The Silver Spring Time Bank tables offered an array of goodies as a fundraiser at the Oct. 7 Harvest Moon Festival in Silver Spring. Eight bakers made everything from brownies to cupcakes for the event.

The Harvest Moon Festival is an annual event that this year featured entertainment by several ethnic groups including Hawaiian dancers and singers, Caribbean steel drums, and others.

Along with entertainment, there were vendors and representatives of local nonprofit organizations including Toastmasters and the League of Women Voters. The event drew a sizeable crowd despite competition from an Indonesian Festival happening at the same time on the next block.

I personally tasted a truly delicious pumpkin scone and some lemony coconut cookies. A festival goer named Jean reported that the items she savored were “awesomely delicious” and she looks forward to the next opportunity to sample SSTB baked goods.

SSTB is a time bank in which people exchange their services for hours of credit that are “banked” so they can later redeem the credits for other services offered by other SSTB members. No cash is exchanged. However, the time bank has expenses.

Kathy Jentz, SSTB event team leader, explained, “We need donations to cover our website hosting and for the various events we hold such as the repair cafes, member socials, and swaps—there are fixed costs to putting these on (from copying flyers to buying name tags) that aren’t covered in simply swapping hours. We put our donation jars out at our events, but that rarely covers these basic costs.”

Hence, SSTB had the idea of a baked goods fundraiser at the Harvest Moon Festival.

Nancy Marucci, a time bank member, said she was happy to make a pan of homemade iced brownies for the fundraiser because she wanted to earn some time bank hours and she felt this was a fun and easy way to do so.

She said, “It’s also an opportunity to connect with a few other time bank members and the public. I also made a large sign for the table. While I was making the sign, at least a dozen people asked me what SSTB is. People were fascinated by the idea of it.”

For further information about SSTB, visit www.sstimebank.org.

Guest post and photos from Donna Sasser. In the top photo, the Halau Nohona Hawai’i Hawaiian Dancers entertain festival attendees. Below, people check out the SSTB table at the Harvest Moon Festival.