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, particularly a liberal arts education, more affordable.   This organization grew out of the founders’ desire to do more than simply…

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Hike-a-Thon

We’re thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail – all 2,190 miles of it – as a fundraiser to raise both awareness and startup funding for Tenderfoot. A portion of the dollars raised will go toward our startup costs (most likely purchasing a 10+ acre piece of…

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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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OPEN HOUSE! Stop in to say hello/goodbye if you're in the Salem area today. We'll be here from noon until 3pm, trying to both find a tenant and say goodbye to friends. #multitasking #wannabuyahouse #forrent #houseforrent #moving #tellafriend Can you believe we've been off the Appalachian Trail for a whole month?! Many of you have asked us what's next. (We really appreciated the person who asked what's now; you understood it would be reckless to charge ahead with major life moves before readjusting to expectations like only going to the bathroom in bathrooms.) After 7 months of spending money and beating on our bodies, it's time for an income and some health insurance. This lovely photo is from our soon-to-be new stomping grounds: John Bryan State Park in Yellow Springs, OH. (You can't move somewhere without first checking out the quality of their hiking trails, right?) Yellow Springs is home to Antioch College where Lindsey will be working in Student Life. What about Tenderfoot, you ask? Antioch's mission is well-aligned with Tenderfoot's, and we already have plans to partner on a few things. Independently, we're turning our attention to securing our finances, community partnerships, and a permanent home for our operations. We called 2018 the Year of the Tenderfoot (accurate in its literal sense), and we're calling 2019 the Year of Securing our Footing (though some tenderness has lingered into the new year). We can't accomplish any of the above alone, so if you're interested in volunteering, there are lots of meaningful ways for you to be involved. Reach out! Our moving date is January 14, so if you're in NE Ohio and want to say hello/goodbye, let us know. If you're in SW Ohio, maybe we'll see you soon. We'll be doing events in both areas this spring, so stay tuned! #securingourfooting #nextadventure #butwelikedoutdoorbathrooms #philanthropistswanted #nonprofit #501c3 #startup #tenderfootadventures We crossed hundreds of bridges as we hiked the full length of the Appalachian Trail, but this was the very last one. A fellow thru-hiker snapped this picture, catching us in the act of one of our trail traditions: kissing on every bridge. This habit was inspired by @mountunion, the college where we met as students and later reunited as colleagues. Mount Union has two lakes, and campus lore says that if you kiss someone on the bridge that crosses them, you'll marry that person. We're already married, but we chose to take this tradition to the trail for a few reasons: •Stopping at every bridge meant we took a moment to truly notice streams, rivers, and waterfalls. Mountain views were beautiful, but fairly plentiful. Water views were less common and oh-so rejuvenating. After collecting and filtering every drop we consumed for 7 months, we feel deep awe and respect for water. •Kissing on every bridge made it hard to get too far away from each other. The trail isn't generally wide enough to walk side-by-side, and it's easy to get separated over time as we each navigated climbs and obstacles at our own pace. So, waiting for each other at bridges was a safety measure that ensured we had landmarks to report to rescue personnel as last points of contact in the event that one of us went missing. (We also waited for each other at road crossings.) •Perhaps most importantly, Kissing Bridges required that we had to be happy enough with each other to pucker up whenever we came upon a bridge. Sometimes this meant standing on the bridge for a while to hash through things. Maybe we wouldn't go as far as we wanted that day, but we didn't let small annoyances fester, and we believe this practice helped us make it the full 2,190 miles feeling like a team. It took us until the very last day of our 210 days to get a picture, but we're so very happy to have captured such a core element of our hike. #teachingsofthetrail #safetyfirst #honeymoon #kissmeyoufool #tenderfootadventures #appalachiantrail #AT2018
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  1. Appalachian Trail Hike-a-Thon
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