Support our mission with a donation

Strong relationships and real community ties are among the biggest drivers of life well-lived, including longevity, physical and mental health, and overall happiness.

At DRFS we create a place where people come together—neighbors, strangers, parents, kids. Your support helps hold that space open, so connection can grow.

We want our workshops to be open to as many people as possible. Yet the cost of staff, materials, lunch, land-maintenance, insurance and beyond adds up. Every donated dollar helps offset those barriers, so someone who might hesitate at signing up can join anyway and find their place.

We invite instructors who have devoted their lives to traditional and nature-based skills—wood-work, tiny-home building, herbalism, folk arts, and more. Many teach from a place of generosity, not profit. Your support means we can offer them fair compensation, keep their work alive, and offer more such workshops.

In a world shifting toward automation and digital living, skills that connect us with the land, with our hands, and with others still matter. Learning how to build, plant, carve or collaborate reminds us we’re human, we’re capable, we’re in this together.

The land at Deep River Folk School isn’t just a backdrop, it’s part of the work. We maintain gardens, trails, building sites, communal spaces. Those tasks cost time, tools, fuel, insurance. And they matter for the experience of being here, grounded in place and nature.

Getting hands dirty, sitting around a lunch table together, learning from someone who knows their craft: it’s a pleasure. And it’s also a way to reconnect with yourself, with others, with land. Supporting DRFS helps keep that fun and healing alive.