“Upstream, Downstream: Sharing the Watershed,” a Cultivating Community event

Cultivating Community, a partnership between Randolph County United and the Community Foundation of Randolph County, is excited to host Phillip Anderson, of ReThink Consulting and IUPUI, who will present Upstream, Downstream: Sharing the Watershed. Scheduled for 6:00pm on Tuesday, February 27, 2024, at the Beeson Clubhouse (900 S. Beeson Dr., Winchester), the event, which is open to the public, will explore our connections to the watershed, especially in an agricultural community.

A watershed is a stage on which people and nature gather to play multiple roles. Within any watershed there is farming, recreation, housing, industry, wildlife and natural spaces. We ask a lot of our watersheds. We expect them to provide drinking water and remove wastewater, support industry, store groundwater, and drain farm fields, paved streets and parking lots. Do we consider how, in our daily living, we contribute to the health or destruction of these living systems? In this talk, Phillip encourages attendees to consider this question in their own life and locality: “How do my actions affect the ways other people interact with the watershed?” Phillip will introduce new ways of thinking that “flow,” just like our river systems.

Phillip Anderson is a Teacher, Teller, Traveler, and Connector. As the Chief ReThinker at ReThink! Consulting, he specializes in four areas: Cultural Heritage Tourism, Servant Leadership, Strategic Planning/Facilitation, and Community Development. Phil has an extensive background in non-profit leadership serving agriculture, community development, and youth. For 40+ years, he’s wandered the highways and backroads of Indiana, successfully visiting every city, town, and village in Indiana, all 2,230 of them. It’s a story he calls Life Off The Highway. Living in Carmel, while co-owning a family farm near Frankfort, he’ll want to know where you’re from and talk about it.

Upstream, Downstream: Sharing the Watershed is presented through partnership with Indiana Humanities’ Unearthed Speakers Bureau.

A statewide nonprofit that infuses the humanities into our daily lives, Indiana Humanities connects people, opens minds and enriches lives by creating and facilitating programs that encourage Hoosiers to think, read and talk.

For more information about Upstream, Downstream: Sharing the Watershed, visit the News & Events page on the Cultivating Community website (rccultivatingcommunity.com/news-events/). Questions should be directed to Grant Cox, Scholarships and Community Development Officer with the Community Foundation or Randolph County, via phone (765-584-9077 ext. 201) or email (gcox@randolphcountyfoundation.org).

Questions about Cultivating Community should be directed to Dan Baker, CEO of Randolph County United, via phone (765-584-3266) or email (daniel.baker@randolphcountyunited.com).