Coming Home - A Winter Solstice Gift

As we appoach Winter Solstice, I'm receiving calls from people who want to reserve their space for one week of Coming Home. We still have room. You can go on line to sign up - http://www.hopespringsinstitute.org/cominghome.html

When Trish Bruxvoort Colligan saw this offering in our newsletter, she wrote:

"I am a musician and songwriter, and work in the realm of women's stories, healing, leadership, and retreats - all with the prayer and intention that it will create space for more "coming home-ness" for all the beings of our planet."

Trish then offered to share a song she wrote and recorded, called Coming Home. She generously offered us the right to share her song with you. Click here to see the words and hear her beautiful song: http://riversvoice.com/index.php?page=songs&display=235&category=Splash-exclaim-_-oparen-2003-cparen-

We hope you will give yourself a gift of quiet for this Winter Solstice. We send love to you and all of us who share this planet hoping for peace.

Hope Springs Woods

Thanks to a Clean Ohio Grant and the commitment of the Arc of Appalachia Preserve System to create preserves for America's Eastern Deciduous Forest, our 100 acres of woods will now be saved for future generations.

On December 11th, we transferred ownership of these 100 acres to the Arc and it will be their 14th preserve. With this transfer comes the guarantee that this woods will be protected from logging and any other disruption of its natural evolution. We will work with the Arc to put in more trails so when you come to Hope Springs you can see even more of this beautiful land.

Over the last few years we have been in close collaboration with the leaders of the Arc of Appalachia Preserve System, learning from and supporting each other. To learn more about other preserves and the work of the Arc, visit their website: http://www.highlandssanctuary.org/.

New Septic Sytem

Those of you who have been to Hope Springs know that we have wanted to upgrade our septic system for a long time. As you can see, we are well on our way. Jeff Evans and his crew are installing a new system and will complete it before the end of the year.

Community Grant from GE

We are very grateful to our neighbor, The General Electric Engine Testing Facility, for awarding us a $1500 Community Grant this year.

We applied for this grant earlier in the year to support a scholarship for someone from Peebles to come to the October session of our new Hope Springs Women's Leadership Collaborative. We found out in September that we had received this grant.

Just before Thanksgiving, Sam Young and Aaron Irwin from the Peebles Test Site delivered the scholarship check and toured our facility. They appreciated seeing our land and buildings and hearing the story of Hope Springs. Aaron and Sam both said they enjoyed their visit and will tell people about us

Thanks again Sam, Aaron and all at GE who made this grant to Hope Springs possible. We look forward to continuing to build a good relationship with our business neighbor and to learning from each other how to reduce our impact on the environment.

Peace,

Suzanne