Upper Valley Trails Alliance Builds Accessible Trail in Milton Frye Nature Area

With mud season having come to a close, it’s time to start hitting the trails! And one newly renovated trail that you may wish to choose is the accessible trail created by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance (UVTA) in the Milton Frye Nature Area next to the Marion Cross School.

Russell Hirschler, executive director of UVTA, says, “There’s been a big push over the last few years or so for putting in accessible trails for people with any kind of mobility issues, older people who just need more places to have a sure-footed kind of walk, or families with strollers and kids.”

UVTA, a regional organization based right here in Norwich that serves over 43 communities all throughout the Upper Valley, coordinated with the Marion Cross School and the Town of Norwich to create the new accessible trail, built on an existing trail.

Hirschler says, “In order to do any kind of trail, you need willing partners.” And in this case, Marion Cross School and the Town (which owns the conservation land but has a cooperative use agreement with the school district) were excited to be a part of this project and brought the idea to the UVTA, who are known as a leader in the field for creating affordable and accessible trails – especially near schools.

Hirschler is finding more and more accessible trails being installed near schools. “Schools are always trying to get their kids outside, especially during the time they were utilizing the outdoor classrooms to a tremendous extent,” he says. Not only was an easily traversable trail to an outdoor classroom important for all students, but with a recent influx of families to Norwich – some with children who have mobility issues – the accessible trail has been particularly vital.

The school district raised the money to create the trail and worked in tandem with the Town to bring the project through the Planning Board and Development Review Board phase. The permits were issued, and about a year and a half from the initial idea and site visit, the team was getting to work on creating the trail.

While the process to approve the trail took some time, the actual build took around a total of two weeks. “It’s a lot of moving rock,” Hirschler laughs.

The UVTA staff – a team of four including Hirschler – worked together to build this trail. In the summers, UVTA runs a program called the High School Trail Corps, which recruits and works with students from high schools all over the Upper Valley. However, as this was a fall build, this trail was a four-person project. “Oftentime, our small staff is scattered in every direction doing lots of different things, and this was one of the few trail projects where all four of us were out there working together. It was a really great team effort,” Hirschler says.

Part of that effort was to get the trail down before they had snow and frozen ground, which created a good team challenge, Hirschler says. Sure enough, the trail was completed just before the first snowfall in November of 2022. “We scraped the last bits of gravel off the edge of parking log, pulled our machines out of there, and then it snowed,” Hirschler recalls.

The accessible trail created by Hirschler and his team converted a dirt trail into what they call a “hardened trail” that has a stone dust or hard-pack on top. The trail is created with three layers. First is a base layer of course gravel that gets compacted down to make it tight. “With stones that are all angular and jagged, when you push them down next to each other, they lock in place,” Hirschler notes. Next comes a middle layer of geotextile cloth, which separates the bottom and top layer materials. The cloth keeps dirt and mud from coming into the upper layer of the trail and keeps weeds and other plant life down. Finally, a top layer of the aforementioned hard-pack. This is also compacted down, and the result is an easily navigable surface that is still permeable so water can run through it, unlike with asphalt or concrete where water runs off the surface.

In addition to a more easily traversable surface, an accessible trail must have limited slopes (the team aims to have slopes of 10% grade or less). The guidelines for these trails are similar to those found in the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Hirschler and his team have just recently been back to work on the trail this spring, having asked folks to primarily stay off the trail during mud season. As the trail is right next to downtown off of Main Street, they’re very excited to have people using the trail regularly. “There’s a sense of joy,” Hirschler says, “You build a trail that’s also accessible to a certain segment of the population – anyone who normally wouldn’t be able to go on a footpath with rocks and twigs, branches and roots, or that has uneven ground or is too steep, and then to see those persons using the trail with a smile on their face… To put these trails in place for people is a joy.”

On top of this, it’s always wonderful to see elementary school kids out in the woods in a wild area with lots of big trees and wildlife, Hirscher says.

While the building of the actual trail isn’t all that difficult, getting all the pieces together to be able to build them is much harder, Hirschler says. And the fact that more communities – such as the school district and the Town of Norwich – are investing in these trails is tremendous and shows the value in it.

Equitable access is one of the fundamental principles on which UVTA is built and guides their work: “No matter what kind of trail user you are and what physical abilities you have, there’s a trail for you somewhere close to home,” Hirschler emphasizes. 

The investment in trails and recreation infrastructure that saw an upward trajectory during COVID has by no means slowed down, Hirschler says. The UVTA currently has lots of ongoing projects where they’re implementing the building techniques they’ve learned creating accessible trails. “With more heavy weather-related events – windstorms and rainstorms and all those kinds of climate-change related activities – the better and more sustainably you build the trail initially, the longer it’s going to last.”

The thing that makes Hirschler and the UVTA the most excited is the community investment in improving local trails: “We always say it’s great to have aspirations to hike in the Notches in the White Mountains or summit Mt. Mansfield or Camel’s Hump in the Greens, but really the most important trail is the one outside your back door or down your street. That’s the trail you’re going to use the most.”

UVTA is busy building and has no plans to slow down. Hirschler says, “We’re going to build trails and we’re going to get young kids and older people and anyone in between who needs helping getting into the woods to get out there.”

Vital Communities, the non-profit organization working to cultivate the civic, environmental, and economic vitality of the Upper Valley, was recently awarded a $200,000 New England Food Vision Prize for a multi-partner project. The Food Vision Prize aims to build resiliency, relationships, and capacity within New England’s farm-to-institution supply chain.

“This project will create a stable market for local producers, open stable sales channels for BIPOC producers, increase the amount of local ingredients in our institutions, and strengthen our local economy,” Vital Communities director of food & farm and economy, Nancy LaRowe, of Norwich, said.

The project came together when long-time Vital Community Upper Valley Everyone Eats partner, Global Village Foods – an African-inspired prepared food producer based in Quechee –  brought the idea of applying for a Food Vision prize to Vital Communities. Already sourcing from local farms for their UVEE meals, Global Village Foods realized they needed more and different equipment and a partner to help connect with local farms.

With this awarding of the prize, Global Village Foods will now have the means to produce meals at a large scale for institutions, starting with the University of Vermont, with food grown in New Hampshire and Vermont.

“We’re super excited because we have always tried to source our ingredients locally,” said Mel Hall, owner of Global Village Foods along with his wife, Damaris. “As we begin to rebound from the pandemic, this grant enables us to grow from a small regional specialty brand to having national potential, and to carry those local growers with us and offer them a guaranteed revenue stream.”

One of the local growers partnering with Global Village Foods is our own Honey Field Farm run by Eli Hirsch and Valerie Woodhouse, a 35-acre family farm located on Butternut Road in Norwich on the site of the former Killdeer Farm.

Making their start in Spring 2020, Hirsch and Woodhouse came to Norwich from Fairfax, VT looking to grow their small organic farm. They’d been searching for the right spot to take their business to the next level and found their ideal location at Killdeer. “We were excited to move to this community. It seemed like a community that was already really supportive of local agriculture,” Woodhouse said. The Norwich community has lived up to its reputation. “[The community] has been 5000% supportive,” she added. “[They’ve] really rallied to help us get on our feet and show up at the farm.”

It was at a Norwich Farmers Market that Valerie and Eli met Mel. Mel was sharing the Global Village Foods project with vendors, and Honey Field Farm’s wholesale veggie operation fit exactly into what Global Village Foods was looking for. This past September the two food-providers started working together.

“We’re definitely excited to work with them. We love working with food processors and local makers,” Hirsch said.

One of the reasons Hirsch and Woodhouse love working with food processors is the predictability of the market. “Every week since we began working with Global Village Foods, they’ve been buying 50 pounds of spinach. It’s something we know is going to happen and we can plan for it in advance. It is a huge relief to have stability and consistency. We can go into next year knowing the crop we plant has a home.,” Woodhouse said.

Honey Field Farms has been supplying Global Village Foods with scallions and spinach this fall and intends to plan more crops for the upcoming season with Mel and Damaris over the winter.

Beyond the stability provided by their partnership with Global Village Foods, Hirsch and Woodhouse appreciate the ability to widen their farm’s market. “We really like any opportunity we have to put more Vermont food into the regional foods system beyond our local relationships.” In addition to supplying our local coops and markets, Hirsch said. “We really appreciate when we’re able to send our food to other communities, other states, and other parts of the food system.”

Honey Field Farm’s food will be doing just that as it travels north with Global Village Food meals to the University of Vermont dining halls as part of Vital Communities Food Vision prize project.

Sometimes people go after their chosen careers and, as Erin Tunnicliffe, senior vice president for institutional advancement at Berklee College of Music and Norwich resident of 20 years, knows, “sometimes career choices come to you.”

In Tunnicliffe’s case, the career that found her is fundraising for Berklee College of Music, where she works with her colleagues to identify philanthropic opportunities for the school, build compelling cases for support, and help the team of fundraisers connect to the donor community. Tunnicliffe helps the school raise funds that enable direct support for students such as the Thrive retention scholarship that sustains student support throughout schooling or the K-12 community program “We Have City Music” in Boston.

While Tunnicliffe never dreamed of ending up in philanthropy, she can see what may have lead her to success in this field. “I always wrote my thank you notes,” Tunnicliffe recalls with a laugh, “If I go back in time and think about what prepared me as a kid, my mom instilled in me that after any gift you say thank you.” Tunnicliffe’s parents were both public school educators and although she was raised in a family of relatively modest means, she says, her parents were extremely generous with what they did have and that had an impact on her.

The path that brought her to development has been a circuitous one. Tunnicliffe worked as a strategy consultant in marketing after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and obtaining her MBA from the Tuck School of Business. While she found the people with whom she worked compelling, the day-in-day-out of what she was doing wasn’t a phenomenal fit.

Working out of Boston at the time, Tunnicliffe often visited the Upper Valley, interviewing students at Dartmouth for her firm. “I found myself wanting to come back to the Upper Valley; something took when I was here,” she recalls. So when she was offered a position in the career office at Tuck, she took the job. Tunnicliffe remembers her hesitation considering how much she’d invested her education into a consulting career but was compelled by the thought of helping students find their path.

Tunnicliffe felt ready for a change again several years later when the Dean asked her to assist with a capital campaign. She had never considered fundraising, but the Dean had confidence in her based on her knowledge of Tuck and the relationships she had built running the career office. “I trusted him and took the leap. Oftentimes career choices kind of come to you, and there is this sense of, ‘What is the downside? If I try this, what might I learn?”

“Sometimes these opportunities are put in front of you. Sometimes people are really planful and they have their sights set on something and other people, when something comes up, they know when to act.” 

This mindset came into play again after Tunnicliffe concluded her career with Tuck and was running her own advisory business. She was receiving a lot of attention from search firms, and one particularly thoughtful scout caught her interest. He had a gig for Tunnicliffe with Berklee, which needed an interim to fill a vacancy while a new role was crafted. Not only did Tunnicliffe say yes to taking on the interim position, Berklee ultimately offered her the role: “I had learned enough about Berklee and the role to say yes.”

“Berklee itself is just wildly compelling,” Tunnicliffe says, “It’s just such a special place.” Tunnicliffe first knew the school by reputation. CODA, a film deeply connected to Berklee both in plot and behind the scenes with music and production contributions from students and alumni, had recently won best picture; Tunnicliffe felt particularly connected to the film as her father was a hearing child of deaf adults. She soon learned there was even more to appreciate about Berklee beyond this. “My screen for working for another institution was that it had to be excellent at whatever it did, and Berklee certainly is.” She adds, “It also needed to have a commitment to inclusiveness and access.” Berklee, she felt, provided that access as an institution serving a broad population where students are accepted on their ability: “It is young people who have raw talent.”

At Berklee, Tunnicliffe is again able to help young people find and follow their pathways, “Berklee allows young people who have a passion to connect it to their education and to a career aspiration, from tech to production to performance. It enables young people to see a path and get some guidance.”

Tunnicliffe’s passion for Berklee is intertwined with her love for music. While not much of a musician herself – “I say I have a perfect voice for singing alone in a car,” she jokes – she has a deep appreciation of music that stems from having musicians in the family, such as a stepmother who was an elementary school music teacher.  Tunnicliffe grew up taking lessons in piano and flute – “the required childhood stuff,” she laughs, but now takes on the role of the superfan.

Being immersed in this musical environment very much has its perks. In Tunnicliffe’s first week in the role as SVP, Berklee gave Ringo Starr an honorary degree. Tunnicliffe was just a few strides away from Starr as he spoke and hopped on the drum set to give an impromptu performance of his music.

Even cooler than that, Tunnicliffe says, was the event at a little house party in Los Angeles where Berklee gave an honorary degree to Joni Mitchell, one of Tunnicliffe’s personal heroes. The event highlighted Berklee’s Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice; students and alumni performed jazz renditions of Joni’s music. “Joni was just so appreciative,” Tunnicliffe recalls, “She said, well I wish my parents could see this,’ and it was really sweet. People show such reverence so that was really special.”

This was early in Tunnicliffe’s tenure so she gives all accolades to her team. The one contribution for which she takes credit is the personalized beret – a signature accessory of Joni’s – gifted to the songwriter. Rolling Stone picked up the beret story and Tunnicliffe jokes that “she was basically in Rolling Stone.”

Beyond the encounters with iconoclast musicians, Tunnicliffe finds one of the best parts of the job the amazing talent of the students whom she supports. She calls out a student group, The Wildmans, who perform American roots music on banjo, fiddle, and guitar. The group recently won the bluegrass “FreshGrass” festival at MASS MoCA. They also performed at a recent board meeting. “This is like no other board meeting,” Tunnicliffe recalls thinking.

“It’s almost silly how many moments I get just in the course of work,” Tunnicliffe says, “We don’t gather without music.”

The Wildmans, she notes, are scholarship recipients, and make her incredibly proud of the work she does. “This is the difference between their being here and not.”

One stipulation of taking on the role at Berklee was that Tunnicliffe was not going to move away from the Upper Valley full-time; she spends a few days down in Boston most weeks. “It lets me be me,” she says of Norwich, “This is my home, and it makes me who I am.” An active runner, hiker, and yoga practitioner, Tunnicliffe and her husband embrace all our area has to offer. “It’s a place that is so innately home to me.”

People often suppose that anyone in fundraising has to be an extrovert, Tunnicliffe muses, but as an introvert, she loves the quiet that Norwich provides so she can come home and be with her family. “It restores me and lets me be able to be out in the world. And,” she adds, “it makes be really efficient when I’m in Boston so I can get everything done and get home!”

Tunnicliffe sees her work as a privilege to help connect people with opportunities for giving that can make a real difference. “It’s not sales, it’s generosity,” Tunnicliffe says, “If I can help people activate that state of being generous and doing something that they care about deeply, well that’s terrific.”

Tunnicliffe has an enormous amount of reverence for the act of philanthropy: “We can all think about a time that we’ve been helpful to someone, and that’s a really beautiful thing. That was the real hook for me.”

About five months ago, Paul Foster of Norwich received a shocking text. Marcel Jean, director and manager of the Tysea Orphanage in Jacmel, Haiti, was reaching out to Foster to let him know the funding the orphanage relied on to operate, was suddenly about to disappear. Their main benefactor was pulling out and the orphanage would have to close.

Foster had met Jean five years prior and gotten involved in Tysea by helping with educational costs; now Jean was reaching out to see if Foster might be able to assist him raise the funds to save the orphanage. Foster was immediately ready to help prevent the closing of the orphanage: “I couldn’t let that happen, I wouldn’t let that happen,” he said. 

The Tysea Orphanage was founded in 2013 in the Carrefour neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. Tysea is an acronym for the creole phrase “Timoun Yo Se Espwa Ayiti” meaning “Children are Haiti’s Hope.” Tysea is now home to over 30 children, providing them with a safe home, regular meals, clean water, access to education and recreation, and dental and medical support.

Answering Jean’s call, Foster sprung into action. In addition to grassroots fundraising, Foster formed a non-profit, Partners for Global Change, to help him in this mission to save the orphanage. Foster and his team have already raised $12,000 with many of the donations coming from Norwich and Thetford, but they still have a ways to go.

“I’m going with the idea of the Upper Valley adopting the orphanage,” Foster says, “I hope to make the Tysea Orphanage a household name in the Upper Valley.” There are already indications Foster’s work is paying off; he recalls being stopped in Dan & Whit’s by fellow residents to talk to him about Tysea.

Important to Foster is creating sustainable funding for the orphanage. The project had a lot of momentum to begin with, he says, but now it’s time to use strategy to figure out how to sustain this with ongoing support. In addition to looking into grants, Foster has built a weekly donation plan that he feels can be taken on by residents of the Upper Valley. With different levels of sponsorship, donors are able to give between $10.00 and $40.00 from their paycheck directly to the orphanage. “If a person can give a certain amount each week such as the cost of going out for one meal, it really can save the life of a child in Haiti. It is really going to help the child,” Foster says.

The situation is desperate in Haiti, Foster says, after facing serious unrest in 2021. The orphanage already had to make the move from Port-Au-Prince, where it was no longer safe, to Jacmel. Foster initially had plans to visit and considered setting up a Dartmouth medical school students service trip, but has been unable to due to the safety restrictions. “It’s hard not to visit, and I would love to meet the kids, play with them, and be a part of the community,” he says. This unrest also affects the orphanage’s ability to get support from their government; absolutely no funds are currently available to them.

Foster has spent nearly all of his life involved in community work. It was his first trip to Africa at age 17 that started his passion for helping communities in need around the world. “I fundamentally believe every child in the world deserves clean water, education, and a roof over their head. It’s at the core of who I am,” Foster says.

A native Englishman, Foster found his way to Norwich alongside his wife 35 years ago. Being a resident of the Upper Valley has also influenced Foster in building Partners for Global Change. “A lot of people in the Upper Valley are creating their own non-profits,” he says, “It’s a very empathetic community, very open to these kinds of projects.”

His hope is to sustainably fund the orphanage, improve current facilities, and ultimately have the home become a family support center. Some children have living family members who aren’t able to care for them for a number of reasons. “Ideally the children could be back in their community with support from the center, ultimately reducing the number of children in the orphanage. That feels like the right goal to have,” Foster says.

Foster has hope that Partners for Global Change will be able to take on more projects like this in the future, connecting Upper Valley residents to projects throughout the global neighborhood, all over the world. 

Friends of Tysea plans to have a stall at the Lebanon and Hanover Farmer’s market selling Haitian art products, Haitian food, and Support Tysea T-Shirts and hold a Haitian Art Auction.

Readers can donate at PartnersinGlobalChange.com or send a check to Partners in Global Change, 108 Academy Rd Norwich VT05055. Those interested in volunteering can email savetyseaorphangehaiti@gmail.com.

Partners for Global Change offers levels of support & readers can sponsor a child:

Gold Sponsor $40 per week

Silver Sponsor $20 per week

Bronze Sponsor $10 per week

Sustaining member one time gift of $100-500

Psyanky, or egg-writing, was the last lesson Shannon Wallis of Norwich taught as an elementary school teacher some 23 years ago, though she did not know it at the time. Teaching art to fourth, fifth, and sixth graders at Hanover Street School and Seminary Hill in 1999, Wallis was ordered on bed rest while pregnant: “I took a leave of absence and then didn’t go back to teaching art, so that was the last unit I taught,” she said.

A coincidence that now feels fateful, Wallis is a full-time pysanky artist creating intricate designs on delicate eggs. Wallis first learned this Ukrainian artform while training to become an elementary school teacher about 30 years ago. Ten years ago, Wallis introduced some of her friends to pysanky during Easter and that June: “They called me up and said, ‘We’re gonna egg, do you want to come over?’ and we started getting together once a month.” This turned into a year round activity and Wallis has now been making a living as a pysanky artist for 5 years.

The word pysanky comes from the Ukrainian word “to write,” hence why the art form is referred to as “egg-writing.” “Often people think about writing a story while they’re working on their eggs,” Wallis says, “The story may be a prayer, it may be symbolic, or it may be for the recipient.” Traditionally, the pysanky eggs hold a cultural meaning – they have been planted in fields to ensure a good harvest or placed in the cow barns to enhance milk production. In Spring, Wallis says, girls would write an egg and give it to the boy for whom she held affection. “There’s a story you’re putting on the egg, that’s why we say ‘to write.’”

The action of the art itself reminds Wallis of writing. The artist uses a teeny bundle, called a kistka, filled with beeswax that has been melted over a candle or electrically to write on the egg. The egg then goes into a dye and the eggs become colored wherever the beeswax is not present. This may sound familiar to many of us; Wallis says the process is similar to using a white wax crayon on an Easter egg – albeit with a much finer point! The alternate wax and dyeing process continues with as many color layers as the artist wishes to add. “For every color on an eggshell,” Wallis says, “there’s that many layers of wax and dye.” The pysanky artist doesn’t know what her egg will look like until the final step when all the wax is then melted off the egg. Sometimes the final design can be quite a surprise.

Wallis loves creating pysanky because of the geometry of the egg: “It’s different at the equator than it is on either end,” and that it allows her to vary her designs with her interests. “Whether it’s a design or a color pattern or a color scheme, I can play around with things.” When being juried into the League of NH Craftsmen, Wallis was worried the group wouldn’t see enough of a cohesive theme but they liked her collection all the same.

Although Wallis herself is not Ukrainian, she has met a number of pysanky artists who came to the artform through their Ukrainian or Eastern European heritage, and Wallis says they are always glad to have more people practicing the art form. “It’s a the-more-the-merrier feel,” she says.

This appreciation for people taking up the artform comes from the fact that it was at risk of being lost in Ukraine. “I’ve learned Ukrainian culture was suppressed in Ukraine,” Wallis says, “They weren’t allowed to speak their language or practice their arts, so some of it went underground but a lot came with the immigrants to North America.”

The artform making its way to North America with the large Ukrainian diaspora has been essential for the form’s survival. There are many people of Ukrainian heritage across Canada and the northern United States and Wallis feels lucky to have tapped into the network. She has Ukrainian-American friends from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania with whom she zooms once a week, and they assist Wallis with Ukrainian cultural and language questions. This May she attended a 5-day pysanky retreat in the Catskills at a Ukrainian cultural heritage center where she both taught and attended classes.

Wallis also participated in Pysanky for Ukraine Day on April 1st. A Canadian pysanky artist started this tradition in 2014 after Russia invaded Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula as a day for artists to get together and write. “It was like, ‘What can I do from here?’” Wallis says. “Let’s get together and pray and write and let people in Ukraine know that we’re with them in spirit.” This year over 150 people attended the virtual event where three Ukrainian pysanky artists spoke, including the head of the Pysanky Museum in Ukraine. Wallis herself has an egg over in Ukraine now that was intended to be part of an exhibition of Pysanky in North America. This has been put on hold and the eggs have been moved to another location after several cultural areas were bombed in central and eastern Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine has unsurprisingly affected and inspired Wallis’ work. She’s recently purchased eggs from and taken a Zoom masterclass with a Ukrainian pysanky artist, Tetiana Konoval. Wallis ended up being the only student in the class and laughs recalling neither Konoval or Wallis spoke the other’s language and had to type to each other with Google Translate. Konoval explained to Wallis her recent designs, which are in the style of traditional village scenes but now feature tractors pulling tanks, Ukrainian flags, or the Mariupol iron plant, with people hiding underground at the bottom of the egg and soldiers around them defending the plant. “It just gives you chills to look at these eggs,” Wallis says, “She’s making statements about the war and is really very much writing the story.”

Currently, Wallis says, she, and many of her friends have also been creating a lot of blue and yellow eggs in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. She has also been working on a number of eggs with traditional designs from five different areas in Ukraine that all were directly affected by bombings or invsaion for the upcoming Day for Ukraine fundraiser at La Salette Shrine in Enfield on June 11th. Wallis will be demonstrating her art at the event and have plenty of eggs for sale as well. The writing process can take Wallis anywhere between one and four hours so she plans on having a number of nearly finished eggs at the event so people can watch the big reveal at the end. Wallis hopes the participants not only get to learn about pysanky, but also come away with a greater understanding of Ukrainian culture. She notes that she has learned it is best to refer to the country as “Ukraine” and not “the Ukraine” as adding “the” can be offensive to some folks who feel that makes the country seem to be only a region. “I want to make sure people understand that Ukraine is a sovereign country with a real cultural heritage and that these people are really fighting for their sovereignty,” Wallis says.

Wallis recently held her own fundraiser for Ukrainian relief, donating 25% of her sales to World Central Kitchen during the four weeks leading up to Easter. This combined with donations made through her fundraiser page totaled over $3,000.00. She also participated in a Ukrainian relief fundraiser with the Library Arts Center in Newport, NH and donated 10 eggs to Long River Gallery in WRJ; all eggs have sold with proceeds going to World Central Kitchen.

Even the act of writing pysanky can help, Wallis says. She’s shared designs on social media and people currently in Ukraine have written to express their appreciation for her writing eggs. Wallis shares an old legend from western Ukraine that tells a tale of a monster chained up in the mountains who, every spring, sends his minions out to the villages to see if people are writing pysanky. If they are, his chains tighten; if fewer people are writing his chains loosen. If no one at all is writing pysanky, then evil will be free to rain terror. Wallis mentions she has always read that folktale at the beginning of her classes, but feels it’s taken on new meaning with the war.

Wallis is grateful to continue creating pysanky with her global community and sharing this artform with a new group of people at the Day for Ukraine: “I truly feel really honored to be an ambassador of the art form.”

The Day for Ukraine fundraiser will take place on June 11th, 2022 at the La Salette Shrine in Enfield, NH. Please visit La Salette’s website for more information on the day: www.lasaletteofenfield.org. Shannon Wallis can be found on her site: www.shannonwallisdesigns.com.

“How can we help?” Reverend Jan Hutslar and the folks at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley in Norwich were able to answer this question by hosting the retrofitted RV that Simon Dennis, director of the Center for Transformation Practice (CTP) in Hartford, and his team put together to house two previously un-housed persons. 

The RV has been outfitted into two apartments that can each house a person comfortably with the necessary amenities for most activities of daily life. The church first became involved in the project after Dennis sent a letter to the congregation gauging their interest in hosting the RV home. “Dennis had been a guest speaker around issues the un-housed face in our community at the church early this past fall. It really sparked a lot of conversations. People spoke with Dennis following the service and asked, ‘How can we be involved? How can we help?’” Rev. Hutslar says. 

After Dennis presented the project to the board, the response was immediately positive. “I was really impressed,” Rev. Hutslar says, “The board said there’s no question if we can be of help here, we want to do it. It’s what our values tell us.” Rev. Hutslar met with Dennis and the prospective tenants. “We talked and got to know each other,” Rev. Hutslar says, and the tenants moved onto the property. 

The congregation welcomed the tenants, and they became part of the church community. Several members of the congregation connected with the tenants in particular – a member who works as the church groundskeeper knitted hats for the tenants. The church grounds feature a big apple tree whose apples often go to the Haven food shelves and that the congregation may use as they wish; Rev. Hutslar recalls one of the tenants, who grew up on a farm, utilizing some of those apples to make applesauce over their small Coleman stove. 

Originally from Indiana, Rev. Hutlsar first came to the Upper Valley four years ago after graduating from her seminary program in California. She interviewed with four different churches in New England but fell in love with the church here in Norwich. “Luckily they wanted me, too,” she laughs, “I love it and I love them. They’re pretty wonderful. It’s really rewarding and it’s an honor. I’m really grateful.” 

The RV and its tenants were allowed to stay at the church in Norwich for 30 days, according to town regulations. Rev. Hutslar noted it has been difficult for CPT to find places to park the RVs. “Churches and communities want to help, but town regulations do get in the way of that.” She hopes that this story will draw more attention to the issues around housing people in the Upper Valley and that the town ordinances, such as the 30-day limit, that exist can be addressed “so we can keep our neighbors a little safer and a little more protected from the elements.” This extremely cold weather, Rev. Hutslar notes, makes it even more imperative to help community members who don’t have a warm place to live. 

The RV and its tenants moved to the First Congregational Church in Lebanon following their stay in Norwich. After their time allowed in Lebanon ended as well, the RV has found another new home for the time being. “We all said goodbye and hugged,” Rev. Hustlar says, “The next time I went into church, it felt so lonely. They were our neighbors for a month. It was a little sad; I missed them.” 

Even with the tenants no longer living at the church, the positive impact of their stay continues. Rev. Hutslar still checks in with tenants regularly and members of the congregation remain connected to them. A group of congregation members help the tenants out with rides in and out of town for errands and job interviews. One member was with a tenant when she received the job offer which she has since accepted. “It’s nice to see how we can help each other out,” Rev. Hutslar says. The congregation has also since collected warm blanks, clothing, and rugs to help keep the units warm this winter. “I know people like to help,” Rev. Hutslar says, “It’s a big problem and if we can help one or two people, it makes a difference.”  

When two local companies team up to better our community, magical things can happen. JAG Productions based in White River Junction is partnering with King Arthur Baking Company in Norwich. While a theater company and baking company seem an unlikely pair, together they are co-producing a beautiful series of performances, “Theatre on the Hill.”

“Theatre on the Hill” will take place on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings between August 13 – September 12 on the grassy hill behind King Arthur Baking Company in Norwich. Preceded with food and drinks provided by Upper Valley favorites such as Munchie Rollz, Griddle and Groovy, and Wolf Tree, “Theatre on the Hill” is an outdoor theater series featuring an array of performances from workshop productions to concert musicals, to staged readings. 

Jarvis Green, Founding Artistic Director of JAG, spoke of his desire to give audiences, “a hybrid of all the many ways in which we are thinking about producing theater.” Suzanne McDowell, King Arthur’s Vice President of CSR and Sustainability, wrote about supporting Green’s vision. “The idea of Theatre on the Hill was born out of the natural link between food and art and the potential for King Arthur Baking to offer a vibrant, living stage for JAG’s work.” 

JAG and King Arthur Baking Company first came together through JAG’s ambassador partnership program in which organizations or businesses interested in promoting marginalized voices and adopting anti-racist policies can find creative ways to partner with JAG and support their work. This particular program came about after a year of building a relationship between the two companies and through Green’s desire to create in-person programming for the community before heading back into the theater in the fall. Luckily for all of us, this manifested in an outdoor theater experience not to be missed. 

So, what can we expect to see at this event? A little bit of everything. Starting off the series will be a workshop production of a play that was first featured as a staged reading at JAGFest 4.0. JAGFest is a yearly new works festival that invites up-and-coming Black playwrights from all over the country to stage their new pieces here in the Upper Valley. The play a curious thing; or superheroes k’aint fly by Jeremy O’Brian, a “90-minute queer romance… exploring the universal question of parenthood in a world laden with danger,” was the hit of the 2019 festival. 

For the following two weekends, Green himself is directing a concert version of Next to Normal (Yorkey & Kitt), a Pulitzer-Prize and Tony-Award-winning musical that explores mental health and a family dealing with crises. “You’re going to get that sensation of artists connecting to a score and singing beautifully… but you’re also going to be rooted in truth and in reality.” Green speaks of the stigma surrounding mental health and how presenting these stories in a fashion that evokes empathy, such as musical theater, can help normalize dialogues around difficult subjects. “As someone who has family members and friends that have struggled with mental health,” he said, “I think that’s the crux or foundation or root of why I wanted to do this piece.” 

Next up, Life in Sepia: Vermont’s Black Burlesque Revue, will take the stage. This piece builds a narrative around the history of Black burlesque in America through a variety of performers including our own local Golden Mystique. The revue will be “femmeceed” by duo Kia Warren and Liza Colby who will weave the story of American Black burlesque through eight performers, each taking on a decade in this historical burlesque journey. 

Closing the series will be a staged reading of For the Love of Jazz by playwright Raven Cassell, another JAGFest alumni. First performed as a radio play during JAG’s 2020 COVID-restricted festival, this “jazzical” follows the story of a young woman navigating life and love during the Harlem Renaissance of the ’20s and ’30s. Green lauds Cassell’s work, “She’s written this really beautiful contemporary play that’s also rooted in classic American theater.”

With this partnership in mind, where does the intersection of baking and the performing arts lie? “Baking, it’s a collective experience,” said Green. “Baking allows for conversation and storytelling. When I grew up, I was always in the kitchen with my mom and my grandmother. I remember so vividly the stories they used to tell as they would bake. Baking just allows for folks to connect in a way that removes boundaries because of this shared experience.”

“I hope that during ‘Theatre on the Hill’ series, people will shop at King Arthur and then while they’re [cooking or baking], have an experience about the work and what they saw and have conversations with their families about some of the themes we engaged with them on during the series.” McDowell agrees. “Just as art does, food tells stories, evokes emotions, and activates our senses,” she said. “The act of connecting food and art has powerful potential to promote diverse voices, experience, and perspectives.” 

Green is incredibly enthusiastic about this work. Green speaks of theater as he speaks of baking, focusing on its ability to connect people. “I want to lead with storytelling because that’s where we connect as human beings,” said Green. “How do we tap into your heart? That helps us be the change that we want to see. And I think that’s the power of theater.”

Also evident is his deep love of Vermont and of our community. “I love Vermont. I love the beauty of Vermont. I feel like [the Upper Valley] is full of vibrant, community-driven folks.” Green is looking forward to this series continuing JAG’s relationship with the community and bringing new faces into the mix who will want to become a part of making this theater happen and join in helping ensure this work becomes a part of our community for years to come. 

Green is also hoping this is the first of many community-based collaborations. King Arthur Baking Company is not the only local group that has helped make this project come to life. Speaking with Green, it became clear that this is truly a community project that has involved collaboration from several well-known local businesses such as Northern Stage, the Center for Cartoon Studies, plus an army of local volunteers. “I think this series is going to speak to the power of partnerships. We don’t have to live in isolation about how we’re supporting each other’s work. It doesn’t just have to be JAG doing this. It takes all of us. I think it will be kind of an entry point for people to lean in and say yes, I like what you’re doing, how can I support? I feel like there can be some cool partnerships and I hope that a big institution like King Arthur gives people more permission to lean in. I want to diversify what partnership looks like.” 

Overall, Green hopes that this series is “a reminder that you can have the beauty of gathering again and enjoying glorious theater that’s rooted in reminding us of what happened and where we need to go. This is an opportunity for hearts to mend and to come together.” McDowell seconds this notion. “In our relatively small community, theater makes a powerful impact,” she said. “It can engage individuals from all backgrounds, creating a shared experience that still allows for diversity and difference to blossom, and JAG is a perfect example of that.” 

What else can we look forward to from JAG? Green is optimistic to see an outdoor summer series return in the future, and this fall and winter, readers can catch more of JAG at Juke Joint, JAG’s annual fundraising dinner-theater cabaret in November and at JAGFest 6.0 in February 2022.

In the meantime, pull up a picnic blanket, cushion, or any of the provided seating and come take in one (or more!) of the wonderful performances this August and September at JAG and King Arthur Baking Company’s “Theatre on the Hill” on Route 5 in Norwich. n

Tickets are $25.00 and available at www.jagproductionsvt.com/theatre-on-a-hill. The event will be wheelchair accessible, restrooms are in the KABC facility, and parking is available in both lots. Seating is first come; first served and local food and beverage will be offered beginning at 6:30 PM. Performances will begin at 8:00 PM. See you on the hill!