The Schumacher Center is twenty-five years old, thanks in part to the enduring financial support of our members. Together we have heard and been inspired by visionary Schumacher speakers. Together we raised the funds to beautifully house the Schumacher Center Library on the side of Jug End Mountain. Together we built the SHARE micro-credit program collateralizing start-up funds for small businesses and setting an example for other regions of how citizens can support local production. Together we watched the Community Land Trust in the Southern Berkshires grow to include Indian Line Farm, the first Community Supported Agriculture farm in this country, showing what rural communities can achieve in the way of creating permanently affordable housing and affordable access to farmland.
We celebrated the publication of “People, Land, and Community,” a collection of the edited Schumacher Lectures. We grieved together at the passing of Robert Swann, our founding President. A movement gathered momentum under our very eyes at the Local Currency Conference we convened in 2004. The Internet expanded our outreach concerning small-scale solutions for building stable local economies with hits to our web site averaging 5,800 per day in June 2005.
Together we delighted at the way a younger generation has understood the promise and potential of local economies, taken to the work involved, and shaped it anew. Now we are looking forward to coming together again at the Twenty-Fifth Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures on Saturday, October 22nd at the First Congregational Church in Stockbridge.
If you are not a member, won’t you join us by sending a contribution to Schumacher Center, 140 Jug End Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230 USA or donating online at our website. If you have been a member and wish to renew your support, it is most welcome.
Every week we receive requests from persons in small villages around the world to be added to the Center’s email news list. They cannot support our work financially, but they are pleased to have the message of hope and possibility for the renewal of small communities in an era in which global corporations seem to dominate our economic and cultural futures. We need your support to continue this outreach to a new generation of community builders. Please be generous.
The BerkShares Online Auction begins September first and continues until September 23rd. Pete Seeger is donating his time to come to a private or public event of the winning bidder and lead a sing-along. Proceeds support the research, development, and first year implementation of a Berkshire local currency program.