 Marilene and Brian Richardson Marilene Richardson's passion for bringing sustainable living information and community-building skills to people of all ages prompted her to create the Foundation for Sustainable Community. Marilene recieved her Permaculture Design Certificate after living and studying on Orcas Island at the Bullock Brothers Farm. As a child, Marilene developed a deep reverence for the natural world, while running free in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. In 2003, she co-founded the Lynnwood Multi-Cultural Fair, which continues to be an annual community event. Marilene has worked extensively on building intentional community and has assisted or taught classes on topics ranging from biodiesel production to gardening and food preservation. Her six years as a volunteer at The Root Connection Farm grounded her belief in the importance of local, healthy food. Her desire to make organic meals more readily available, while supporting local CSA farms, led her to found and direct an organic catering business. Marilene enjoys raising chickens and keeping bees as well growing and preserving much of her family's food. She also serves as Secretary for the Snohomish Parks Foundation, is the contact person for the Snohomish Permaculture Guild and is the happy owner of FlorAbundance Garden Design.
Brian Richardson is a long-time Washington resident who, like his wife Marilene, grew up spending a lot of time in local forests backpacking, biking or just exploring. Brian is a certified electrical administrator and journeyman electrician. As an electrician, he has specialized in industrial and commercial work, though he is also well versed in residential applications. Brian has a strong background in residential construction, loves carpentry and has an immense appreciation for custom woodwork. Recently, he has been branching out into alternative energy, including residential solar. He is also a certified auto mechanic with experience in biodiesel and straight vegetable-oil conversions on diesel vehicles. All of these passions and skills mesh with Brian's desire to work with local industry and community members as they continue to move towards more sustainable models of building and living. Together, Marilene and Brian are raising and homeschooling two energetic children in Snohomish, Washington. As a long-held family dream, they are building a modest-sized, passive-solar home. Its features include solar-assist hot-water heating, super-insulation and a composting toilet, as well as other systems focused on energy efficiency. They have designed a wonderful example of permaculture land use. Brian and Marilene also participated in converting three diesel vehicles to run on waste vegetable oil at the Bio Fuel Seminar hosted by the Bullock Brothers Permaculture Farm on Orcas Island. As they continue to enjoy exploring more sustainable ways of life, they are grateful to be able to use their home and land as practical examples for community education - to offer classes and workshops as well as to provide a community meeting space.
Stef and Corinna Frenzl
Stef Frenzl's passion for conserving wildlands began when he planted his first willow tree at the age of 3 and watched a beaver eat it only a few moments later. His interest has expanded to strengthening his personal and spiritual connection with the land, and building whole, healthy communities. He loves teaching others about the natural world, sharing his wine and cider-making experiments and playing œnative instruments. He has worked in the field of environmental conservation for over 10 years protecting and restoring wildlands, rivers, healthy agricultural lands and marine waters. His mentors include Jon Young, Tom Brown, Jr., Peter Forbes, Helen & Scott Nearing, and most of all, his beloved wife, Corinna. Corinna Frenzl has learned that one of the easiest ways to bring community together is through wholesome nutritious food. When she is not busy studying to complete her medical transcriptionist training or working at The Polishing Stone Magazine you will most likely find her in the kitchen making herbal recipes, medicines and brews, fermented foods, homemade cheeses and soaps. Corinna is a former student of Ravencroft Gardens, a community-centered herb program, and naturalist Jon Young. Her other passion is learning and her new projects are knitting, spinning fibers, permaculture and playing the guitar. Corinna lives in Snohomish, Washington with her husband Stef and her two furbabies, Scout and Dandy Lion. Mimi and Gary Delfiner Mimi Delfiner grew up in Germany and Switzerland where her parents worked a bio-dynamic farmstead - complete with milk sheep, bee hives, extensive fruit and nut orchards and a big organic garden. Her love of earth-connected and self-sufficient lifestyles started there and she has been growing food and medicine ever since. Mimi presently lives in Eugene, Oregon with her partner, Gary, and their two homeschooled children. She works as coordinator at Growers Market, one of the oldest food co-ops in the country. Mimi sees eating local, organic foods as a major contribution to our well-being on this planet, and she and Gary both strive to promote this idea in their neighborhood through an ongoing transformation of their half-acre urban lot into an edible food forest. Mimi plans to offer learning opportunities for children to explore homesteading and permaculture skills both on their property and through groups such as the Eugene Permaculture Guild and the Lane County Food Coalition. Gary Delfiner developed an appreciation of innovative and green building designs and techniques early on in his life, spending much time at his father's housing construction sites. Later on, he recognized first hand the implications of a "sick house" when their son developed serious health issues due to mold in the walls. It was then that Gary decided to study indoor home health by training as a Master Home Environmentalist. Growing awareness and concern about energy consumption - and the environmental and social nightmares that so often walk hand-in-hand with living our "American Dream" - compelled Gary and Mimi to downsize their family's footprint by converting their small, under-insulated, older home into a solar grid inter-tied, zero-net energy, healthy home. It also features grey- and rain-water harvesting systems and is surrounded by a nutritionally abundant, self-sustaining, urban food forest. Gary loves to share his experience and knowledge as a green builder with the wider community and through his consulting work.
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