consider that.

What Fatima has enjoyed most about SSTB is getting to know her neighbors, receiving the help she has needed when she needed it, and helping others with anything they may feel is difficult. 

A pearl of wisdom Fatima has to share is that when considering your offers, don’t undervalue all that you can do for others. An offer that may seem small to you may be very necessary for someone else. Also, take time every month or two to delete offers and requests that are no longer relevant. Finally, building a community of timebankers within the various Silver Spring apartment buildings can help increase the number and frequency of exchanges all around.

Timebank member Madeline Caliendo interviewed Fatima and wrote this lovely feature for the SSTB website and newsletter. In doing this, Madeline earned timebank hours. There are many ways members can do important work for the timebank and earn hours along the way: writing, social media, event planning, member support, website and newsletter help, etc. If you want to help, please write to silverspringtimebank@gmail.com, and we can suggest tasks that fit your skills and schedule.

Winter Socials

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As the end of Winter 2024 neared, the Silver Spring Timebank offered two more socials, including our first in-person event in a very long time. The socials attracted many plant lovers and book lovers.

House Plant Swap in February

Freepik

Spring was starting to tease us by the end of February, but it was still too far away for outdoor planting, and some of us were getting tired of looking at the same house plants. So the invitation for a plant swap went out. Some dozen timebank members, and a few potential members, gathered at Mary Liepold’s house on Sunday, February 25, to share shoots and cuttings and indoor growing expertise.

We had a real expert in our midst: long-time timebank member Kathy Jentz, author, editor of Washington Gardener Magazine and several other publications, and president of the Silver Spring Garden Club. Others contributed from their own experience, and conversation flowed.

Two people brought mixed-plant baskets of the sort florists provide, in which plants had outgrown their space and were ready for independent living. The rest just had too many specimens of one thing and were looking for variety. Participants dropped their offerings onto the large table Mary provided and took turns choosing what to take home. After half a dozen rounds, everyone left with new green friends--and more human friends as well. Several people suggested they’d like to do it all again. But first, let’s welcome spring!

Book Lovers Unite! in March

At Book Lovers Unite! we learned how different book groups are run, and we picked up lots of ideas for “my next read”!

Fourteen people attended, and Anita Morrison and Tina Slater were co-hosts. Individuals shared the various genres they enjoy --- young adult, archaeology, mysteries, police procedurals, male-male romance, Scottish crime novels, historical fiction, science, historical culture.

It was intriguing to hear the variety of ways different book groups are organized! Some meet seasonally (4 times a year); others choose a book and divide it into four sections, then meet weekly to discuss each section (sort of like a college class).  Other groups collect book suggestions over the year, then at their end-of-year meeting they vote on the books they’ll read the next year.  One group is made up of members of a professional society who gather to read subject matter books, but include lighter reading material as well.  Anita and Tina’s book group (its been meeting more than 30 years) has yet another format and just two rules:  1) whomever hosts the meeting gets to choose the book (no arguing!!) and 2) there must be sufficient copies available on the library shelves (or library ebooks/eaudio) so that no one has put a hold on the book or go out and buy it.

At the social, we came up with a list of favorite reads, which was typed up and shared with the group.  If anyone else wants to see it, we’re happy to share.  Happy reading!!

Both Mary Liepold and Tina Slater earned timebank hours for hosting the socials in February and March. There are so many ways that timebank members can support the timebank -- and earn hours while doing so -- including helping organize events, writing articles (such as this one), helping with the timebank website and newsletter, and helping new members learn about the hOurworld timebanking platform and arrange their first exchanges. Please write to silverspringtimebank@gmail.com  to discuss how you may support the timebank with your time, knowledge, and talents.