Member Spotlight: John Lumpkin

SSTB Member John Lumpkin (Gentry) is a Collage and Theatre Artist who is a new member of the Silver Spring Timebank (SSTB).  He joined SSTB about three months ago after his fiance introduced John to Timebanking and SSTB.  His fiance is  Alissa Klusky, who has been an SSTB member for about a year. 

John is relatively new to  Maryland.  He is a native Texan who lived his entire life in the Lone Star State until moving to Maryland in 2021.  

As background, John and his fiance met at Baylor University in the Theatre Program.  It was there that they  fell in love and both graduated with Theatre Performance degrees!  

Moving to Maryland has been good for John.   He thoroughly enjoys living up north and he especially enjoys being part of the SSTB community!

At the SSTB John offers collage art!  He  began making collages several years ago during the pandemic and has fallen in love with the art form. John often uses antique papers in his work and genuinely enjoys searching for unique and vintage materials to incorporate into his work..  In fact, the author of this Member Highlight met John through an SSTB trade when she commissioned a beautiful collage from John.

John’s mission as a collage artist is to find a home for lost and forgotten materials. His collages often include lost family photos, unique publications, and handwritten notes in the margins.  Consider commissioning a personalized  collage for your own enjoyment or to give as a gift!

As a newish member of SSTB John hasn’t traded much with others.  However one trade he did have  grew from meeting a fellow SSTB Member at a SSTB Potluck Social this past January.  The SSTB Member he met at the social  artfully sewed the holes in several pairs of John’s jeans!  This helped him to keep the jeans out of the landfill by extending their life.   John says it was really nice to connect with the fellow SSTB member at the Potluck Social because he had been  planning to throw out the torn jeans.  Insteas the SSTB trade allowed him to re-use and upcycle!

John especially likes finding Timebank trades that are useful and that allow him to rely on the community rather than just mindless consumerism.

Take a look at John’s collage work on Instagram. His address is “@johngentryart.”  And, consider commissioning a collage for yourself or a loved one through SSTB!  If you do you’ll own or gift an original piece of art!

Written by Madeline Caliendo

Member Spotlight: Sam Mayes-Matthews

SSTB Member Sam-Mayes Mathews is a textile artist and costume maker (a “costumer”) whose main focus is on historical textile and garment construction techniques.  They are professionally trained in tailoring and theatrical costuming and have completed LOTS of personal and academic research into historical and sustainable textiles.  Sam-Mayes often says, “If it's textiles, I touch it’, all the way down to spinning and weaving.”

Sam-Mayes Mathews joined SSTB in 2025.  They learned about the concept of Timebanking from a fellow they met while offering their wares and services at a booth in a market. At the market they offer their textile services and wares for trade and barter.   Hearing about Timebanking intrigued Sam-Mayes.  The concept of Timebanking is consistent with how they live their life and run their business– so they joined SSTB! 

In the Time Bank, Sam-Mayes offers alteration and sewing services.  They also teach various crafts.  They love sharing their skills, so Timebanking is a perfect match!  Sam-Mayes also very much believes in people’s right to repair and alter clothing (versus discarding it), especially if and when clothing falls out of fashion. 

Sam-Mayes has very much enjoyed being a part of SSTB.  They’ve helped members restore heirlooms, complete crafts that hold precious memories, and help them live more sustainably by altering clothes they can keep for the long-term.

Sam-Mayes has offered their talents to SSTB Members, though they haven’t yet used their hours to solicit other members’ talents.  But, soon they will be reaching out to solicit trades!  Sam-Mayes has visions of a thriving edible garden full of vegetables in 2026 and welcomes SSTB members’ help with their garden!!

Sam-Mayes truly enjoys SSTB.  Their favorite part is meeting new people and the sense of connection and community SSTB offers.  They also believe the non-monetary exchange of goods and services helps to build a stronger, more connected community that thrives in both good times and more challenging times.  Timebanking helps to strengthen the values of sharing and community while minimizing what Sam-Mayes calls “toxic individualism” and consumerism.  Through Timebanking we can all thrive (not just survive…)

Consider a SSTB trade with Sam-Mayes Mathews, and also keep an eye out for their booth at festivals and markets where they offer their goods and services!

Member Spotlight: Charlotte Schoeneman

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!

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

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

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.

Member Spotlight: Saunya Connelly

Saunya Connelly has been a member of the SSTB since January 2017.  Saunya joined after fellow SSTB member, Kathy Jentz, told her about the Timebank, and then Saunya attended the Timebank’s January 2017 Repair Cafe and was hooked! 

Many of the Timebank hours Saunya has earned came from doing some of the work of running the Timebank. Up until 2022, she worked on the Timebank's social media and event planning team. Saunya chose these roles because there was a need for a Twitter administrator at SSTB, and her professional background is in marketing and advertising.  Saunya really enjoyed the Timebank and wanted to get the word out about it, so managing the Twitter account was a perfect fit for her.  

Planning and running events for the SSTB has provided Saunya a tremendous amount of joy.   Saunya was the lead for several Timebank events and fundraisers, including leading SSTB members to make baked goods and gather items for a bake sale/yard sale fundraiser and to arrange volunteers for various other fundraisers. Though the currency of timebanking is time, not money, there are some expenses which require money such as the SSTB website. Saunya helped to meet and exceed the Timebank's fundraising targets!

It’s not just a one-way street of service though.  Saunya has also taken advantage of some great offerings by SSTB members too.  For example,  Saunya says she’s not much of a cook so a majority of the exchanges she has enjoyed have been for soups, stews and baked goods. Timebank members have also helped Saunya with sewing and clothing alterations.  Also,  because diabetes runs on both sides of her family, Saunya has had nutritional counseling from an SSTB member.  In fact, Saunya credits the SSTB with helping her to look at the foods she eats and make better choices so her blood sugar remains within acceptable levels.  Another recent SSTB offering Saunya is taking advantage of and is finding very useful is the updating of her federal resume.

While all the SSTB offerings Saunya has experienced have been wonderful, among her favorites was the Reiki therapy she received from a timebank member.  Self care is very important to Saunya, and it is also important for stress relief so the Reiki was a perfect fit.  While Saunya had heard of Reiki before, she had never tried it before the Timebank opened an opportunity for her to try something new!

Keep your eyes on Saunya Connelly’s offers in the future.  Saunya is currently in a professional development program that examines her strengths and develops certain skills.   Saunya would like to take what she learns in social media and content development and design new offers for her SSTB profile in the future.

Saunya has really enjoyed being a SSTB member, and what she has enjoyed the most is meeting people who see the value of providing and receiving services, using time as opposed to money.   Saunya says she always thought she was born in the wrong decade–she should have come of age in the sixties rather than be born in the sixties!  We at the SSTB say whatever decade Saunya was born in, we are glad she is part of the Timebank!  

Timebank member Madeline Caliendo interviewed Saunya 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.