tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88416567058629471522024-03-12T22:29:49.056-04:00Vermont Children's Trust presents the Because ProjectThe Because Project asks Vermonters to share their stories about people and experiences that have shaped their lives, especially during their formative years — stories that may inspire others to get involved. Because together, we can all make a difference.Theo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14207537561816146038noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-32847390310391468582014-01-04T10:40:00.002-05:002014-01-04T10:40:49.451-05:00<div class="SpanningFeature ContentDefault " id="StoryHeader" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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The Because Project: Former Governor James Douglas </h1>
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"I developed an interest in doing charity work because of the Boston Red Sox."</h2>
<cite class="byline" style="color: #666666; display: block; font-size: 1em; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.kidsvt.com/vermont/ArticleArchives?author=2160210" rel="author" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: none;">JAMES DOUGLAS</a></cite></div>
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Submit your stories for the Because Project! Email them to<a href="mailto:fagan@vtchildrenstrust.org" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: none;">fagan@vtchildrenstrust.org</a>. Submissions should be 300 to 600 words long and respond to the prompt "I am/decided to/learned to _______ because of ______." Kids VT will regularly feature these stories.</div>
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The exciting turnaround season of the World Champion 2013 Boston Red Sox brings back my childhood memories of New England's team. I recall attending games at Fenway Park with my dad even before I could understand what baseball was all about. I also remember being intrigued by the team's official charity, the Jimmy Fund, an effort dedicated to helping children with cancer.</div>
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While still in elementary school, I decided to organize a fundraiser for the Jimmy Fund in our yard. I charged my family and neighbors modest fees to take their chances at games of skill, such as throwing a bean bag at a target. I raised less than $10, but I received a very nice letter from the Fund thanking me for my efforts and explaining that every amount, no matter how small, helped the cause.</div>
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That experience cemented my affinity for the Red Sox. Years later, as governor of Vermont, I had the opportunity to meet Mike Andrews, the all-star second baseman who has served as chairman of the Jimmy Fund for nearly three decades. I even got to throw the first pitch at Fenway — yes, I was nervous, but it crossed the inside corner of the plate at the knees.</div>
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More importantly, though, my first Red Sox-inspired fundraiser contributed to my interest in charitable endeavors later in life. I've helped with a host of fund-raising campaigns since then, often as a board member for nonprofit organizations. Before getting into government full time, I served as the executive director of the United Way of Addison County. I'm currently helping to raise money for the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation and am honorary cochair of the capital campaign for Lund, a nonprofit serving Vermont's pregnant or parenting teens and women, adoptive families, and children. </div>
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I've learned that charitable efforts reward the donor as much as the recipient — there's a real sense of accomplishment when a goal is achieved or someone's life is improved.</div>
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Over the years, baseball and helping those in need have become two of my favorite pastimes. I can't think of a better combination. Go Sox!</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-78894139037946155392013-11-01T12:45:00.000-04:002013-11-01T12:45:00.467-04:00<div class="SpanningFeature ContentDefault " id="StoryHeader" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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The Because Project: Katharine Montstream </h1>
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"I became an artist because of my elementary school art teacher."</h2>
<cite class="byline" style="color: #666666; display: block; font-size: 1em; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.kidsvt.com/vermont/ArticleArchives?author=2158861" rel="author" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: none;">KATHARINE MONTSTREAM</a></cite></div>
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Elementary school in the '60s was hard for me. I was painfully shy, lacked confidence and dressed like a ragtag tomboy. My mom even made me wear a top with "My name is Katharine" hand-embroidered across the front so teachers wouldn't call me "Kathy" — she hated that nickname. To make matters worse, I was terrible at kickball and was among the last ones picked for every team.</div>
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As a kid, I mostly wanted to be running through backyards, catching frogs at Beaver Brook and making mud pies with my neighborhood friends. The only thing I loved more than playing outside was painting and drawing. And that was because of Ms. Pescatello, my elementary school art instructor and hero.</div>
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Ms. Pescatello was the coolest. She was young and had flipped-up blonde hair with long bangs. She wore the latest platform shoes and drove the most amazing Volkswagen Beetle. She was a free-spirited, bell-bottom-wearing hippie artist, and I would listen and hang on her every word.</div>
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While I found algebra, chemistry and classes with long book assignments difficult, I loved my art classes. They were a place of solace and calm. In a world where kids could be mean and exclusive, everyone was respected in Ms. Pescatello's art room. She would assign a project, and I would start in with gusto. When other students struggled, they would get up and slowly walk by to see what I was working on. It was the only time I felt cool in school.</div>
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Ms. Pescatello worked hard. In the summertime, she offered art classes from her home. I was lucky; my parents saw that I had some natural ability for painting, and signed me up for every one of them.</div>
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In one class, we focused on contour drawing. With a random cereal box in front of us, we would take a marker and draw it. The rule was, you couldn't look down, and there had to be a small dot of marker every inch or so, proving you didn't just run the marker without studying the cereal box in a slow, methodical way. There was no guessing the way Tony the Tiger's whiskers were shaped. You had to look hard and <i>draw</i>.</div>
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I sometimes think art saved me. Ms. Pescatello's lessons gave me hope and purpose, in and outside of school. I kept taking art classes and, soon after college, I was showing and selling paintings. I never thought I would become an artist and make a living, but it happened. For this, I am so grateful to my parents for their support and, of course, to my favorite art teacher.</div>
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The Vermont Children's Trust Foundation supports statewide prevention programs for children and families to help give all kids a fair chance at success.<i>The Because Project asks Vermonters to share their stories about people and experiences that have shaped their lives, especially during their formative years — stories that may inspire others to get involved. Because together we can all make a difference.</i></h6>
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<a a="" addthis:description="" addthis:title="The Because Project: Governor Peter Shumlin" addthis:url="http://www.kidsvt.com/vermont/the-because-project-governor-peter-shumlin/Content?oid=2157964" because="" claire="" class="addthis_button_compact at300m" how="" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pubid=xa-4ee14c4c3582088f" i="" learned="" named="" of="" ogelsby.="" read="" style="color: #f35920; cursor: pointer; float: left; padding: 0px 2px; text-decoration: none;" teacher="" to=""><span class="at16nc at300bs at15nc at15t_compact at16t_compact" style="background-image: url(http://ct1.addthis.com/static/r07/widget013_top.gif); background-position: 0px -576px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; display: block; float: left; height: 16px; line-height: 16px !important; margin-right: 4px; overflow: hidden; width: 16px;"><span class="at_a11y" style="height: 1px !important; overflow: hidden !important; position: absolute !important; top: auto !important; width: 1px !important;">More Sharing Services</span></span>Share</a><div class="atclear" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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The Because Project: Governor Peter Shumlin </h1>
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"I learned how to read because of a teacher named Claire Ogelsby."</h2>
<cite class="byline" style="color: #666666; display: block; font-size: 1em; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.kidsvt.com/vermont/ArticleArchives?author=2157963" rel="author" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: none;">PETER SHUMLIN</a></cite></div>
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On January 7, 2011, as I was sworn in as Vermont's 81st governor, I recalled my mom saying that, in my grade-school years, it seemed more likely that I would struggle to find a job than that I would run for office.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
I was a kid who learned differently. In the second grade, I was called to the principal's office with my parents, where they were told what I already knew — that despite all their good efforts, my teachers could not teach me how to read. The prospects of my being a successful student and going to college were dim, they were told. That was not a great day.</div>
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Fortunately, I had one teacher who believed in me: Claire Ogelsby. She later became Vermont's teacher of the year. After a long day at school, Claire loaded me into her Willys Jeep and took me to her log cabin deep in the woods on Windmill Hill Road in Westminster West. In warm weather, we sat on her lawn; in cold weather, we huddled around the woodstove. There, slowly and creatively, she taught me how to read.</div>
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What I remember best about Claire was that no matter how difficult the challenge, no matter how innovative she had to be or how hard she had to work, she never gave up on me. Therefore, neither did I.</div>
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Though Claire passed away shortly before I became governor, I feel that she is always with me. Thanks to her belief in me, I learned to view my learning differences as strengths. Now, when I speak with others with learning difficulties, I let them know that with creativity and hard work, we can all overcome our challenges.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
<i>The Because Project asks Vermonters to share their stories about people and experiences that have shaped their lives, especially during their formative years — stories that may inspire others to get involved. Because together we can all make a difference.</i></div>
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The Vermont Children's Trust Foundation supports statewide prevention programs for children and families to help give all kids a fair chance at success.</h6>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-13948949059891638202013-07-08T14:52:00.001-04:002013-07-08T14:52:26.396-04:00<div class="SpanningFeature ContentDefault " id="StoryHeader" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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The Because Project: Don Wright </h1>
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"I lead a creative life because of my mother."</h2>
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<i>The Because Project asks Vermonters to share their stories about people and experiences that have shaped their lives, especially during their formative years — stories that may inspire others to get involved. Because together we can all make a difference.</i></div>
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<i>Don Wright is the founder of youth-theater company Very Merry Theatre.</i></div>
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Moms obviously play a critical role in all of our lives, but my mother, Nancy Means Wright, has probably been the most influential person in mine.</div>
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My mother is a writer; she's published 18 books of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. When my three siblings and I were growing up in the '50s and '60s, both she and my father were teachers at Proctor Academy, a prep school in Andover, N.H. There was a very old-school headmaster there who didn't think women should teach English, so my mother taught French and served as the drama director.</div>
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We lived at the school during the academic year but spent summers and holidays at our ramshackle house in Cornwall, Vt. My mother used to leave books at the ends of our beds — great, age-appropriate stories that were absolutely seminal — from <i>The Hobbit</i> to <i>Johnny Tremain</i> to <i>The Diary of a Young Girl</i> by Anne Frank. She'd check to see if we were done, and when we were, we would find another book at the end of the bed.</div>
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She directed three plays a year at the school. Whenever a scene called for kids, she would toss us onstage. She did the same with our pets. At Very Merry Theatre, the Vermont theater company I founded, we often gather the kids together and tell them stories. One of my favorite stories to tell is about the time our family cat peed in an actress' lap in the middle of a show, and how she handled it and the show went on. Of course, the kids just love that.</div>
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Mom would use our furniture, too. I always knew one of her plays was getting close when I came home from school and the couch was gone.</div>
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Growing up this way kindled my passion for storytelling, which is what fuels the work I do now.</div>
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My mother is also a really strong feminist. She went down to Washington to march against the Vietnam War and was very engaged in the civil rights movement. I grew up in an environment where it wasn't OK to accept the status quo. I had to think critically about the world. That mindset is very helpful when it comes to making art.</div>
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My mother didn't have an easy childhood herself. She was 10 years younger than her next youngest sibling. Her father died when she was 10, and her mom started working as a "house mom" at boarding schools and summer camps. They moved around the East Coast living a bit of a gypsy life until my mom was 19 and went to Vassar. I think that made her self-sufficient and adaptable.</div>
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My mom has an unflagging passion for writing. She's 84 now and has a new book coming out. She still gets up every morning and writes. She taught me that you can choose to lead a creative life and sustain yourself. She's inspiring.</div>
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The Vermont Children's Trust Foundation supports statewide prevention programs for children and families to help give all kids a fair chance at success.</h6>
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Submit your stories for the Because Project! Email them to fagan@vtchildrenstrust.org. Submissions should be 300 to 600 words long and respond to the prompt "I am/decided to/learned to _______ because of ______." Kids VT will feature one of these stories in each issue.</h6>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-66570124325269831802013-05-30T14:07:00.001-04:002013-05-30T14:07:58.825-04:00<div class="SpanningFeature ContentDefault " id="StoryHeader" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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The Because Project: Nancy Stearns Bercaw </h1>
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"I found my voice because my father lost his."</h2>
<cite class="byline" style="color: #666666; display: block; font-size: 1em; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.kidsvt.com/vermont/ArticleArchives?author=2131977" rel="author" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: none;">NANCY STEARNS BERCAW</a></cite></div>
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<a href="http://www.kidsvt.com/vermont/ImageArchives?oid=2152971" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: none;">COURTESY OF NANCY STEARNS BERCAW</a></div>
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<i>The Because Project asks Vermonters to share their stories about people and experiences that have shaped their lives, especially during their formative years — stories that may inspire others to get involved. Because together we can all make a difference.</i></div>
<div style="margin: 1.12em 0px; padding: 0px;">
Bercaws and Alzheimer's disease are part of the same double helix. When my father was in medical school in the early 1960s, his father began forgetting. Watching my grandfather slowly and steadily lose his faculties solidified my dad's desire to become a neurologist. After Grandfather Bercaw's death in 1971, Beauregard Bercaw, M.D., asked the coroner for his dad's atrophied brain, and then placed it in a jar at the center of his office desk.</div>
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With Grandpa's gray matter as compass and crystal ball, my dad raised me to live fearlessly, to fight suffering and to face death.</div>
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Beau taught me to swim, at age 5, in an Alabama river strewn with cottonmouth moccasins. He took me, at age 9, to see the "freak show" in Florida — a lesson meant to convey that the people on display weren't the ones trapped by stereotypes. He showed me, at age 10, how to canoe through a lake full of alligators by hitting their snouts with the paddle. He instructed me, at age 12, on how to call for Bigfoot as we hiked through the Puerto Rican rain forest. He paid me, at age 15, to read books all summer long.</div>
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In turn, I rewarded Beau's efforts to strengthen my body and my mind.</div>
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When he was 45, I pleased him by getting a swimming scholarship to college. When he was 50, I took him on a hair-raising trip through rural Kenya in an old purple Jeep. Throughout his 60s, I wrote him long, detailed letters during my trips to Korea, Thailand, China, Nepal and India. When he was 71 and 72, I visited him in a memory-care facility in Florida. When he was 73, I thanked him for the lessons of a lifetime as he lay dying from complications associated with Alzheimer's disease.</div>
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I don't have my father's brain in a jar on my desk. But I do have a memoir about him, called <i>Brain in a Jar</i>, that rests on my coffee table. Because of it, the whole world can see how much he meant to me. And because our jarred-brain journey continues, my son can decide how to be in the event that my voice is lost, too.</div>
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The Vermont Children's Trust Foundation supports statewide prevention programs for children and families to help give all kids a fair chance at success.</h6>
<h6 style="border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; color: #222222; font-family: StRyde-MediumItalic, 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">
Submit your stories for the Because Project! Email them to fagan@vtchildrenstrust.org. Submissions should be 300 to 600 words long and respond to the prompt "I am/decided to/learned to _______ because of ______." Kids VT will feature one of these stories in each issue.</h6>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-90732202612229345002013-05-03T13:14:00.000-04:002013-05-03T13:14:13.135-04:00<br />
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The Because Project: Janet Dupont </h1>
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"I am an obstetric nurse and nurse educator because of the encouragement I received from my grandmother."</h2>
<cite class="byline" style="color: #666666; display: block; font-size: 1em; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.kidsvt.com/vermont/ArticleArchives?author=2151897" rel="author" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: none;">JANET DUPONT</a></cite></div>
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<span class="clicktozoom" style="color: #999999; display: block; font-size: 9px; text-align: right;">click to enlarge</span><a class="zoomable" href="http://www.kidsvt.com/imager/janet-dupont/b/original/2151899/0513/feature1.jpg" rel="ImageFlipBook_imgGroup" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: none;" title="Janet Dupont - Matthew Thorsen"><img alt="Janet Dupont - Matthew Thorsen" src="http://www.kidsvt.com/imager/b/story/2151899/0513/feature1.jpg" style="border: 0px;" /></a></div>
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<li class="l0 credit" style="color: #666666; font-size: 9px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 0px 3px; padding: 0px; text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase;">MATTHEW THORSEN</li>
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In elementary school, I was a struggling student with poor self-esteem; I had trouble reading and barely passed first grade. Fortunately, I had a loving grandmother who valued education.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
I grew up just outside of Philadelphia; my grandmother, Ellen Ward, lived in Ocean City, N.J., two hours away. I spent my summers with her — at the beach, the pool, the boardwalk.</div>
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My grandmother didn't get very far in school; she left after eighth grade to work and help support her family. Later, during the Great Depression, she raised four children while working day and night from home smocking dresses — that's a difficult and time-consuming embroidery technique that you don't often see these days. But she approached each day with a wonderful, positive attitude.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
The summer I was 7, she encouraged me to read every day. That daily practice helped build my self-confidence and led me to love books. Slowly, as my reading skills improved, so did my grades. My grandmother's can-do attitude overpowered my fear of failure — and learning became a way of life for me.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
My family moved to Vermont when I was 15. My confidence had grown, fueled by academic successes and my grandmother's unconditional love and encouragement. I graduated valedictorian of my high school class and went on to complete two bachelor's degrees, two master's degrees and, just recently, a PhD in nursing education.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
My grandmother didn't live to see me graduate from nursing school. She was diagnosed with cancer and moved to Vermont while I attended the University of Vermont school of nursing; she died during my junior year. I helped take care of her in those last few years of her life. Even through her illness, she continued to encourage me to do my very best and to be my own person.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
I've tried to follow her advice.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
As a nurse, I was drawn to obstetrics; I've enjoyed a 26-year career working as an RN in the Birthing Center at Fletcher Allen Health Care. I feel fortunate to be able to help families during such a life-changing time and am thankful to have a job that I love.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
I've also been teaching nursing at Vermont Technical College for 13 years. Just as my grandmother taught me to love learning, I hope to instill in my students a love for women's health and newborn care.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
I married the man of my dreams, Butch DuPont, 23 years ago. We have two sons — Matthew, whose name means "God's gift," and John, named after my grandfather, John Ward. As they leave the nest, I look forward to filling it back up with grandchildren. I hope I can love and support them the way my grandmother loved and supported me.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
<i>The Vermont Children’s Trust Foundation supports statewide prevention programs for children and families to help give all kids a fair chance at success.</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
<i>The Because Project asks Vermonters to share their stories about people and experiences that have shaped their lives, especially during their formative years — stories that may inspire others to get involved. Because together we can all make a difference.</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
<i>Submit your stories for the Because Project! Email them to fagan@vtchildrenstrust.org. Submissions should be 300 to 600 words long and respond to the prompt "I am/decided to/learned to _________ because of __________." Kids VT will feature one of these stories in each issue.</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-3648572351295128232013-04-22T10:12:00.000-04:002013-04-22T10:12:07.278-04:00<div class="SpanningFeature ContentDefault " id="StoryHeader" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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The BeCause Project: Rusty DeWees, aka "The Logger" </h1>
<h2 class="subheadline" style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; margin: 4px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;">
I'm a performer because of Robert R. Ringer.</h2>
<cite class="byline" style="color: #666666; display: block; font-size: 1em; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.kidsvt.com/vermont/ArticleArchives?author=2151192" rel="author" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: none;">RUSTY DEWEES</a></cite></div>
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<li class="l0" style="border-top-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; clear: both; font-size: 13px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="commentItem" href="http://www.kidsvt.com/vermont/the-because-project-rusty-dewees-aka-the-logger/Content?oid=2151193#readerComments" style="background-image: url(http://www.kidsvt.com/images/icons/article_tools/comment.gif); background-position: 5px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #666666; display: block; font-size: 0.8em; padding: 4px 0px 4px 28px; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;">COMMENTS</a></li>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
<i>The Vermont Children’s Trust Foundation supports statewide prevention programs for children and families to help give all kids a fair chance at success.</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
<i>The Because Project asks Vermonters to share their stories about people and experiences that have shaped their lives, especially during their formative years — stories that may inspire others to get involved. Because together we can all make a difference.</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because when I was 24, Robert Ringer cast me in my first nonmusical as Tilden in the Vermont Repertory Theater's production of Sam Shepard's <i>A Buried Child</i>. The part, play, his direction and I fit together perfectly. I fell hard.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because he revived the rehearsal/performance space in Fort Ethan Allen that we called the Chapel, providing plaster and paint, duct tape, cleanser, a mop, brooms, hammers, and a cat's paw — and elbow grease, curiosity and passion.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because he rented a dinged-up, loud, smelly, unreliable plug-in Salamander heater for the Chapel. A quarter century later, I can still smell it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because his rehearsals started ahead of schedule and ran late.</div>
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Because he looked like a play director (think Foster Brooks not in character).</div>
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Because he had a pet monkey.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because he taught at Stowe Prep School back in the day when it wasn't cool to teach at a prep school.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because he most always wore running sneaks, cords, a heavy black turtleneck and glasses that, when not set near the end of his nose, hung from a dime-store chain just below his neck.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because he didn't direct when he directed.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because during rehearsals, he'd often not watch the action. Instead, he'd sidestep gingerly, a few feet left, a few right, over and over, eyes closed, listening.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because he allowed questions to answer themselves.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because you welcomed his notes.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because for him, the most important thing wasn't having fun.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because for him, theater wasn't magic.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because for him, theater was work.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because his theater paid.</div>
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Because as you played, you'd hear his polite, mostly unsuccessful attempts to quell laughter.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because during bows, you'd see — way back left in the balcony — his unmistakable silhouette clapping and raising a hand to his face to wipe tears.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because post-show, his appreciation for the work completed was sincere and tender, but only subtly on display.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because one day he told me about David Budbill's <i>Judevine</i>, which inspired "The Logger." "There's this play," he said. "It's like a Vermonter's <i>Our Town</i>. You'd be good in it."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because, not too old, he died in a care home, a few months after my dad. Same care home as my dad. Six rooms separated them.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because his wife and daughter and I are still close.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because he'd often say, "I worked a lot with this great director who would always..." And I knew, in the future, I'd reference him that way.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because more than two decades ago, working in Robert Ringer-directed plays spoiled me so that I've worked in just two plays since, and have scant desire and zero plans to work in another.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
I would not bet against Bob Ringer's influence on me being the ultimate reason I make my living as a performer.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Because he said I could.</div>
<h6 style="border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-family: StRyde-MediumItalic, 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">
Submit your stories for the Because Project! <i>Email them to <a href="mailto:fagan@vtchildrenstrust.org" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">fagan@vtchildrenstrust.org</a>. Submissions should be 300 to 600 words long and respond to the prompt "I am/decided to/learned to _______ because of ______."</i> Kids VT <i>will feature one of these stories in each issue.</i></h6>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-60534111391056895992013-03-05T11:20:00.000-05:002013-03-05T11:20:22.016-05:00<br />
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<h1 class="headline headline-2150027" style="color: #f35920; font-family: StRyde-Medium, 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -0.03em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
The Because Project: Joseph A. Citro </h1>
<h2 class="subheadline" style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; margin: 4px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;">
"I've spent the last 30 years writing about Vermont and Vermonters in part because of Ida May Fuller."</h2>
<cite class="byline" style="color: #666666; display: block; font-size: 1em; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.kidsvt.com/vermont/ArticleArchives?author=2150026" rel="author" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: none;">JOSEPH A. CITRO</a></cite></div>
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Email them to fagan@vtchildrenstrust.org. Submissions should be 300 to 600 words long and respond to the prompt "I am/decided to/ learned to _______ because of ______." Kids VT will feature one of these stories in each issue.</div>
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<span class="clicktozoom" style="color: #999999; display: block; font-size: 9px; text-align: right;">click to enlarge</span><a class="zoomable" href="http://www.kidsvt.com/imager/the-because-project-joseph-a-citro/b/original/2150028/0313/BeCauseOf1-1.jpg" rel="contentImg_gal-2150027" style="color: #f35920; display: block; text-decoration: none;" title="Courtesy of Joseph A. Citro"><img alt="Courtesy of Joseph A. Citro" height="160" src="http://www.kidsvt.com/imager/the-because-project-joseph-a-citro/b/story/2150028/0313/BeCauseOf1-1.jpg" style="border: 0px;" width="160" /></a><br />
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<li class="imageCredit" style="color: #666666; font-size: 9px; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 2px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase;">COURTESY OF JOSEPH A. CITRO</li>
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Strictly speaking, Aunt Ida wasn't a relative. In my childhood, it was proper for young people to address all older women as "aunt." But she was as close as family. She was the earliest formative influence I can identify and probably the first person I met in this world after my parents brought me home from Rutland Hospital.</div>
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"Home" was Aunt Ida's house. I didn't realize until much later that we were her tenants.</div>
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Fact is, she was more like a grandmother than a landlady. She was in her seventies when I was born. The door separating our apartments was never closed.</div>
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I can remember peeking in to see her sitting in her padded rocking chair by the window, black shoes on a footstool, rectangular magnifying glass poised above her as she read — a newspaper, a letter, a book or the Bible.</div>
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She'd look up, smile and invite me to the "Davenport." We'd sit side by side while she read to me. On sunny days, we'd likely sit on the porch — the "piazza," she called it — in matching rockers. There, she taught me the names of the birds, showing me how to describe my surroundings. The birds were everywhere, like flying flowers. I remember telling her that the bluebirds looked like robins, colored wrong.</div>
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As easily as she ingrained words and stories into my life, Aunt Ida demonstrated to me what being a true Vermonter was all about.</div>
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Ida May Fuller was born in 1874 on a farm right there in Ludlow and went to school with Calvin Coolidge. She was a teacher until 1905, though she was still teaching when I knew her, politely and often humorously correcting me. ("You ought to really know grammar," she joked before giving me the scoop on split infinitives.)</div>
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With the money she saved, she went to Boston to study business. Then, from 1905 until she retired in 1939, she worked as a legal secretary for John G. Sargent, who would become attorney general in the Coolidge administration.</div>
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<li class="imageCredit" style="color: #666666; font-size: 9px; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 2px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase;">COURTESY OF JOSEPH A. CITRO</li>
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She never touched coffee or tea, preferring a cup of hot water with her meals. She never raised her voice nor appeared to be angry or confused about anything. She could quote the Bible but didn't. Instead, she quietly lived and taught the principles of Jesus. "He's as much alive now as he ever was," she once told me.</div>
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And she never married. Those who didn't call her Aunt Ida addressed her as Miss Fuller. Everyone knew she was independent; some might have said she was ahead of her time, but she wouldn't have gone along with that.</div>
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Aunt Ida achieved some unexpected local notoriety when she was invited to appear on the television show "I've Got a Secret" with Garry Moore. Her secret? She was the first person in America to be issued a Social Security check, number 00-000-001.</div>
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She emphatically refused to be on the show, though. It wasn't that she didn't want her secret known, just that the show's sponsor was a tobacco company and smoking was against her principles. Aunt Ida never smoked nor owned a television.</div>
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She was 100 years old when she died, in 1975.</div>
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While many things led me to become a writer, Aunt Ida was a very potent part of the alchemy. She taught me about the world, a thing or two about women, and the best things about Vermont and Vermonters — principle and independence — all from her sofa, her piazza and her heart.</div>
<h6 style="border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-family: StRyde-MediumItalic, 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">
Joe Citro is a Vermont author known for writing about local and regional folklore, hauntings and paranormal activity. His nonfiction works include "The Vermont Monster Guide" and "Weird New England."</h6>
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The Because Project asks Vermonters to share their stories about people and experiences that have shaped their lives, especially during their formative years — stories that may inspire others to get involved. Because together we can all make a difference.</h6>
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The Vermont Children’s Trust Foundation supports statewide prevention programs for children and families to help give all kids a fair chance at success.</h6>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-28290749229338775862013-02-14T13:50:00.001-05:002013-02-14T13:50:30.947-05:00<br />
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The Because Project: Mark Redmond </h1>
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"I decided to work with homeless teenagers because I volunteered at a shelter."</h2>
<cite class="byline" style="color: #666666; display: block; font-size: 1em; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.kidsvt.com/vermont/ArticleArchives?author=2148990" rel="author" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: initial;">MARK REDMOND</a></cite></div>
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I had been a business major in college and my first job after graduation was in an elite training program at an insurance company in New York City. There were only about a dozen of us, and we were slated to become the future presidents and vice presidents of the company. I found an apartment off of Park Avenue. I thought I had it made.</div>
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And then one day I talked to a college friend who was working at Covenant House, a nonprofit that sheltered homeless and runaway teens. They were looking for volunteers to help out during the evenings. I told her I'd go over, play basketball and hand out sandwiches one night a week.</div>
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Every Tuesday, I'd change out of my business suit, put on jeans, sneakers and a sweatshirt, and take the subway uptown to spend a few hours at Covenant House. After a few weeks, I started to get to know the kids there. Most had grown up in extremely difficult circumstances, surrounded by unemployment, addiction and crime. I met people like Tony, a 19-year-old who had spent his entire childhood being shuttled from one institution to another — his mother had left him and his siblings in Harlem when she moved to North Carolina.</div>
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Working with these kids, hearing their stories and seeing them cling to the prospect of a positive future despite everything they had endured made me question my carefully planned career path. Helping a $6 billion-dollar company become a $7 billion-dollar company started to seem much less important.</div>
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So I quit my job, left my apartment, and gave my car to my brother and my suits to the Salvation Army. Covenant House had a residence for full-time volunteers who committed to stay for at least one year; I moved in. They assigned me to work on a floor with 40 teenage males who were there because they had nowhere else to live.</div>
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My friends thought I was nuts. I'm sure more than a few of my coworkers did, too. But I felt like this was my calling. I didn't really know what I was doing, and they gave me very little training. But I learned as I went along; 32 years later, I'm still learning.</div>
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Believe it or not, I'm still in touch with Tony. He was at my wedding, and I was there when his girlfriend gave birth to their daughter — in fact, Tony asked me to be her godfather. My wife and I were able to help her get into one of the city's best charter schools.</div>
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I'm very glad I took my friend up on her request to volunteer. That once-a-week commitment turned out to be a lifelong passion.</div>
<h6 style="border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-family: StRyde-MediumItalic, 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">
Mark Redmond is the executive director of Spectrum Youth & Family Services.</h6>
<i>Submit your stories for the Because Project! Email them to fagan@vtchildrenstrust.org. Submissions should be 300 to 600 words long and respond to the prompt "I am/decided to/learned to _______ because of ______." Kids VT will feature one of these stories in each issue.</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-10334824926396847522013-01-29T12:14:00.002-05:002013-01-29T12:14:29.548-05:00<br />
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"I started studying music because my grandparents gave me a violin."</h2>
<cite class="byline" style="color: #666666; display: block; font-size: 1em; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.kidsvt.com/vermont/ArticleArchives?author=2146497" rel="author" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: initial;">ANAIS MITCHELL</a></cite></div>
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I grew up close to my maternal grandparents — their house was just down the driveway from ours. They helped raise my brother and me. My granddad was retired, but when I was 7 years old, he was still doing some consulting, so he and my grandma traveled a lot. I remember my excitement when they'd return home from their trips, full of exotic stories and descriptions of new friends. Their suitcases inevitably held a gift for my brother and me. Once, after a trip to Hong Kong, they returned with a tiny, one-eighth-size red violin, perfect for a small pair of arms like mine.</div>
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They knew I wanted one. A series of musicians had just visited my elementary school to demonstrate different instruments. One stunningly beautiful, elfin-looking woman played the violin. I had fallen instantly in love with it; when I got home I had announced that I wanted to play, too.</div>
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So I started taking lessons, organized and paid for by my grandparents. My granddad would pick me up from school, drive me to my weekly lesson and read the newspaper in the car until I'd finished. I'd practice before school in my grandma's sewing room. She'd bring tea with milk and say things like, "You're sounding great!" and "You're really getting that piece now!"</div>
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I dreaded the recitals that were an inevitable part of the lesson cycle. Somehow all the music that was so easy to play in my grandma's sewing room became nearly impossible on stage. My heart pounded, and my hands trembled, giving every note a scratchy, unintended, unprofessional vibrato. It never ceased to amaze me as a kid, riding home from what I thought had been an unmitigated disaster, when my family told me with glowing faces, "You were wonderful!"</div>
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I played for several years, then crossed a threshold of adolescence through which the violin could not pass. I was so afraid to disappoint my family, especially my grandparents, by quitting. They'd never been pushy about the instrument, but they had made it clear that if they were going to pay for my lessons, I was going to have to practice. To my great relief, everyone understood the changes I was going through, and they were unsurprised when, a year or two later, I quietly picked up the guitar and began writing songs.</div>
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So much about those violin years informed and inspired my life as a songwriter today. There was the ear training and sense of melody that becomes second nature to very young players. There was the practicing — the daily dedication to a craft — which I still find difficult, but it's still true that cups of tea and encouraging words make it easier. There was the knowledge that I could get up on stage even if my hands trembled and that, no matter what, my family loved it.</div>
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I travel a lot nowadays, too; It was my grandparents who showed me that we can be at home in the world even when we're far from home and that the world is a friendly, wonderful place, full of people who will take us in.</div>
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<i>AnaÏs Mitchell is a musician, singer and songwriter.</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-29340613103685468832013-01-29T12:13:00.001-05:002013-01-29T12:13:26.502-05:00<br />
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"I learned to see past racial differences because a white neighbor taught me to play chess."</h2>
<cite class="byline" style="color: #666666; display: block; font-size: 1em; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.kidsvt.com/vermont/ArticleArchives?author=2147441" rel="author" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: initial;">HAL COLSTON</a></cite></div>
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I was 10 years old during the hot, steamy summer of 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would lead the March on Washington in August, and the racism in my post-Jim Crow town of York, Pennsylvania, was palpable.</div>
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My father was an entrepreneur acquiring apartment buildings in our neighborhood. He worked with Hugh Graham, director of the York Redevelopment Authority, which was located just across the street from our home.</div>
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Mr. Graham was a stout white man with a shock of white hair and a wide smile. One afternoon I walked across the street to his office. I wanted to see my father, and I was wondering if he and Mr. Graham had finished their meeting. Mr. Graham said that my father had gone to another meeting. I saw a checkered board on a side table in his office with strange pieces on it.</div>
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"What's that?" I asked him.</div>
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"That's a chess set," he said.</div>
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"I've never heard of chess," I told him.</div>
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Mr. Graham asked me if I wanted to learn to play. I said I did. Over the next few weeks, he taught me the game.</div>
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In chess, white and black pieces battle to the end, but beyond the board, exactly the opposite was happening — a white man was teaching a black person to play.</div>
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I was captivated by the game. Later that summer I brought home the Colston family's first chess set.</div>
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I paid forward Mr. Graham's gift and taught friends in my neighborhood. I began to play in chess tournaments at the local YMCA. Chess taught me about strategy, perseverance and thinking outside the box. It showed me that by out-maneuvering my opponent, I proved I was every bit as smart. And it demonstrated that it didn't matter whether you chose black or white chess pieces — you could be a winner either way.</div>
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I didn't realize it at the time, but Mr. Graham was a pioneer. What an uncommon connection we shared. I am forever grateful to him for taking the time to reach out to me.</div>
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<i>Hal Colston is a social entrepreneur who created the Good News Garage in 1996 and NeighborKeepers in 2006. He was appointed by Gov. Peter Shumlin as the executive director of SerVermont in 2011, which administers AmeriCorps state programs and has a mission to promote, support and recognize volunteerism and community service. Colston lives in Winooski and is also an instructor at Champlain College.</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-61329668378357224132012-09-18T11:00:00.001-04:002012-09-18T11:00:58.039-04:00The Because Project: Grace Potter<br />
<h2 class="subheadline" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; margin: 4px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;">"I dedicated myself to music because of my high school choir teacher, Diane Phillips."</h2><br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.950000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;"><i>The Because Project asks Vermonters to share their stories about people and experiences that have shaped their lives, especially during their formative years — stories that may inspire others to get involved. Because together we can all make a difference.</i></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.950000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;"><i>This month's essay was written by Grace Potter, lead singer, pianist and guitar player, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.</i></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.950000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">I came to Harwood Union Middle and High School as a seventh grader, not knowing where I belonged in school. The middle and high school years are a very scary time.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.950000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">I found my home in the music department. Diane Phillips was my choir teacher. She made me feel like choir wasn't just a class — it was a lifestyle. It was a commitment to my voice, and to quality, to becoming knowledgeable about different genres of music.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.950000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">Choir might sound boring, but she made it exciting. She always brought unbelievable energy and enthusiasm to every single session we had.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.950000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">When I was in ninth grade, I was finally able to audition for her exclusive choir. I stayed after school and practiced for three weeks just to get in. She showed me that commitment to something you care about can create the groundwork for the rest of your life.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.950000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">When I was in tenth grade, I came to her with some music of my own, and asked if she would let me write it into a choral piece and have the entire choir perform it. She said yes.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.950000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">The sound a choir makes when they're all singing notes you've written is pretty thrilling. It was a very ballsy thing for a teacher to do, to let go of the reins a little bit and allow a student to do that. I think she understood that I was reaching beyond the notes on the sheet music, for something more universal.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.950000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">And it wasn't just me. She gave other students the same opportunity a couple times after I did it. I thought it was a really commendable thing for an adult to treat her students as peers and but also to be our mentor. She balanced that beautifully.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.950000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">I had a very special bond with Di and the music department. I saw them go through ups and downs. I saw them struggle through budget cuts, changes in the schedule — just the lack of resources in general.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.950000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">But Di would always spend extra time with you if you needed it. She didn't just pack up her bags and go home at the end of the day. If you needed her, she was there for you.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.950000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">On the week of our second CD release, I actually flew home so I could surprise her at her retirement celebration — she taught at Harwood for 39 years. I played piano at a high-school assembly.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.950000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">The day I was there, it really sunk in. You could see that nothing had changed in the 10 years since I had been at Harwood. All these students knew exactly what I was talking about. They all understood how powerful an influential teacher can be.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.950000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">When kids are influenced by somebody, whether it's at 5 or 6, or during the formative teenage years, that respect never fades. Everybody understands the emotional connection you have to someone who encouraged you and pushed you to do things you may not have known you were capable of.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.950000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">I mentioned my trip to Di's retirement celebration to my friend, country music singer Kenny Chesney. Within a week, a white baby grand piano showed up at the school. He sent it because he related to my story; Kenny had an influential music teacher, too.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvwBsSPZMfuwre7yWDfTWHE1vaB-g9d5BvCHloglR0wPjTK5mmE4Y_xP0avD0UOytNCAu3DiMfZr22PmUf9YdU8SKjd35PerzyuQDHYOBLzZ_4etkumxqtKX9eLh2lo8_U0V7p1lmiiTy6/s1600/feature1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvwBsSPZMfuwre7yWDfTWHE1vaB-g9d5BvCHloglR0wPjTK5mmE4Y_xP0avD0UOytNCAu3DiMfZr22PmUf9YdU8SKjd35PerzyuQDHYOBLzZ_4etkumxqtKX9eLh2lo8_U0V7p1lmiiTy6/s320/feature1.jpg" width="253" /></a></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.950000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;"><i>The Vermont Children's Trust Foundation supports statewide prevention programs for children and families to help give all kids a fair chance at success.</i></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-1454819199934982172012-08-14T13:29:00.001-04:002012-08-14T13:41:10.945-04:00A demanding high school teacher inspired me to become a better writer.By: <a href="http://www.billmckibben.com/" target="_blank">Bill McKibben</a><br />
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For an awful lot of people who have figured out interesting
paths in life, there seems to have been a teacher somewhere along the way who
believed in them. I don’t mean “believed in them” in some sweet and sentimental
way—I mean, believed that they were capable of more than they knew. For me, it
was a high school history teacher named Ray Karras.</div>
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">He was nobody’s stereotype of the
‘favorite teacher,’ easy on the grades and eager to banter with his young
charges. (That was the social studies teacher down the hall, in bellbottoms and
moustache, who later went to jail for selling drugs.) No, Mr. Karras treated us
as if we were, or should be, young academics. He demanded papers that presented
well-laid out arguments (long papers!). If you asked him to write a college
recommendation, he would—but only in a sealed envelope sent straight to the
college, and it was well-known that sometimes he told them to reject the
applicant.</span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">So: a compliment counted. I
remember him telling me one day, “You’re a good writer.” I was used to adults
telling me this, but only because I was glib, and knew a lot of words, and
hence was able to get away with a good deal. When Mr. Karras said it, I
actually believed it.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Doubtless he gave
me a B, but doubtless it was worth a good deal more than all the top grades I
ever got. </span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">- Bill McKibben is an Author, Educator and Environmentalist. He is the President and Co-Founder of <a href="http://350.org/">350.org</a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-51727136061782333012012-08-03T11:33:00.000-04:002012-08-14T13:46:12.177-04:00I was inspired to pursue public service because of an internship in Senator Leahy's office.<br />
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<cite class="byline" style="color: #666666; display: block; font-size: 1em; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.kidsvt.com/vermont/ArticleArchives?author=2142912" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: none;">MIRO WEINBERGER</a> <span class="twitter" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.kidsvt.com/images/icons/twitter-18x18.png); background-position: 6px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; height: 18px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0.5em 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-left: 27px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/mirobtv" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@MIROBTV</a></span></cite></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.6em;">I took a year off between my sophomore and junior years of college, and that fall, I traveled to Washington, D.C., to join a protest against the first Gulf War.</span><br />
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I was young and it was my first time in Washington. I found the city — its buildings and monuments dedicated to democracy, justice and the law — an inspiring place to be. I had no opportunities lined up, but I basically kept going back to Sen. Leahy's office, knocking on the door to see if someone would give me an internship. After about a week of persistence, I was able to talk to the right person.</div>
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They wouldn't have taken me on during the summer — that's when most people intern in those offices, and positions are filled far in advance. But because it was the off season, they were able to find a role for me. I worked in the office for eight months.</div>
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The work was low level, like sorting mail and compiling research for the senator's staff. But the office was an exciting, energetic, collaborative place. A lot of offices on Capitol Hill have a great deal of turnover. People come in, they get burnt out, they move on. But Sen. Leahy has long been known for having one of the most stable and loyal staffs in Washington. People really believed in what they were doing, and they stuck around.</div>
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Like Luke Albee, for example. Luke was the legislative director, and later became Sen. Leahy's chief of staff. It was a big office — there were probably around 30 people — and it would have been easy for an intern like me to get completely lost in the shuffle. Luke was one of the top people in the office, but he paid attention to the research I did. He gave me advice throughout that time, and has continued to do so in the years since. And not just about politics — he eventually introduced me to a colleague who then introduced me to my wife!</div>
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But what affected me most was witnessing the senator and his staff working with people from all kinds of backgrounds and political orientations to try and push the country forward. I was moved to see that government was in large part about that kind of collaboration. So much of what we read and see about politics is about polarized, combative rhetoric. But a lot of what actually needs to get done requires working together.</div>
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Now, as mayor of Burlington, I find that to be especially true on the local level.</div>
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If I hadn't walked into Sen. Leahy's office requesting an internship, there's a very good chance I would never have gone down this path, or known how to pursue a public-service career. Pretty much my whole political experience flowed from that internship. It shaped how I approach my work and engage with people every day.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-64674543338054807762012-06-27T11:49:00.000-04:002012-08-14T14:05:15.711-04:00I became an educator because of my phys ed teacher, Ray Hadley.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #666666; text-transform: uppercase;">BY</span><span style="color: #666666; text-transform: uppercase;"> </span><a href="http://www.kidsvt.com/vermont/ArticleArchives?author=2140389" style="color: #f35920; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;">DAVID YOUNG</a></span></h2>
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<i>The Because Project asks Vermonters to share their stories about people and experiences that have shaped their lives, especially during their formative years — stories that may inspire others to get involved. Because together we can all make a difference.</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
I grew up in Burlington and was pretty happy going into the seventh grade, but I lacked self-confidence. I was a heavy kid and hated the gym. I wasn't very coordinated and was worried I was going to be picked last, because that was my previous experience. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
Ray Hadley was my physical education teacher that year. He was well known in this area — as a teacher, builder and business owner. Mr. Hadley made me feel as special as anybody else. He was fair, expected respectful behaviors and used positive words of encouragement.</div>
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It was not, "You didn't do this," or "You didn't do that." Instead he would comment, "Hey, I liked how you did this. Nice job on that." Obviously, it was at my level, but he saw improvement, and as a result, I started to say, "You know, he's right." It made me feel better about myself.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
It was during this influential time in my life that he believed in me and empowered me to believe in myself. I thought, <i>I can do it, I can get healthier</i>, <i>I can</i> <i>get better in music if I practice more, and I can do better in school if I work harder.</i></div>
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Obviously, I had other people around me who contributed to that, particularly my parents, but I felt Mr. Hadley made a special effort for me.</div>
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I'm sad to say I never told him all of this. Unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago of ALS. I tell our students and teachers here that it's important to share your story with people who have been influential in your life.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-top: 1.12em; padding: 0px;">
What students experience in school can be profound when we recognize the power we have as educators. Sometimes it can be just one instance that is important to students. You never know when they might really be ready for someone to reach out. That's my desire: to help people understand the power of this relationship. </div>
<i>David Young is the superintendent of schools in South Burlington.</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-8950465936310844642012-05-02T10:18:00.001-04:002012-05-02T10:19:56.776-04:00I began to internalize the American Dream because of something a camp counselor said to me<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLeWmHQj3nzPTm_jytSrZEa4_nrzvX5aW8oEhCZREP2uZ1HIHUOJvHfoEPubU6bkHbrYcdAzcqNYalgcFKLIw4sEUZpKMZsREzfU7Bqpf8WgRfBzZEG1ngb4vvQLCBY0abvSLmDJIzdDoy/s1600/MadeleineKunin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLeWmHQj3nzPTm_jytSrZEa4_nrzvX5aW8oEhCZREP2uZ1HIHUOJvHfoEPubU6bkHbrYcdAzcqNYalgcFKLIw4sEUZpKMZsREzfU7Bqpf8WgRfBzZEG1ngb4vvQLCBY0abvSLmDJIzdDoy/s320/MadeleineKunin.jpg" width="229" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Madeleine Kunin</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="body" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I think back on the people who touched my life, I'm reminded of a summer camp counselor named Zelda, who taught us modern dance to the sound of a new and exciting piece of music: Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." She pulled me aside one day and said, "Madeleine, I think you have potential."</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Potential?” I asked.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She was not talking
about dance, although I would have been pleased to hear that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was talking about potential in life. I
was 14 years old at the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The camp
was located on a farm in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Binghamton</st1:city>,
<st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state></st1:place>, and by today’s
standards, was very basic. Our activities consisted of piling into the back of
a pickup truck with a milk can full of red Kool-Aid, which we would drink at
the lake after our swim. We’d come back and play simple games like<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>volleyball and ping pong, and when it rained,
we would make lanyards. The highlight of the season was the Color War. I was on
the blue team. We were all from <st1:city w:st="on">New York City</st1:city>,
and before that, from war-torn <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I remember Zelda because she was the first person who said
the word “potential” to me. My mother had talked to both me and my older
brother about <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>
as the land of opportunity, but I had never interpreted the American dream
personally. My older brother was expected to write the next chapter of the
Horatio Alger success story for the simple reason that he was a boy. There was
no similar<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harriet Alger.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don’t know exactly what Zelda saw in me
that summer afternoon that made her tell me I had potential, but I do know what
effect it had on me. Why else would I remember that brief conversation? It made
me stand taller than if I had won first place in a dance contest. Her words
allowed me to expand my sense of who I was and who I could become. They
encouraged me to dream, and eventually, to strive to fulfill those dreams.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One small word, said at just at the right time, can make a
lifelong difference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps that is why
I recently told a high school student, “You have great presence” after she had
just given a campaign speech for “governor” at a workshop for juniors and
seniors about how to run for public office. (I was there to deliver the
keynote.)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The look on her face expressed an emotion,
which can be best described as relieved happiness. She glowed.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“That means a lot to me,
especially coming from you,” she said. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I knew exactly what she meant. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Madeleine
Kunin, former <st1:state w:st="on">Vermont</st1:state> governor and <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> ambassador to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Switzerland</st1:country-region></st1:place></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-65102735532669532922012-03-20T12:30:00.001-04:002012-04-09T11:26:46.833-04:00I developed a passion for acting because of my first theater teacher, Joan Wing<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpC37jK0vK1RKk8WzHGiVkmQ8R9F5euaGHRRudkWzW9UnqzbII5BAOqs5qcNjZ0WZdjjoNn7zvwynUpT5mNkmt9HMXA1aIxaZFYUO0QF88NGq0lLXJ29gTmoZFJyYBrBGXKraWVl_pTyEK/s1600/kim+jordan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpC37jK0vK1RKk8WzHGiVkmQ8R9F5euaGHRRudkWzW9UnqzbII5BAOqs5qcNjZ0WZdjjoNn7zvwynUpT5mNkmt9HMXA1aIxaZFYUO0QF88NGq0lLXJ29gTmoZFJyYBrBGXKraWVl_pTyEK/s1600/kim+jordan.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kim Jordan</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">As a kid, I had what I deemed “off-stage fright.” I was a pale, awkward, sometimes socially inappropriate white girl with a dark Afro. I had a gravely voice and used big words. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="body" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">Then when I was 7 years old, I joined Riverside Children’s Theatre in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Riverside</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state></st1:place>, where I learned to project my voice, tap dance, and sing pitch-perfect lyrics to every song in <span class="em"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial;"><em>Annie</em></span></span>. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="body" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">Joan Wing was my first teacher there. Joan recognized that I wanted to be famous. I wanted to <span class="em"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial;"><em>be</em></span></span> Annie. I wanted to use theater as an escape from real life. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="body" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">She played acting and theater games with her students. She gave us scripts and helped us act out scenes. She’d give us a hat or sunglasses or cane and we’d create characters, and become each other’s audience. She taught me to memorize lines — and that no one dies from forgetting their lines on stage. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="body" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">She showed me that we wear masks all of the time: We play various characters off-stage in our lives, and the more aware we are of what we want (our motivations) and how we get it (our tactics), the better we know ourselves (our character). <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="body" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">Above all, she taught me to improvise in front of an audience, to trust my instincts and to create something from nothing. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="body" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">One afternoon, Joan called me at home. A child-abuse prevention organization had approached her in need of a child actress for educational videos they were creating. Joan thought I would be perfect. When the camera crew came to my house, I felt like I was doing something important. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="body" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">Those child abuse prevention films were shown in elementary schools throughout <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Riverside</st1:place></st1:city>. Once in a while a kid or parent would stop me in the mall to ask if I was that kid in the video. I didn’t feel like just a regular kid; I was an actress. Not one of those creepy child stars, but someone who acted out stories. This is what Joan taught me to do — act out stories believably. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="body" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">Joan believed in me. She thought I had talent, not because I wanted to be famous, but because I could play someone real. She saw a spark in me, and that helped me see that spark in myself.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="body" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">Now I run my own theater program, Theatre-in-Action. I use improvisational techniques to educate youth about bullying prevention, conflict resolution and social justice. I’ve run workshops in schools and social service organizations in <st1:city w:st="on">Burlington</st1:city>, St. Albans, <st1:city w:st="on">Montpelier</st1:city> and throughout <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Vermont</st1:state></st1:place>. I think about Joan a lot — she’s the one who taught me that grown-ups can ignite a kid’s passions. That improvisation builds resilience, collaboration and acceptance. That theater can be a tool to help a child know herself.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="byline" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">— </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">Kim Jordan, founder, program director and teaching artist, Theatre-in-Action, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Burlington</st1:place></st1:city><o:p></o:p></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-38524133126230991982012-03-14T10:13:00.000-04:002012-03-14T10:13:32.824-04:00I help people reconnect to the natural world because of my dad<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6NFVLU1aCb4e6Uge8gZOAUdl5dp_HFiAb-2Fm-zGusyuCRjIjgbWqG09kXCCdVr6LpXV10c1HtWE3F2OWC9ng83WUyBFjCDE_O1O4HoIVHN38ZiGSW6bX-3XqV6PfnGkI6hI02gDAdNMl/s1600/teage+o'connor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6NFVLU1aCb4e6Uge8gZOAUdl5dp_HFiAb-2Fm-zGusyuCRjIjgbWqG09kXCCdVr6LpXV10c1HtWE3F2OWC9ng83WUyBFjCDE_O1O4HoIVHN38ZiGSW6bX-3XqV6PfnGkI6hI02gDAdNMl/s320/teage+o'connor.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Teage O'Connor</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">There's a short hike that starts just north of my family’s old favorite blueberry picking spot up in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Girdwood</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Alaska</st1:state></st1:place>. One memory of this hike is particularly vivid: With a peanut butter and honey sandwich sticking to my cheeks and fingers, I gaze at the gentle puffy clouds whimsically passing through the stunning cerulean sky back and then down to the trail stretching the length of the ridge we are trekking. As I try to breathe in the soft lavenders of a little flower I’ve spotted, my feet steady my body, which is leaning too far forward over the edge of the trail in excitement. I’m a child, and I purposely lean too far and fall into the plants, my tiny hands grasping and then rending the flower’s beauty from the rest of the plant – the incorrigible collector in me.</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">My father’s gentle voice, “It’s okay to pick it, but now you’re responsible for it. They’re edible, maybe try eating it.” I do, and it’s subtle and sweet and tastes blue like the sky. I reach my sticky hands for another: “Before eating too many, remember that you might one day bring your own son back here to eat from that same patch of bluebells.” </span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">In that memory of “Bluebells in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Alaska</st1:place></st1:state>,” one that still writes most of the thoughts that trail through my head, my dad reminded me of an ethic that makes my blood red and my breath humid. My father, who passed away when I was 8, got most of his teaching in before I had the presence of mind to say, “Thank you.” My “thank you” to him is to create, share, and encourage moments like these for others. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">— Teage O’Connor, Founder, Crow’s Path</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-49893865555026789052012-03-01T11:32:00.000-05:002012-03-01T11:32:07.909-05:00I worked to elect Barack Obama President because I saw him speak at Ira Allen Chapel in 2006<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIXptaaZRnludAO_L91MVjaS99mW0E5FZlKj-DrrC0bNBQnl8H23g9XeFgAIkChX32OqVBRuBtsy17lMAwEgXD2zopDqI0-0wOXo-R0HFNV-7UWXni9QKeouFVBiEGDkqR25iVGJaCJnyP/s1600/baruth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIXptaaZRnludAO_L91MVjaS99mW0E5FZlKj-DrrC0bNBQnl8H23g9XeFgAIkChX32OqVBRuBtsy17lMAwEgXD2zopDqI0-0wOXo-R0HFNV-7UWXni9QKeouFVBiEGDkqR25iVGJaCJnyP/s1600/baruth.jpg" uda="true" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Philip Baruth</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Back in 2006, I heard that Barack Obama – then the junior Senator from <place w:st="on"><state w:st="on">Illinois</state></place> – would be coming to UVM to campaign for Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obama was pretty well known at that time, at least among political junkies, but he wasn’t nearly as famous as he is today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, what I’d seen of him I liked a lot – his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention had knocked everyone’s socks off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I decided to swing by the Chapel when my last class let out, and catch Obama’s act.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Now, what I hadn’t counted on was that about 2,700 other people would have the same idea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The buzz around the event had obviously been bigger than I knew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the time I walked out of Old Mill to head to the Chapel, there was a line stretching all the way down the street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Big buses were parked at the curb; clearly, folks from elsewhere in the state had gotten the word as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One look at that line told me that most of the people in it wouldn’t be getting in to see Obama.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">But I had two advantages that no one else in line had: 1) the security detail contained two of my ex-students, and 2) I wanted to get in badly enough that I was willing to cheat a little bit, if absolutely necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Am I proud of that today?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would I do it again?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a heartbeat.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Turned out it was absolutely necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But one of my ex-students managed to get me access to a well-guarded side door, and before long I was in a pew about twenty feet from the stage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I’m here to tell you, it was one of the most amazing events I’ve ever attended in <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Vermont</place></state>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not so much for what Obama said or how he said it – although he said wonderful things in very persuasive ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, it was more the reaction of the crowd, inside and outside.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">For one thing, the crowd outside never left – even after being told that there were no more seats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They clustered around the building, maybe a thousand of them, pressed against the windows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, as Obama was speaking – I can recognize the speech now as a very early version of his 2008 stump speech on Hope and Change – one guy stood up outside one of the Chapel’s tall, tall windows and yelled and banged on the windows when the speech hit a true high moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Inside and outside people were going crazy, but in the best way, crazy together, without worrying about whether their craziness made sense or might be laughed at by a more cynical person.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">That’s when I realized that this skinny guy at the podium was what we needed, at that particular moment, in a country that hadn’t had a lot to cheer about for a good long while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few months later, although Obama still wasn’t yet a candidate for President, some friends and I formed a group called Vermonters for Obama to try to convince him to enter the race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And by the time the junior Senator from <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Illinois</place></state> did throw his hat in the ring – on February 10, 2007, my birthday actually – we were ready.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">The rest, of course, is history.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">— Philip Baruth, Writer & Professor, <place w:st="on"><placetype w:st="on">University</placetype> of <placename w:st="on">Vermont</placename></place></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-86640184640731648212012-03-01T11:21:00.002-05:002012-03-01T11:25:20.007-05:00I became a community activist because of my great-grandmother and my grandson<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0zh7jn2EL3i6yZnrOWUQHvYU4SBT1mG-F23wVFIT1D0YPJU7SMPnTM3LsQ50ti-Fwtt3Hx5b7rO4cwck5aRIRL1BIL6_JujJvkcc9QlPESzjSKvvql9xobbu-JqUaNPq2ILg-QUINbg0_/s1600/melinda+moulton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0zh7jn2EL3i6yZnrOWUQHvYU4SBT1mG-F23wVFIT1D0YPJU7SMPnTM3LsQ50ti-Fwtt3Hx5b7rO4cwck5aRIRL1BIL6_JujJvkcc9QlPESzjSKvvql9xobbu-JqUaNPq2ILg-QUINbg0_/s320/melinda+moulton.jpg" uda="true" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Melinda Moulton</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #444444;"></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">I had a wonderful great grandmother, Maria Charlotte deBrandt Mader, who immigrated from Alsace-Lorraine in the early 1900's and settled in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania where she and her husband had a flower nursery that specialized in roses which were sold in New York and Philadelphia</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">During my young life in the 1950’s I spent a lot of time with my Nana. She was a successful businesswoman and an environmentalist. She taught me about leadership, fairness, compassion, the art of giving, the beauty and power of the Earth, and she often stressed how everything a person says or does has an impact on the rest of the world. I remember her telling me that empowering people and giving them a voice (even though they may not agree with you) was virtuous. She would say “always say good things about people or say nothing at all”. She treated everyone like a friend, and her indomitable spirit made her flower nursery (and her life) highly respected and successful. </span><span style="color: #444444;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">Today I am the grandmother of four beautiful grandchildren. I think of Nana a lot now because she had a tremendous impact on me and I hope I can follow in her footsteps with my own children’s children. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">My seven year old grandson was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2. Although he cannot yet communicate with me, he has taught me about strength, self-confidence, and courage. He has taught me about patience and being in touch with the human heart. I have learned to be quiet and just listen, to respect people’s boundaries, and embrace the simple pleasures of life. He has taught me that everyone has their own perspective and unique gifts. He demonstrates every day that happiness comes from within and what matters most in life are those simple worldly delights that smell good, feel interesting, look intriguing, taste yummy, and sound beautiful. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">From the ageless wisdom of my Nana to the enlightened purity of my speechless grandson’s searching mind, I continue to learn lessons that I can apply to life. The ultimate wisdom both of these remarkable people have given me is to be true to oneself, strive to protect the Earth, invest in one’s community, uplift those we serve and those who serve us, and never give up the tireless work of improving the future for all our children and their children’s children. <br />
<br />
— Melinda Moulton, CEO, Main Street Landing</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-28394430770909298092012-02-14T10:04:00.016-05:002012-03-01T11:26:13.709-05:00I volunteered to work for dozens of political campaigns because of Al Lowenstein<div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieGcrUeSWw8vnLAjdyVOB36ooAq1uxNPvsW1_Xqui1UnrT8h-srfBE7VH09sH27A89URejK8JVOVUJnobGB0e6VGp_Ap5teT9HHfgMRPtm6ab3uKehV-zEETZt_X7zTCDgnPbpF9MBDbNv/s1600/alden+cadwell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" lda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieGcrUeSWw8vnLAjdyVOB36ooAq1uxNPvsW1_Xqui1UnrT8h-srfBE7VH09sH27A89URejK8JVOVUJnobGB0e6VGp_Ap5teT9HHfgMRPtm6ab3uKehV-zEETZt_X7zTCDgnPbpF9MBDbNv/s320/alden+cadwell.jpg" width="217" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alden Cadwell</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was a student at <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Middlebury</placename> <placetype w:st="on">College</placetype></place> when I saw Al speak on behalf of Ted Kennedy, who at the time was a presidential candidate I liked. Al was a former congressman from <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">New York</place></state>. He was famous for his involvement in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements of the 1960s. He was one of the most galvanizing politicians I’ve ever heard but, before I walked into the lecture hall, he was unknown to me. </span><br />
<div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The hall was jammed with students. Clearly, I thought, this was someone I should have known something about. I changed my mind when he was introduced and a short, bald man with thick glasses stood to speak. No way he’d have anything to say to me. </span></div><div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wrong! He began talking about how so many kids my age were more interested in baseball than in electing the next president. <i>What? </i>I thought. Was this guy talking to me? Was he telling me that his generation, the one that insisted on equality for black Americans, the one that ended the Vietnam War, cared more about its future than mine did?</span></div><div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, he was right. He spoke about his heroes, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and every student in that room was riveted, because this guy was the real deal: He’d known and worked with both of these extraordinary leaders.</span></div><div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, just like that, he stopped talking. He looked around the room and, after a long, really awkward pause, asked who among us was supporting Kennedy for president. Most hands went up.</span></div><div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He wasn’t done.</span></div><div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Keep your hands up!” he said. “Now stand up! Go to the back of the room and sign up to help our candidate win the election!” Those of us who had raised our hands were speechless. We stared at each other. He’d called our bluff, and we had to follow through. It was the first time a lot of us had volunteered for anything.</span></div><div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since then, I’ve volunteered for dozens of campaigns. Campaign work may sound like drudgery. Knocking on doors in lousy weather to get out the vote may not sound like a good time, but the reward is just as Al promised: With each campaign I get to know my town in ways I can never predict. I find out what matters to my neighbors. And I play a fundamental role in making my community work.</span></div><div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just goes to show that short, bald men with thick glasses can surprise you. </span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">— Alden Cadwell, Burlington, VT</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8841656705862947152.post-39760846781288468162012-01-18T14:03:00.006-05:002012-02-09T12:41:34.041-05:00I decided to be a writer because of an English teacher I had in the 7th and 8th grade.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB50_TWlL1FU45Sbs9XrgfcTyMrnxPk0sVJwnt7bX8yg21Rxh1T9TR_p77zwpPRui3Chz0JgFDsXL8zEh3mcNrEp4yF0YrHQBUGlZuuYFUdl5JU9F5Sd60GHZYJJW_rgcZpJnAn_OQWCZQ/s1600/Feature4-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB50_TWlL1FU45Sbs9XrgfcTyMrnxPk0sVJwnt7bX8yg21Rxh1T9TR_p77zwpPRui3Chz0JgFDsXL8zEh3mcNrEp4yF0YrHQBUGlZuuYFUdl5JU9F5Sd60GHZYJJW_rgcZpJnAn_OQWCZQ/s320/Feature4-1.jpg" width="203" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cathy Resmer</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial;">John Keith was a tall, Nordic-looking guy who wore turtlenecks and loved to ski. He was always drinking dark coffee, even back in the 1980s, before drinking coffee was cool. He was one of the few people I knew in suburban <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Detroit</place></city> who had the audacity to drive a foreign car — a Volkswagen Jetta.</span> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Mr. Keith was the toughest teacher I ever had, tougher than any of the English professors who taught me in college. Each marking period, he gave his students the chance to earn 100 points. Your final point total was your grade. If I lost five points on the first test, I spent the next few weeks living in fear of losing any more, and dropping from an A to a B.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The only way to get extra credit was to win a sentence-diagramming contest. Mr. Keith would send several students to the blackboard at the same time. Then he’d have them race to diagram a sentence full of clauses and obscure parts of speech. The first person to do it correctly won a point. What a victory! You could boost your grade, but you really had to work for it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Mr. Keith was critical. He corrected students’ writing assignments in front of the class and picked apart mistakes, usually without using names. But he wasn’t bitter or angry; when we wrote sentences he liked, he read them aloud, as if to savor them. He loved language and literature, and he wanted us to love it, too. Some days he just read to us. He gave me my first taste of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Robert Browning. In the winter, he organized after-school ski trips to a nearby mountain. He helped me see that there was a larger world beyond the familiar, comfortable one that I knew.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I don’t think I was one of his favorite students; I’m not even sure that he liked me. It didn’t matter. He was the first teacher who really pushed me. He used to tell us that we could study English all the way through college and still not master it. I liked that challenge. And I liked knowing that if I worked hard enough, I could write something that would matter to somebody like him.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I wrote him several letters explaining what his teaching meant to me, but I never mailed them. I was too afraid of how he would pick them apart! I've always regretted that, because he died while I was in college. I've reconnected with many of his former students and we all still remember him so vividly. He was just doing his job, but he changed our lives.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">— Cathy Resmer, executive editor, Kids VT</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com