Signs of Sustainability: Growing trust and resilience in Danby

By The Danby Resilience Community

Prompted by community concerns with our collective well-being, Danby Food and Drink (DF&D) proprietor, Kartik Sribarra, invited folks to meet at his store to explore opportunities to engage in mutual cooperation and to discuss local resilience. “There was no specific agenda or target audience,” shared Sribarra. “I had no idea what would come of that, who might show up, or if it would even go anywhere. The group’s openness to organic needs and community well-being, whatever that might look like, are the hallmarks of this kind of successful ‘kitchen table’ community organizing.”

The response was amazing! People came together to talk about ways to build community, fulfill community needs, generate well-being and to consider what local resources we have available to us. Resilience is the ability to withstand, adapt to, and recover from adverse events while maintaining essential functions through social networks and community initiatives. With the uncertainty that surrounds us, developing and reinforcing local community relationships is one simple approach that anyone can help work towards.

We are more than eight months into this experiment and the momentum is going strong! From the seeds planted at these gatherings, ideas of neighborhood resilience grew, inspired by an Intentional Neighborhood that was forming in South Danby. There, neighbors were getting together for dinner, sharing phone numbers, trading resources like black currant cuttings for local honey, or helping each other with tasks like stacking firewood or rides to medical appointments. Other localized neighborhoods are now meeting to do the same.

Conversations about intentionally sharing collective resources inspired the first Danby Resilience Fair, held at the Danby Volunteer Fire Company (DVFC) in early September. Community members shared information on DIY solar, leather care, mushroom cultivation, community visioning, watercolor painting for children, the ReUse Center’s strategic plan and more. And even though it rained, which was helpful for the rainwater collection demo, people showed up with enthusiasm! Neighbors enjoyed meeting one another, learned a lot from the presentations, and came together for a community sing-a-long at the end.

One story that really warmed our hearts was the story of the raffle. Organizers wanted to express gratitude to DVFC for hosting the fair and decided to raffle off an old-timey metal toy fire truck with proceeds going to DVFC. While the truck was on display at the Goldenrod Depot, the store owner’s young son fell in love with the truck. She ended up buying him a raffle ticket, and he indeed took home the prize!

So, what’s next? We have planned a community potluck fundraiser for the Danby Food Pantry. We are planning a spring Resilience Fair, which will likely include water themes (understanding sources, collection, purification, DIY well hand pumps, etc.), bee-keeping, native plants, herbs and more. And a community barter market is in the works.

We’re learning that community well-being isn’t always logical or straightforward. People need informal interactions to help weave together the many threads of relationship, empathy, appreciation, mutual support, and the discovery of shared interests and concerns. It’s about listening to understand, and meeting in a safe space makes it possible to have open, honest conversations and build trusting relationships. It’s inspiring every time we realize that we have a common vision that we can work to create together.

Just as other communities have inspired us, we hope that these gatherings will inspire networks of neighbors who create genuine Intentional Neighborhoods in our community and beyond.

The Danby Resilience Community has informal meetings every Saturday from 1-3pm at Danby Food & Drink, all are welcome. Email DanbyResilienceCommunity@gmail.com for more info. Signs of Sustainability is sponsored by Sustainable Finger Lakes.