In diversity is stability. Our interests as varied as the colors of a rainbow or as many shades of green found in Ireland. Below are some of the many projects or organizations we, or Inn Serendipity, support or serve.

In Her Boots, an award-winning program of the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) Founded and directed by Lisa Kivirist, the MOSES Rural Women's Project champions women farmers and food-based ecopreneurs, providing resources, networking and collaborative opportunities to inspire new business start-ups that support food system change. Additionally, the RWP serves as a national leader in the women in sustainable agriculture movement, supporting a collective voice, collaborative vision and leadeship opportunities for women. RWP projects include women farming training (including on-farm workshops such as "In Her Boots: Sustainable Farming For Women, By Women" and land conservation training), facilitating the Women, Food & Agriculture Network - Wisconsin (WFAN-WI) which connects Wisconsn women committed to sustainable agriculture, media connections and educational outreach.

Soil Sisters: A Celebration of Wisconsin Farms and Rural Life For three days and with five unique components and involving numerous women-owned farms, the jam-packed SOIL SISTERS culinary event celebrates WisconsinÕs family farms and rural life in and around the farming communities of Monroe, New Glarus, Blanchardville and Brodhead, Wisconsin, over the first weekend of August. It features workshops, culinary events and tour of farms. An initiative of the South Central Chapter of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, SOIL SISTERS is nation's largest women-led event of its kind in the country.

On Farm Food Service program with Renewing the Countryside From on-farm dinners to pizza farms to culinary tours and food events, there is increasing opportunity for farms to diversify and grow income through expanding into agritourism offerings that feature local foods. A Webinar is the perfect starting point and available for both Minnesota and Wisconsin. Also available in both Minnesota and Wisconsin-specific versions, the Come & Get It! on-farm food service manual guides farmers to assess and evaluate the business planning aspects of adding an on-farm food enterprise. Subjects covered include: navigating regulatory categories, assessing market opportunities, food business licenses, marketing, liability and food safety compliance. Come & Get It! provides training and resources to support farmers to successfully launch farm-based food businesses in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA) If you've ever thought about making your own power from the wind or sun, or perhaps building a house from straw bales, then contact the MREA; they're one of the best resources in the Midwest for information and hands-on workshops, like the wind turbine installation or straw bale construction. They also host the World's largest renewable energy fair every year in Amherst, WI, held on the summer solstice, naturally.

Global Fund for Children Since 1996, the Global Fund for Children has developed a range of innovative books that give children insight into cultural, social, and environmental diversity. Among the awarding-winning titles are Children from Australia to Zimbabwe, Extraordinary Girls, To Be a Kid, Xanadu, and Let the Games Begin!. In 2001, Come Out and Play and Back to School were the first two titles from the new "It's a Kid's World" series. In 2002, a board book, Animal Friends, was released and most recently, To Be an Artist (Feb., 2003). From the very early stages, John has been involved with co-authoring several children's books with Maya Ajmera as well as contributing numerous photos to the organization's many projects. The Global Fund for Children is a nonprofit organization that helps young people develop the knowledge and skills they need to become productive, caring members of our global society. Through its Books for Kids Project, SHAKTI for Children donates books to community organizations that serve children in need. The Books for Kids project has donated more than 35,000 books to schools and organizations in the U.S. and around the world. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of SHAKTI for Children books, along with other private gifts, supports community-based educational programs for children around the world through the Global Fund for Children's grantmaking.

Trees For the Future Travel, while an enriching, engaging and mind-opening experience, also comes with consequences to the environment. Therefore, in an attempt to off-set carbon dioxide emissions into the environment that come from our, and our guests', travel, we support the Trees for Travel program of this nonprofit group. Carbon dioxide is the largest contributor to the "greenhouse effect" which leads to global warming. Each Trees for Travel certificate we purchase will help local conservation groups plant as many as 10 trees in the Honduras, our neighbor in Central America which was devastated by flooding in 1998, resulting from Hurricane Mitch. Each year through our donation, we help plant about 1,700 trees which, on average, will sequester about 50 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per tree over the next thirty years. In other words, we will be sequestering about 2,550,000 pounds of carbon dioxide over the next thirty years (1,700 trees x 50 pounds/tree x 30years). Additionally, we've undertaken a tree-planting initiative on our two properties: on the farm, spruce and pine have been planted to establish windbreaks and wildlife corridors; at the Inn Serendipity Woods cabin, 550 mostly native hardwood trees were planted as a riparian buffer along a stream and an active forest management plan undertaken.

Real Goods & the Institute for Solar Living Since the very start, Inn Serendipity has been recognized as a showplace for energy conservation and a more sustainable lifestyle. We are always amazed by the creativity and diversity of ways that many folks we met or visited have discovered to tread more lightly on Earth. By becoming a "demo home" for Real Goods and their Institute for Solar Living, we're hoping to share our approach and learn about how others have journeyed along similar paths.

Michael Fields Agricultural Institute Talk about planting seeds for a more sustainable tommorrow. The MFAI's on-going agricultural research efforts, workshops and first year internship program are connecting people to the food they eat, and their health. The Cooperative Enterprise Program is a second-year internship opportunity offered to aspiring farmers who have successfully completed MFAI's organic and biodynamic farming internship. Inn Serendipity's partnership that sprouted the Cooperative Enterprise Program in 2000 was off to a promising start for the first two years with the upstart of Morning Star Garden. In 2001, Janet House launched Simple Abundance Farm. The second-year intern hone the pragmatic skills of planning and managing a farming operation based at the 5.5-acre Inn Serendipity farmstead. A couple years later, Andrea Weimer launched her cut flower enterprise. Now, we work with Michael Fields Agricultural Institute on various education programs related to sustainable agriculture.

Mississippi Valley Conservancy (MVC) Seeing the land as a community to which we belong. That's what this Land Trust non-profit and our land conservation efforts are all about. By working cooperatively with the MVC, we plan to conserve the spectacular lands, wildlife and scenic beauty of the Inn Serendipity Woods property located in the Coulee Region of southwestern and centralwestern Wisconsin. We have already joined their landowner registry program, a "handshake" agreement to implement land stewardship practices. It's our way of making sure that the Seventh Generation can search for morels (wild mushrooms) and kingfishers just like we do.