Purpose

Tenderfoot Fair Trade Learning Lab’s goals are 3-fold: to foster self-reliance, to teach sustainable habits and ways of thinking, and to make a college education more affordable. This organization grew out of the founders’ desire to do more than simply complain about a few…

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Hike-a-Thon

We thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail – all 2,191 miles of it – as a fundraiser to raise both awareness and startup funding for Tenderfoot. We raised nearly $8,000! Half of these funds helped us purchase property to serve as Tenderfoot’s permanent home, and half…

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Tenderfood

Encouraging self-reliance is one of our primary goals, and what better way to do that than through food? Tenderfood is a monthly get-together when we make and eat something from scratch, then send home extras with our chefs so they can share the deliciousness…

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Beginning, middle, and end. On December 5, 2018 we finished our 210th day and our final mile on the Appalachian Trail. The 365 days since have been surreal. Returning to society with all its noise and distractions gives our memories of the trail a dream-like quality, a dream that we've spent the past year interpreting and reflecting on. Nestled in my warm house with indoor plumbing and absorbed in my 8 to 5 job, I can go days without thinking about the trail, but the moment I step into the woods, the memories flood back and I find myself listening for water to collect. In some ways, Travis and I have different memories of the trail, and our reflections since have led us to unique take-aways. If you're interested in hearing some of our stories and lessons learned, join us for a cozy evening at Blue Willow Farm (Rudy & Priscilla Roggenkamp's house) in Alliance, OH on December 29th at 7pm. Message us for the address. #feralhumans #trailversary #somuchfalling #civilizationisoverrated #civilizationiswonderful #dreamstate #tenderfootadventures #appalachiantrail #at2018 How it all began! Travis and I met as dance partners in the 2005 @mountunion production of Pirates of Penzance. We worked both on stage and back stage, and we can't think about this show without thinking about Professor @rudyroggenkamp 's awesome set design. Rudy and his wife @priscilla.roggenkamp continue to be mentors and friends. Priscilla is on our board, and they're hosting Tenderfoot on December 29 for a talk on our Appalachian Trail thru-hike. Join us at Blue Willow Farm to raise a glass to Rudy's imminent retirement and to hear about our adventures on land. (No adventures at sea - Travis retired from that pirate life). #stillascalawag #castandcrew #appalachiantrail2018 #tenderfootadventures Throughout 15 years of working in education, I've encouraged people to go to college and I've told others it's not for everyone. I think it SHOULD be for everyone, but the price tag plus the lecture format often makes it unattainable and unappealing. In the same way I won't learn to fish if you give me a fish, I won't learn to do anything else if you give me your brain's contents on the subject in a long-winded information dump. Learning is for everyone, even if the traditional classroom isn't. That's why Tenderfoot is all about experiential learning, or learning with our whole bodies-- our hands, our brains, our stomachs, our hearts, our backs. It's a way more interesting approach, and research says it's more effective. So, we've been at a conference in Washington the past few days, learning how to be better experiential educators. One of our takeaways is the need for play, even as adults. The carousel ride was us putting our learning to immediate use. #play #itsforeveryone #giraffevshorse #giraffewon #butonlyonthecarousel #ditchthelecture #knowingisntdoing #experientiallearning #tenderfootadventures
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