A Chippers land enhancement woodlands project. Chippers is proud to sponsor this page and believes in encouraging and promoting environmental stewardship and protecting our green spaces above all else. Kudos to these Dartmouth students and Vital Communities for collaborating and taking steps to create real-world solutions to climate change issues.

Every year, Dartmouth College offers a two-term capstone class called the Senior Design Challenge, that combines interdisciplinary education with human-centered design to solve challenges identified by partner organizations in the Upper Valley. This year, a trio of students is working with the Upper Valley Adaptation Workgroup (UVAW) to find grassroots solutions addressing the problem of climate change on an individual level. The team hopes to build a technical solution that will have a real impact on the local community and, in some form or another, similarly engaged communities around the world.

Seniors Abby Drach, Gabby Hunter, and Jade Bravo wanted to do something about climate change. Jade is an environmental studies major; Abby and Gabby, who are majoring in psychology and cultural anthropology respectively, are passionate about sustainability and interested in finding creative, bottom-to-top solutions to the problems people face daily. Despite their disparate majors, the human-centered approach the class inspires drew them together, and their interests fit with the challenge proposed by UVAW, a group of individuals and organizations that meets under the Vital Communities umbrella and seeks to build climate-resilient communities in the Upper Valley. The challenge, as given to the students, was to answer the question: “what else can I [as an individual in the Upper Valley] do to combat climate change, and where do I start?”

The challenge, “to catalyze community-wide activity to mitigate and adapt to climate change” as stated in UVAW’s proposal, inspired the trio, and they set about interviewing residents of the local community, with support from Earth Sciences Professor Erich Osterberg and Vital Communities Climate Projects Coordinator Ana Meija. Starting from various climate-conscious sources including UVAW’s Climate Change Leadership Academy and a Building A Local Economy meeting, the team interviewed twenty-eight residents of Norwich, Hanover, and Lebanon. The questions were fairly broad, says Abby: in terms of pro-environment actions, they asked people “what behaviors they do daily, what they wish they were doing, and what’s preventing them from doing that,” among other topics.

The students’ results may not sound surprising, but they are certainly informative and highly useful. Analyzing the results of their interviews, they distilled their findings into four insights: first, that people often rely on community-based actions and resource-sharing mechanisms for change; second, that the decisions people make are based on individual motivations and priorities; third, that though money can be a barrier, people with resources intentionally invest in and explore tools ranging from electric vehicles to solar panels and weatherization; and fourth and perhaps most importantly, that individuals want to be more resilient than they are, but they often lack sufficient information and can be overwhelmed by the information that is available. That may sound confusing, but in short, it means that people want to find more ways to address climate change locally, and they do when they have the opportunity and support, but they may not know what to do.

Dartmouth students Abby Drach, Gabrielle Hunter, and Jade Bravo

This is where their work will continue in the second term of their project, which Abby is excited to begin. Their task, she says, will be to build “a decision-making tool to help people to choose and undertake the actions that make most sense for them.” Though this is a project focused on the Upper Valley and different populations may require different solutions, the team is hopeful this is a project that can ultimately be applied to numerous communities in Vermont and beyond. They are grateful to the friendly and helpful community members they interviewed – “you definitely can’t find that everywhere,” Abby notes enthusiastically – and expect that, with slight modifications, this sort of activity could be applied in communities elsewhere and the results could have broad and meaningful impacts on our world.

Still, Abby knows there are challenges. In analyzing their data, the team developed personae to broadly define their target audience: a retired person with free time and a desire, perhaps partially realized, to get involved in her community; a young professional doing what he can with limited impact and time; parents with young children who are conscious of the climate crisis but lacking the discretionary income to be able to do much more than make it through the day; and of course the environmental experts who understand the issues but may not always know the best solutions for the wider community. “We may need to choose one persona to focus on, or we may need different solutions for each of them,” Abby says, but they still hope to find effective solutions for as many people as they can, and use the community, or other people, as bases of knowledge or resources for building those solutions. As someone with a keen passion for sustainability (she is particularly interested in clothing sustainability) Abby hopes her experience will be applicable to her future endeavors; in any case, her work in collaboration with the Upper Valley community has already made steps towards meaningful change.

The road to becoming a Vermont gubernatorial candidate began a long time ago for Norwich resident Rebecca Holcombe whose childhood in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Fiji Islands, and Sudan had a direct impact not only on how she has perceived the world but how she has navigated through it. Even though her family “had the bad fortune of arriving in ountries just as political trouble was beginning,” Holcombe learned quickly from her mother that, in comparison with many global native inhabitants, she had a privileged upbringing. “In my own family, particularly on my mother’s side, access to public schooling gave her many opportunities,” said Holcombe. “She was always acutely aware that she was lucky and that those who weren’t, should have a chance.”

Opportunity. Education. Equality. Those are the words that encompassed Holcombe’s core values as a child and then as a teenager when she arrived in the United States. And those are the philosophies that are still ingrained in her as an adult, spouse, parent and politician.

Prior to that, Holcombe lived in Afghanistan from 4th to 7th grade, attending a government subsidized public school, until the Soviet invasion in 1979 forced her family out of the country. From there, they traveled to Pakistan where Holcombe attended the International School of Islamabad until anti-American unrest scared away nearly all the English-speaking students and teachers. Because Holcombe’s family stayed, however, she was home schooled.

“The power of living abroad is you have to look at yourself from the outside,” said Holcombe. “When you’re in one of those international schools, you’re going to school with children from so many different countries. That challenges you to think about things you take for granted. You realize quickly how important language facility is to doing well. It’s an incredibly privileged way to grow up.”

From the Mideast, Holcombe returned to the United States to attend the Boston preparatory Milton Academy. During vacations, she regularly joined her parents overseas including Fiji and Sudan. And, while at Milton, she spent a year in Spain, resulting in her speaking fluent Spanish to this day.

Holcombe went on to earn her bachelor’s degree from Brown University, an MBA from Simmons School of Management, and her Doctorate in Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. She completed coursework for her principal certification at Lyndon State College.

Rebecca Holcombe with her husband James Bandler and children Daniel and Johanna

She and her husband, James Bandler, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, moved to Norwich 11 years ago. “Living in Vermont is a values issue,” said Holcombe. “One of the things on this side of the river is a sense of community. We all celebrate the walkable downtown area while maintaining the land around us. And, frankly, the high-speed internet allowed James to telecommute to New York City where he was based as a journalist. So, it’s a nice mix of nearby family, community ties, and the internet.”

Holcombe spent the next several years as a teacher, principal and Vermont secretary of education, continuing to focus her life’s work on creating equal opportunities for every child and every individual in the state of Vermont.

As secretary, she worked to address the inequalities between those with wealth and those without in Vermont communities, keeping in mind what she had witnessed as a child growing up in an international community.  “Public schools are where we achieve equality,” said Holcombe. “It’s where we bring each other together and become a civil society. It’s the means for making sure every child has a chance.”

As Governor, Holcombe said she wants to take advantage of her life experience “to push the democratic project of making sure the state is working to create opportunities so people can go out and live well. I’m going to win by showing everyday working Vermonters that it’s not enough to talk,” said Holcombe. “I think Vermonters want a governor who’s going to roll up their sleeves and engage.”

Whether focusing on health care, affordable housing or education, Holcombe emphasized that people can’t live if these issues are not addressed. “People are struggling to pay their bills,” she said. “They need good jobs that pay them living wages. We need to make sure people that work hard are able to cover their bills and pay for their rent and not worry about health care.”

The first job of governor, she continued, is to improve the lives of the people. “That means putting our resources where they make it better and where they make our communities stronger so that people can live well and prosper and be happy in our Vermont communities,” Holcombe said.

Holcombe is deeply committed to her own community of Norwich where she has raised her two children, Daniel and Johanna, both of whom attended local public schools. “I’m so proud of them. It’s tough for young people growing up right now. Many whom I’ve met are full of hope and ideals, but they’re not sitting on the sidelines. I appreciate their hard work and their realism and clarity. It’s incredibly inspiring, and I see it in my own kids. They give me hope.”

It is exactly that aspiration, Holcombe indicated, that propelled her into public service, understanding her own privileged inheritance and wanting to pass that on “to make sure everyone has the chance to learn, and to grow up healthy and strong.”

“Where I grew up, there was no opportunity or certainty,” Holcombe said. “I saw first-hand the desperation people had and the direct consequences of having no education or nutrition. When children have the opportunity to get a good education, they will always take with them the ability to make good things happen even in the face of challenge.”

Diverse communities, such as those found in public schools, are brought together by how to build an institution that prepares children for the future, Holcombe noted. And schools are the most democratic institution because “we come together to figure out how to work together,” she added. It is these institutions that reflect individual core values that, according to Holcombe, “will keep you on a straight course in a world that can get confusing fast.”

Holcombe and David Zuckerman are running in the Democratic primary for Governor of Vermont on August 11, 2020.

The Essential Guide to Rebecca Holcombe

What is one person, place or thing you love about living in Norwich? 

I love living near our neighbors, and that feeling of having good neighbors with all that means. When our kids were young, they were like another set of grandparents.  We can just show up at their house, or them at our house, for a last minute, casual shared dinner of leftovers or cup of tea.  We help them with sugar, and they keep us grounded. My kids love the candy in the cupboard, and I like the comfort of old, gold relationships.

What did/do you want to be when you grew/grow up?

Just about everything at one point or another, except a politician.

Which bedtime story you read to your kids is your favorite and why?   

Good Night, Gorilla and Ten Minutes Till Bedtime by Peggy Rathmann. Both perfectly capture the yearning and absurdity of bedtime.  

If you had your own talk show, who would be your first three guests?

Today? Eleanor Roosevelt, Claudette Colvin, and Ruha Benjamin.

What is your favorite quote?

Changes by the week. This week it’s by Wendell Berry: “All we can do to prepare rightly for tomorrow is to do the right thing today.”

If you could be invisible for one day, where would you be?

I wouldn’t be invisible. I think it’s past time for us to be more direct and transparent about the challenges we face, and what it will take to work together to overcome them. This is a time for courage, not invisibility.

Wine, beer, martini, green tea or Lou’s milkshake?

Blues Sparrow hot chocolate. I love buying Vermont products!

What is your biggest fear or phobia?

I was once served a bowl of snakes in broth in China. That was pretty much where my adventurous spirit hit a wall.

What is your most energizing dream/vision for your future?

I want to be able to look my children and their friends in the eye and know I did everything I could to make this a state and nation where we work together with our neighbors and give everyone a fair chance. I want them to know that when we live in ways that protect the environment and institutions for the future, we are all better off.

Print or digital?

For pleasure, there is nothing like print.

What do you love most about living in Vermont?

The people and the place.

LINDA COOK is the Norwich Women’s Club 2020 Citizen of the Year. The “Stewards of Norwich” are Ray and Anna Royce, Cheryl Lindberg, and Allison Colburn. Please come celebrate them at this year’s Women’s Club Gala on Saturday, March 21 at 6 pm.

It’s hard to believe there’s anyone who knows Norwich as well as Linda Cook. It’s not just that she was born and raised here and has been – other than college – a lifelong resident. It’s that over the course of her life she’s devoted herself to serving the town and helping its people meet whatever challenges face them.

She started young. Her first fire call came when she was 10, when she rode along with her father, Fire Chief Leonard Cook (who in turn had learned the ropes from his father). She wasn’t allowed out of the car, but it made an impression, and eventually Linda joined the fire department, becoming a firefighter (and Fire Captain) and an EMT. She also serves currently as the town Fire Warden.

She’s directly served the town in other ways, as a lister and as a years-long member of the selectboard, including a stint as chair. In her capacity there she was a tireless voice for people who struggled to express themselves and worried about rising costs and taxes; she was never less than plain-spoken about her convictions, which were rooted in her belief that, as she puts it, “Whether you’re here for a day, a year, or a lifetime, I want people to be able to stay here if they choose to.”

Linda may also be one of the most visible volunteers in town. She works the Nearly New Sale every year, helps organize the Five Churches Rummage Sale, and stepped up to run Norwich Old Home Day after Rose Swift, who started it, retired. She’s active in the Grange, helps Police Chief Jen Frank with the babysitting class she runs for young teens, and works with the Boy Scouts who do the haunted house every year at Halloween.

But it’s her less visible work that may be most impressive. Linda essentially coordinates an informal network of volunteers who help older people stay in their homes or, if the time has come to leave, to move out. She’ll stop by an elderly neighbor’s home every day to put the newspaper on the porch. She takes others to appointments. She drove one to Maine to move in with family. When one elder in town passed away, she found a scrap metal company to remove appliances, helped pack up his personal items, found a home for his wood stove, and helped the family with the removal and disposal of everything else in the house. She did all this, as her nominators write, “simply because she could and wanted to help.”

For her tireless and generous sleeves-rolled-up spirit in helping Norwich and its residents, the committee is delighted that Linda Cook is the 2020 Citizen of the Year.

Anna and Ray Royce

RAY AND ANNA ROYCE have been stalwarts in Norwich for longer than many of us have been alive. Ray, a World War II vet, has been active in the American Legion for decades, as well as a key member of the Norwich Lions Club, which has been serving this community and the Upper Valley as a whole for over 50 years.

Together, Ray and Anna have been pillars of the local church community and the driving force behind the Five Churches Rummage Sale. The sale’s proceeds benefit the town’s churches equally and have become not only a hallmark event on Norwich’s annual calendar, but a symbol of the “all for one” community spirit that undergirds the town’s quality of life. “The amount of work that goes into organizing one of these is unbelievable,” wrote one nominator, yet the Royce’s – quietly, and without expecting any attention – have done it year after year and decade after decade. For this and other efforts, they were honored last fall with a “Micah Award” from the Upper Valley Interfaith Project. They are true stewards of the town’s spirit.

Cheryl Lindberg

CHERYL LINDBERG has been a fixture in Norwich ever since she first ran for and became town treasurer almost a quarter century ago. She has worked tirelessly on behalf of financially rigorous town and school governance – here and, as an active member (and past president) of the New England States Government Finance Officers Association, across the region.

This is often invisible, thankless work. Last fall, however, Cheryl’s painstaking work became highly visible after she noticed a pair of questionable transfers from the town’s account to a supposed vendor. The money had been transferred by a new town finance director without selectboard approval and in contradiction of Cheryl’s explicit instructions. Cheryl brought the issue to the attention of the selectboard chair and then the finance committee – and that is how the town discovered it had been bilked of almost $250,000. She played an active role in helping dissect what had happened, and in helping the town retrieve its money. For that, and for being a true steward of Norwich finances, she deserves the community’s enthusiastic thanks.

Allison Colburn

ALLISON COLBURN is leaving the Child Care Center in Norwich after 38 years, the past 22 of them as executive director. Hundreds of Norwich children got a safe, caring, stimulating, mind-stretching start in life, grounded in open-hearted decency, thanks to Allison’s tireless hard work. And their parents, it’s safe to say, got wise, to-the-point – but never judgmental – advice on how to understand their kids and to be better parents.

Under Allison’s leadership, the Center has become a lodestar in the regional child-care world, meeting the highest professional standards, becoming a state-funded preschool site, expanding when the town needed it to take on after-school care for older kids, and remaining dedicated through it all to meeting the needs of families from all national backgrounds, socioeconomic strata, and belief systems.

In nominating Allison, a group of parents wrote, “Allison is, on any given day, a teacher, a boss, a plumber, a grant-writer, a housepainter, a Tuck Internship sponsor, a staff advisor, a Dartmouth work/study host, a water-quality control expert, a weather forecaster, a budget guru, a sub scheduler, an interviewer, an outreach coordinator, a special needs team member, an early childhood advocate at the Vermont Statehouse and on local and state commissions, a regulations-reader, a late-night board meeting attendee, an early-morning IEP meeting attendee, a snack fixer, a tear-wiper, a parent coach, a phone answerer, and a band-aid procurer.” Her influence on the children both of Norwich and the region is incalculable. We thank her for being a steward of our children.

The Citizen of the Year Committee: Cheryl Herrmann, chair; Lisa Christie; Amy Miller Eberhardt; Rob Gurwitt; Stephanie McCaull; Don McCabe; Sue Pitiger

There is something special about the taste of a freshly picked piece of produce from the garden, or beef on the grill from a locally raised, grass fed cow.  Not only the taste, but also the satisfaction one receives from eating locally produced food products is palpable.  Growing up in farm country, having foods, particularly produce, go directly from the garden to the dinner table seemed natural to me.  If some fruit or vegetable did not come from our gardens, surely a neighbor’s farmstand carried it.  Sure, all of our foods weren’t local, and the grocery store was a weekly stop, but having regular access to local foods was common.

In recent decades, we have experienced a revival in the interest among consumers of obtaining foods directly, or indirectly, from local farmers.  For a variety of reasons, including product freshness, nutritional value, supporting local farms and businesses, or knowing how and where one’s food is produced, many consumers are active in finding their food products from local sources.  In the Upper Valley, consumers are privileged with numerous choices for locally grown produce and locally raised meats.  Whether direct from the farm, from one of the many farmers markets, stores that sell local foods such as the Co-op Food Stores, or area restaurants that serve local products, area “foodies” have many options for foods right here in the Upper Valley.

Sunrise Farm, nestled in the hills of Hartland

Chuck Wooster operates Sunrise Farm in Hartford.  During the busy growing and harvesting season from May until October, Wooster says his farm focuses on its CSA (community supported agriculture) customers, who come directly to the farm to pick their CSA shares of the produce.  “We’re lucky enough to sell everything right from the farm,” says Wooster.

During the remainder of the year, the farm also provides produce such as lettuce, chard, kale and spinach to some local restaurants, and to the Upper Valley Food Co-op in White River Junction.

With the strong interest in locally grown, nutritious foods, the Upper Valley is a great place for farmers to get food directly to the customer’s dinner table. “From a farmer’s perspective, we have a lot of people here caring about food, who don’t have extra time to plant a garden,” Wooster says.

Chuck Wooster in one of Sunrise Farm’s greenhouses

The trend of restaurants using more and more locally grown and raised food products “has been a major change over the last twenty years,” says Wooster.  That trend prompted Sunrise Farm to move forward with winter growing of produce.  “Winter growing is driven by restaurants,” he adds.

Mark Robie, of the Upper Valley’s Robie Farm, markets local meat products to a variety of stores and restaurants.  Having the chance to buy local food products, “gives the consumer a say in how your food is produced,” he says.  Robie often takes calls and has discussions about the meat and other products, such as cheese, sporting the Robie Farm name.  Discussions often center on the health of the animals and the manner in which they’re raised. “These conversations offer consumers a connection with the farmer themselves,” he adds.

Bill Stinson has a history of raising and selling vegetables for 40 years in New England. He notes that the current farm-to-table movement “hasn’t been around all that long.”  Stinson says the late 1970s saw farmers begin expanding their marketing by selling from farmstands and farmers markets. This trend proved advantageous for farmers and consumers. “It connected people with better food, though the movement was slow to grow, to get momentum,” says Stinson.

Eventually, this farm-to- table food experience took hold. “The buy local food movement has really picked up speed in the last twenty years,” says Robie.

Mark Robie

Stinson says that in the early 2000s, chefs and restaurants really picked up interest in using locally grown produce in their creations.  Area restaurants such as Arianas, the Latham House Tavern, and Molly’s all feature Robie Farm meat products, says Robie. Other area restaurants well publicize the fact that they utilize local farm products in their dishes.

The Blue Sparrow Kitchen of Norwich uses a great deal of local produce in the dishes they create, says owner Amber Boland.  In fact, Blue Sparrow’s menu indicates which dishes feature local produce and the farms where that produce originates. “We hear a lot of thanks from folks (for using local produce),” says Boland.  “It means a ton to me.”  Some of the local produce Boland uses in her recipes comes from Edgewater Farm of Plainfield and Sweetland Farm of Norwich. With so much local produce available, Boland says the Upper Valley is blessed for those seeking local food products. “We live in this amazing area with all these farms,” she says.

Often during the growing season, Boland says she will customize her dishes to feature the local produce plentiful at that time. Lots of chard coming during the growing season?  Then you’re likely to see it featured on the menu at the Blue Sparrow Kitchen.

A calf – from Robie Farm

Another area farm producing locally grown and raised food products is Norwich’s Sweetland Farm. Owner Norah Lake says her farm specializes in selling through CSA shares, and at farmers markets. “We’re just on the cusp of getting into the restaurant market,” she adds. With her farm growing over 100 different varieties of produce, the chances of filling the needs of consumers and restaurants is greatly enhanced.  For the consumer, Lake says buying local foods “is a feel-good purchase” which results in supporting local producers and the Upper Valley economy. In return, the farm offers  consumers important information about the food they eat.“ A big part of what we do is education,” Lake says.

Sweetland’s produce does end up in the foods created by nearby Blue Sparrow Kitchen, but for a farmer to make buying arrangements with numerous restaurants or stores, it takes a commitment of time, energy, and resources. In arranging a better, more efficient way to match up the local farmer with the stores and restaurants, enter the Upper Valley’s champion of buying local, Vital Communities.

Last fall, Beth Roy, Vital Communities’ food & farm program manager, says her organization arranged a first ever event designed to match up local farmers with area restaurants, food stores, and grocery distributers. This event, resulting from a grant offered by Vermont’s Agency of Agriculture, allowed local farmers and food producers (such as honey and maple syrup producers) to meet with commercial buyers of their meat, produce, and products. The event resulted “in really positive reactions,” says Roy. “It made it easier for (farmers) to meet these businesses.”

Norah Lake of Sweetland Farm.

Vital Communities efforts to increase education and realization of the local farm-to-table movement extend well beyond bringing farmers and businesses together. Roy says her organization works closely with area schools to enhance young people’s knowledge and appreciation of nutritious, locally produced foods. Some of these efforts include having schools’ breakfast and lunch programs buy and use foods from local farms and encourage outdoor classrooms where students learn about growing and preparing produce and care for on-site gardens.

Roy says she also works closely with the area farmers markets to enhance the experience for both consumers and the vendors. In this effort, Vital Communities established the Upper Valley Farmers Market Collaborative, working with numerous farm market managers, including those from Lebanon and Norwich, to help grow these markets. Roy notes that both the Norwich and Lebanon markets are particularly successful in bringing together consumers with local farmers and producers.

Some of the ideas coming out of this effort include the Power of Produce Clubs which allows “kids to connect with the farmers market,” says Roy. This program encourages kids to visit the various farmers and vendors at the market, garner information and, in return, receive market dollars to spend at the market on healthy offerings.

Other ways they help the viability of the markets includes assisting vendors in designing customer friendly booths, and encouraging the use of SNAP benefits at the markets, allowing lower income folks the ability to buy fresh, local produce.

Making locally grown food accessible to lower income people should be a key goal, says long-time farmer Bill Stinson.  “Some think it’s only for wealthier folks…it doesn’t reach a large enough volume of people,” Stinson says. Sweetland Farm’s Norah Lake points to programs now in effect that assist lower income consumers to buy subsidized CSAs from farmers and organizations such as Willing Hands which get local produce in the hands of more people, particularly those in need.

Norwich farmer Lake further endorses the work of Vital Communities in promoting local food production and the farm-to-table movement. “Vital Communities is pretty amazing to work with,” says Lake. “Their promotion of local food in the Upper Valley has been key.”

CSA customers picking their produce at Sweetland.

The dreams harbored by many young people of running away with the circus dates back well over 100 years. Who would not dream of boarding the train that carried the Barnum & Bailey Circus around the country, visiting far off places and performing death defying feats in front of enthralled crowds? For most who fancied that dream, it remained only that – a dream.

Some who did take the plunge likely discovered the dream was not what they planned as they ended up with jobs such as raising the tents, packing and unpacking gear, and cleaning up after a host of assorted animals. Still, for a rare few, the dream of performing in front
of awed crowds did, in fact, come true.

In the summer of 2019, two local teens and Hanover High School students William Ciardelli and Miki Hertog Raz realized that dream of performing in a circus without having to run away. These two seasoned performers toured with Circus Smirkus throughout New England as performers.

Miki Hertog Raz and William Ciardelli during the curtain call of the opening Circus Smirkus show in Greensboro, VT.

Although only sophomores at Hanover High School, these two young men are actually veterans in the world of circus performing. As students at the Marion Cross Elementary School, the two participated in the recreation department’s Van Lodostov Family Circus camps. In 2014, Miki’s family spent a year in Israel where Miki trained with Circus Florentine. William traveled to Zambia in 2016 and 2017 for a youth circus exchange with Circus Zambia. While home in Norwich, both boys worked on their acrobatic skills at Northern Lights Gymnastics.

Along with involvement at other regional circus training centers, the two participated in summer camps for youth sponsored by Circus Smirkus. As each of the boys began to specialize in individual acts, they received special instruction from renowned circus professionals, William in New York City, Miki in Maine.

Robin Allen LaPlante, director of external relations at Circus Smirkus, described her organization as, “A circus arts organization that inspires kids of all ages to develop artistic, athletic, and life skills through the power of performance. Our programs… blend the best of circus tradition and contemporary practice to create immersive experienc es that challenge kids to perform and live to the very best of their own abilities.”

The boys performing during Norwich Rec Department
Van Lodostov Family Circus camp

Auditions for the circus’s Big Top Tour, the one in which William and Miki participated, takes place in January 2020 for the upcoming summer’s tour. Applications for the tour come in from all over the world, with 40 to 45 kids selected for the live auditions held in
Brattleboro. Skill, personality, and the ability to work with a larger company play a part in the selection process. After the auditions, 30 young people are selected to perform in the upcoming summer’s Big Top Tour.

“The directors and coaches are looking at a variety of criteria to determine casting each year,” said Allen LaPlante. Besides skill and personality, those characteristics include stage presence, passion, versatility, maturity, and motivation, she said. Those selected show a high degree of competence and ability in all these areas.

Without question, the audition process is a stressful yet exciting time for the young performers. “The first time I auditioned, it was terrifying,” William Ciardelli said. “All the kids were so talented…but I really wanted to be on tour, so I trained all year for the (2019) audition and was lucky enough to be cast.”

Making the tour is especially tough for first timers. Past participants may re-audition for the next season, and Allen LaPlante said, “We see more than 60% of the Big Top Tour performers return each summer, leaving about ten spots for new performers from the live auditions.”

Not only did William make the cut, his lifelong friend and fellow performer, Miki, did as well. After making the Big Top Tour, Miki said, “I’m super excited to be part of a Vermont circus company.” The pair, along with almost 30 other young performers, then awaited the summer 2019 tour.

The Circus Smirkus Big Top Tour features performers ranging from ages ten to eighteen, Allen LaPlante said. “Younger performers present different characters and skills than older performers which adds variety to the show,” she noted.

Everyone in the tour works together very closely. “So, it’s important for the kids…to be willing to work well together behind the scenes,” she added.

The 2019 season was the 32nd year for Circus Smirkus’s Big Top Tour that begins in June and runs seven weeks, ending prior to the beginning of the next school year. The tour consists of about 70 shows held in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts. The circus features a Big Top tent that seats around 750 people for each show. For the entire seven-week season, about 45,000 people attend the performances. Along with the performers and directors, a behind the scenes crew of over 50 individuals
work to make each stop and show success.

“Most of our shows are presented by community organizations, and they use the event as a fundraiser,” said Allen LaPlante. “Each year (these organizations) raise nearly $200,000 for education, the arts, and other worthwhile missions.”

Not only did Miki and William perform in these towns and states, they had the chance to perform for hometown friends and family. Circus Smirkus had several Hanover dates back in July.

Audience reaction is particularly important for the performers to help them get the most out of the experience. “I love seeing the kids in the audience sitting around the stage with their eyes wide and their mouths hanging open as they watch us perform,” said Miki.

Without question, the young performers with Circus Smirkus realize a great benefit from performing on tour. The parents and family members of these performers also see what a great experience this is for the young people. “The experience our son is having with Smirkus is truly life changing,” said parent Peter Ciardelli. “The show is incredible, but even more important is to see the self-confidence, teamwork, trust, and work ethic these thirty children build together.” That teamwork, the ability to work well with one another, is a critical component of the tour’s success. “Over the summer, the performers in the tour become one big happy family,” said Allen Laplante.

With the 2019 summer season over, Will had a chance to reflect on Circus Smirkus and what he learned. “Circus Smirkus was honestly a dream,” he said. “It was everything I could have gotten out of it. It was everything an aspiring circus artist could ask for. This last summer was a blast.”

What he learned about performing for a big crowd was important for instruction for a circus performer. “I learned a lot about how big your actions have to be in the ring for everybody to see you,” he explained. “There’re hundreds of (spectators) and only one of you. To stand out, you’ve got to be big.”

In the future, Will sees performing in circuses a very real possibility for him. “It is a personal dream of mine to not only tour and perform with Smirkus, but with other professional companies as well,” he said. “If it’s a possibility to do circus as a lifelong career, I would and will go for it. I’m aiming for circus college, but of course nothing is for sure.”

In the near term, both Miki and Will will head to Zambia with other area youthful circus performers for a youth circus exchange program in March, led by Will’s mother, Brooke Ciardelli.

How do you combine responsible investing, concern for the environment, and a desire to effect meaningful change in your local community? Norwich resident Norm Levy may have found one answer that you haven’t considered yet.

After working as a physician at Dartmouth-Hitchcock for 25 years, Norm retired in 2013 and began wondering what to do next. Aside from “for fun” projects – including wine tastings – he wanted to focus his ability on good works that would yield results in Norwich and the Upper
Valley. Starting from a passion for increasing sustainability efforts especially among lower-income members of the community, Norm started looking for a way to support local weatherization programs.

Starlake Village comprising a 14-home cluster

He joined the Norwich Energy Committee, through which he met with personnel at Twin Pines Housing Trust (now Twin Pines Housing) and organized free energy audits for moderate-income residents living in the Twin Pines-built fourteen-home cluster on Starlake Lane. The Energy Committee also promoted yearly Solarize campaigns, focused primarily on individual homeowners. Through these campaigns, he learned about community solar arrays, and that while some offer solar panels for users to purchase directly, others may be financed by a single funder who would then be able to sell the electricity they produced. He also learned that most projects were financed through Tax Equity Financing: incentives to private investors that go far beyond the 30% federal rebate offered to individual homeowners and are unavailable to non-profit organizations and municipalities. Typically these incentives would yield a full return on investment within five years and begin making profits. Finally, he learned about a community solar project in Colorado that was required to allocate 5% of its output to low-income customers, leading it to partner with non-profit organizations in order to meet this requirement.

Norm saw an opportunity to propose a partnership with Twin Pines and local installer Norwich Solar Technologies to finance and build a solar array on land adjacent to the Starlake housing cluster that would provide electricity to Starlake residents with no upfront costs to them. As the private owner of the array, with the puckish name Norm & Sun, LLC, Norm could access all of the tax benefits and control the cost of the service. He chose to share his benefits with the homeowners, charging them 25% less than their previous electrical bills and extending by two years the date by which he would recoup his initial investment and begin making a profit. The end result was a solar array generating electricity for at least the next fifty years.

As this was new territory for Twin Pines, the homeowners, and the property owner of the proposed site, there were a lot of concerns and
suspicions to overcome. But after numerous meetings with all parties involved, the land for the array was transferred to Twin Pines Housing, who in turn made it available to Norm for his project. The homeowners provided their yearly electrical costs, and Norm worked with
Norwich Solar Technologies to determine the amount of solar production needed to cover the expected usage. They ultimately chose a 65 kilowatt DC array, sufficient to cover the needs of the fourteen homeowners, an adjacent neighbor, and excess to extend a similar discount to Cover Home Repair in White River Junction. Norwich Solar Technologies designed and constructed the array. Now, just a few years after beginning the project, Norm’s project has “flipped the switch” and begun providing electricity as of July 1.

Starlake solar array on land adjacent to the Starlake housing cluster

The result is a win for everyone: for the planet and the environment, it’s a reduction in carbon dioxide generation; for Norm, it’s a responsible investment with an impact on his local community and a clear return once the project finishes paying for itself in a few years; for the residents able to take advantage of the solar electricity, it means clean energy, a reduction in their energy costs, a consistent, rather than fluctuating, bill, and money in their pockets that they can use as they wish. In addition, Norm wanted to make the project as accessible as possible, so instead of withdrawing payments directly from his customers on a set day, he provides a year of monthly payment vouchers to them. “I know people get their money on different schedules,” he says, “so this lets them pay when they are able.”

Norm hopes his story will inspire others of similar means and with matching interests. For new investors interested in following Norm’s model, it’s a huge win in that they can now learn from his model, simplifying their process substantially. Norm also reports that since the beginning of his efforts, local installers like Norwich Solar Technologies have seen the value of facilitating such private/non-profit collaborations, creating more options and opportunities.

Norm, who also buys LED bulbs in bulk and hands them out to people in the community in order to convince them to switch over to the more comfortable, sustainable, and cost-effective option, doesn’t see himself as a hero but as a member of his community with the responsibility to support it and the means to improve it. “It’s just fair, and I can afford it,” he reasons. Even when federal dollars go into weatherizing or solarizing a few homes, the benefits ripple out, in the form of lower energy costs for everyone, more resilient communities, a cleaner environment, and greater social cohesion. Now he hopes others will follow in his footsteps. “I didn’t want to encourage others to do it until I did it. Well, I did it. You can do it too.”

An investor-funded community solar array may seem like an odd opportunity, and that’s precisely why Norm wants others to know about it. “Financial advisors won’t tell you about this sort of thing. They’re looking at the conventional investment opportunities, with bigger programs.” In contrast, this is a local project with immediate and long-term benefits. The money customers save cycles back into the local economy. Without the ongoing energy production costs of other sources, solar arrays will pay for themselves and earn profit after the first seven years, meaning investors could then repeat the process elsewhere.

Norm is happy to talk with other investors who are interested in pursuing a similar project and in sharing his model; he can be reached at nblevy@icloud.com. He warns that the rebates will be shrinking over the next few years, though, so start now! In the meantime, he continues to seek creative and mutually beneficial solutions to providing clean, efficient energy in Norwich and beyond.

While perusing the pears at the farm stand, I heard a voice say, “Next week, we start impeachment.” I looked at the back of a head, and thought, “There’s an educator ready to walk his students through a constitutional complexity.” Then I remembered I lived in Norwich, and it clicked: that’s no social studies teacher; that’s our congressman. Over a couple of minutes, the farm stand employee, the congressman, and I chuckled, queried, and opined.

For a political nerd like me, those 100+ seconds were a unique gift: impossible to steal, replicate, or purchase. The experience got me thinking, in this season of gift-giving, how many presents we give each other in our community that simply cannot be wrapped.

In our neighborhood in the village, the woman in the house behind ours ignores my objections and spoons strawberry ice cream into dishes for my children, to their delight. The man next door found a basketball in some brush behind his shed. Instead of just chucking it back onto our driveway, he walked the ball up to our door and delivered it in person. One couple beams at my boys – calling them by the correct names – and tells them of an upcoming hunting trip to the Midwest. At the end of the road, no fewer than four adults have kept an unsolicited eye on our sons. Toward town, neighbors practically lay out a red carpet as invitation for us to use their property as a shortcut. Taken collectively,
it’s like having an advent calendar where each day one opens the little paper door to find a gift that is the glue of our town: goodwill, kindness, generosity, thoughtfulness, grace, selflessness, laughter.

At a Dartmouth football game, my sons lined up by the field house doors to greet the players as they emerged from Leverone. “Dad,” my youngest said, “if I got a high-five from Tom Brady, I would probably never forget it. But getting a high five from a college student is pretty awesome, too.” My oldest added, “Yeah, and there are not a lot of places in the world where you get to do what we just did.”

#mycuprunnethover
Not surprisingly, when I began to pay attention, Dan & Whit’s offered a gift, though you will never find it on the shelves. I saw the Book of Scottish Cookery over by the coffee. It seemed like a step into a Bizzarro-Norwich. I grew up in the 05055, and never – never – have I heard a fellow citizen express a craving for Scottish food.

As luck would have it, one Mr. Fraser – veteran, husband, brother, father, person who calls my sons “the helpers” and tells current cashiers that I used to ballroom dance with my fellow cashiers when I ran the register in the 1990s – was rearranging cardboard boxes by the shopping carts. “Now, Mr. Fraser,” I said, in direct defiance of his repeated efforts to get me to call him George, which I always did when I was a kid, but no longer do (except when I do), “this cannot possibly be a hot item.”

The proprietor of the general store that is the very definition of Norwich considered me with something in between amusement and pity. As usual, his pace was not rushed. “Actually, that book is selling quite well. We sold out of the first batch, and we have a whole bunch that customers have reserved in the office. There was a piece in the newspaper about it.”

Unconvinced, I thumbed through the pages and found a recipe. “George, get real. There is no chance you are going home today to make vegetarian haggis nachos.” Unsolicited, the young fellow manning the back register chimed in, “People are buying the book.”

My eyes were rolling more than a bowling ball when a gentleman walked briskly up the ramp into the store, marched directly to the display over which I was presiding, selected a copy of the cookbook in question, and proceeded to the front register. He had not overheard a syllable of our conversation. As Mr. Fraser, the young fellow, and I looked on, he purchased his copy and made his way down the ramp.

If you could package and sell the gleam in Mr. Fraser’s eye at that moment, your financial worries would be over.

You cannot, of course.

You can, however, celebrate all the wonderful gifts we give each other across this little town nestled in eastern Vermont.

For Dr. Deborah Kennedy, food is not only what we eat each day, but also the key to good health. As a practitioner of nutritional medicine, Dr. Kennedy believes food has the power to transform our health for the better, and her upcoming textbook intends to expand upon that mission.

Dr. Kennedy’s life as a foodie started at the age 4 when she began learning how to cook, and led to her job as a cook and sous chef throughout high school and college. This passion for food eventually emboldened her to pursue cooking professionally and then to get her PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry from Tufts University.

Dr. Kennedy was almost finished with her doctorate when she was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma and given only two weeks to live. Instead of giving up, she was determined to survive this diagnosis. “It became a very difficult confusing time when I was trying to research what I should eat to be healthy,” Dr. Kennedy said about her diagnosis. Twenty seven years later, she is still here to tell the story, demonstrating food’s powerful potential for healing. She didn’t want anyone else to have to go through what she did, so she resolved to help others transform their diets when facing similar health challenges.

Dr. Kennedy has written three books centered around children’s eating habits. The books tackle children’s habits at the table based on their eating personality and re-empowers parents to help their children make healthy eating choices rather than giving children the power as a picky eater. Dr. Kennedy’s latest book, Culinary Rehab: A Comprehensive Resource in Culinary Medicine, will shift the focus from children, addressing instead culinary medicine.

The e-textbook addresses nutrition after diagnosis with illness, and is meant for the healthcare professional, the wellness coach, or the home cook who wants to change the health of themselves or their friends and family. The textbook, which will tentatively arrive in July of 2020, is created in partnership with over thirty-six nutrition experts and a dozen chefs from the US, Canada, and England. The e-textbook will feature embedded video interviews with different farmers and chefs, as well as cooking demonstrations. Additionally, after completing the textbook, you are given the opportunity to take a test in order to gain certification in culinary medicine.

In partnership with Dr. Kennedy are a wide range of organizations and individuals who are nutrition experts and expert chefs working to change the food system. Notable organizations include The Bread Lab, Torriberra Mediterranean Center, Food Tank, Wholesome Wave with Michel Nischan is making food affordable for those who are food insecure, and Dr. David Katz’s organization, the True Health Initiative, will receive five percent of the proceeds from the textbook sales.

By combining expert testimony with practical advice, the textbook provides accessible answers to nutrition. Dr. Kennedy refers to it as a modular approach, or how to eat healthier step by step, instead of presenting the information at once. “By giving someone an unattainable goal then that sets them up for failure,” says Dr. Kennedy. “I think we can get people to be closer to doing that [eating healthier] by being gentler with our message.” Her modular philosophy addresses one eating habit at a time rather than trying to tackle them all at once. “If there’s one message I can give patients, it’s try and make at least one or two healthful choices a day.”

Her modular approach extends to how each individual approaches the textbook dependent on their health status. Working with chefs, Dr. Kennedy created what she calls ‘culinary competencies’ addressing common chronic illnesses and diseases.

After diagnosis, education about different aspects of food such as how to select produce, how to prepare it, and how to cook it is important to change dietary habits. The goal, Dr. Kennedy states, is “to make healthful food crave-ful and delicious. As nutritionists we need to stop telling people what they can and cannot eat and just get out there and tell people ‘Hey come try this, it’s fabulous.’” Inevitably intertwined with nutrition is the culture surrounding eating.

Dr. Kennedy said that the biggest challenge when people are changing their diet is busyness. “…the real answer lies in taking a breath before you put something in your mouth,” Dr. Kennedy said. The modular approach in the textbook attempts to answer this problem by not overwhelming the reader with many goals, but rather allowing them the space to work on one issue at a time. “There are one-hundred-twenty choices every day that Americans could do to make themselves healthier. Choose on actionable step that you know you can be successful at and when you get there, you’re ready to make another change.”

From Norwich to Washington, DC: Working in a US Senate Office

It’s clear from the pages of the Norwich Times that Norwich youth have covered the world through trips, jobs, and adventures of all sorts. This coverage includes Washington, DC, where Norwich is well represented in many government offices. Consider three recent Hanover High School graduates who currently work or recently held an internship in the office of one of our Vermont congressional members, Senator Bernie Sanders. What inspired these recent graduates to work in the Senate and move from Vermont to Washington DC, and what have their experiences been working as civil servants in DC?

Olivia Hinch with Senator Bernie Sanders while interning for his office last summer

Three Marion Cross School Graduates

The most senior of the three Hanover High graduates, Ethan Hinch, had the opportunity to intern in Senator Sanders’ office in Burlington during the summer of his junior year at UVM. When Ethan graduated from UVM in 2015, he took a permanent position in the Burlington office, and two years later moved to a position in Senator Sanders’ Washington DC office, where he currently works as a Legislative Aide, helping draft legislation among other duties. All Senate aides have focus areas for which they are responsible; Ethan’s main focus is on Energy and the Environment. Katrina Menard graduated from UVM in 2016 with a degree in Community and International Development. She also worked in Senator Sanders’ Burlington office before moving to the DC office.

Katrina is currently a Legislative Correspondent, helping Vermonters who make inquiries of the DC office for support and information. Her focus areas include Energy and Environment, Agriculture, Food and Nutrition, Housing, Transportation, Community Development, and Science and Technology. She also conducts legislative research, as well as hires, trains, and coordinates the interns in the DC office.

Olivia Hinch, Ethan’s sister, graduated from Hanover High in 2016 and is a senior at Brown University, majoring in International Relations. She worked last summer as an intern in Senator Sanders’ DC office, where she conducted policy research, drafted correspondence, worked the front desk, and gave tours of the Capitol.

It should be noted that there have been many others of this same Norwich generation that worked in Senator Sanders’ office, including Libby Chamberlin (Legislative Correspondent), as well as Myra Parsonnet and Sam Alexander (Interns).

Working for Vermonters

The motivation to become civil servants and work in Senator Sanders’ DC office is similar for all three: A desire to help Vermonters, to have an even bigger impact by working in the DC office, to experience city life, and to learn as much as possible along the way.

Katrina sums up her feelings by remembering her experiences in the Burlington office. “When I started working for Senator Sanders, I spent a year answering phones in the Burlington office, where staff help Vermonters solve problems related to federal services or agencies. Speaking with Vermonters every day about their difficulties really opened my eyes to the many hardships our state faces, hardships I find are often brushed under the rug in favor of the “idyllic” Vermont marketed toward tourists. Although my time in the Burlington office was the most emotionally taxing year of my life, in the DC office I think back to my experiences in Burlington every single day to remind myself why I am working for Senator Sanders, who consistently advocates for improving and expanding social programs in Vermont and across the nation.”

Olivia is also a supporter of the Senator’s policies. “Senator Sanders has put collective action at the head of his political platform. Policies like single-payer healthcare and the reduction of student debt aim to support every American.” Olivia wanted to intern in the DC office so as to both serve constituents from her home state, and to better understand the legislative branch of the federal government. “I really enjoyed the sense of working for a cause greater than myself,” she said. “Though often dysfunctional, the US Congress is a machine that runs largely thanks to the work of interns and staff assistants who do the grunt work.” Olivia also sought to engage on topics relevant to her international relations major, including conducting research on human rights issues in the Middle East.

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are not within reach for many Americans, and I believe Senator Sanders’ proposals and ideas can help rectify that injustice,” says Ethan. “I recognize that my own life might look very different if I had not grown up in a community like Norwich, and I want to do everything I can to help every American have the same opportunities.”

Ethan and Olivia Hinch on the Capitol Building Speaker’s Balcony

Working in the US Senate

Ethan, Katrina, and Olivia all say there are many things to like about working in the Senate. One aspect they all comment on is the huge opportunity to learn on the job. “The aspect I enjoy most about working in the Senate is that every day is an opportunity to learn,” says Katrina. “There are always classes, events, hearings, and briefings on the Hill, and I’m constantly blown away by the people who I am able to meet with and learn from. Some of my personal favorites: attending a housing briefing with “Evicted” author Matthew Desmond, and meeting with my personal hero, Chef Jose Andres, to discuss emergency relief efforts.” Ethan comments, “No two days are the same, and we are constantly learning new things about a variety of subjects. It’s also very interesting to see the nitty-gritty details of federal policy making and learn more about how to influence that process for the benefit of Vermonters.”

Highlights of Olivia’s summer in the DC office include the opportunity to discuss politics with not only Sanders’ staffers, but with interns outside of Sanders’ office as well. Olivia worked with her supervisor to organize lunches with interns from the offices of Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator Kamala Harris, and Senator Pat Toomey. Olivia remained in contact with many of these interns throughout her summer internship. She learned how the internship experience in Senator Sanders’ office differs from that of other senators. “The environment in the office tends to be pretty casual. Interns in Senator Sanders’ office are given freedom to start their own projects, which was surprising given stories other interns told me about their schedules marked to the minute.”

The biggest misconception related to working in Sanders’ Senate office can be summed up by the most common question the three have received about their jobs: “Isn’t it exciting to work on such an active and highly visible campaign?” In reality any Senate staffer,
whether in DC or Vermont, must remain separate from the campaign due to strict ethics rules reinforced by hours of ethics training. Campaign-related phone calls to the Senate office are simply rerouted to the campaign phone number.

Benefits associated with working in the Senate range from meeting politicians (Olivia highlights the opportunity to meet civil rights leader Representative John Lewis), to front row seats at a rocket launch delivering supplies to the space station, to petting a baby kangaroo at a zoo fundraiser. An unexpected quirk of working in the Senate is that while business formal is the standard dress code, the office environment is much more casual when the Senate is out of session and most Senators have returned to their home states. Jeans and even sneakers are not unusual for many staffers during this period. The contrast can be especially noticeable when new-hires come dressed in their new business suits only to find Senate is not in session.

Katrina Menard (right) with Jane Fonda

Life in DC

All three had to adapt to life in DC Housing for younger congressional staffers usually means sharing a house or apartment with several other young professionals. Instead of having a car, they use public transportation (mainly the metro), walk to work when possible, or use a ride-sharing service like Uber. And now Jump, Bird, and Lime are becoming more popular.

All have taken advantage of the benefits that living in DC offers. Katrina says “I really enjoy the food scene in DC and the free events held by the city. For example, the National Gallery of Art (NGA) will occasionally stay open after-hours with live music, food vendors, and special exhibits. They also have free concerts in the NGA Sculpture Garden, and free yoga in the Botanical Gardens.” As might be expected, easy access to a variety of museums has been popular. This past spring, Ethan and Katrina, along with many other staffers,
took part in the annual Cherry Blossom 10 mile run, which winds though the blossoming cherry trees and along the Potomac river.

Not all of the adaptions to DC were easy, as culture on “The Hill” can be quite impersonal. “I’ve found that in DC I know three times as many people as I did living in Vermont and going to UVM,” comments Ethan, “but I know each of them about a third as well.” He continues, “Many social interactions boil down to your business card and the name of your boss, and it’s easy to wonder whether the other person is just trying to figure out what they can get from you.” Katrina offers the same observation: “What they say about Hill culture is very much true. People are more likely to ask who you work for than to ask for your name. The only thing you can really do is try not to normalize
this behavior.” And part of the modus operandi for any staffer is networking. “At first, the idea of networking really intimidated me”, says Olivia, “but I have now become accustomed to reaching out to others for career advice. That does tend to be the culture in DC, for better or worse. Happy hours and other networking events are very prominent.”

What do the Norwichians miss the most about Norwich? It’s not called the Green Mountain State for nothing – they all miss the Vermont countryside after living in such a dense urban setting. “The trees! A more manageable level of humidity! Dan & Whits soft serve!” reports Olivia. Ethan shared a more community based observation: “The tight-knit community, shared values, and the rural setting. Most of all, I realized Norwich feels like a place that you can call home, which does not happen for a lot of the people who have lived in DC for many years.” “The best thing about growing up in Norwich,” says Katrina, “is that you get to carry that community with you, no matter where you go. The people who I’m closest with in DC are mostly from Norwich and Vermont, and we frequently talk about how the town shaped our values, our goals, and our shared experiences.”

The Real Story

So what is it really like living in DC, working for the federal government? There is a saying in DC that goes something like this: “People inside the beltway think working in government is as portrayed in The West Wing. People outside of the beltway think it’s like House of Cards. And in reality, it’s like Veep.” Asking the three Norwich natives about these possibilities, I could not get them to relate to any of these choices. However, they did share that in their experience everyone working in the Senate office is very committed to helping Vermonters.

Vermont is home to nine species of bats. Six of these species are year round residents and three migrate south in the winter. Our six year-long residents live in caves and mines during the winter and during summer months can often be found roosting in barns and other buildings. Of the 6 resident species all but one are either state or federally endangered.

Little brown and long-eared bats are the ones we are most likely to see in Norwich during the summer months from mid-April to October. They have been a part of our summer landscape as long as we can remember, swooping over fields and ponds tirelessly hunting the night flying insects that make up their diet. We sometimes wonder what part these nocturnal mammals with their impressive echolocation play in our lives, but because many of us rarely see a bat, we are unaware of the services they provide.

The bat holds an important place in a healthy ecosystem. Like insects, bats play a role in pollinating the fruits and flowers we enjoy. They are a critical player in insect control, hunting down the flying insects like mosquitoes that spread disease as well as various moths that turn into the caterpillars that eat our fruits and vegetables. According to the Bat Conservation International Website “a single little brown bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in 1 hour.”

Beginning in 2006 a disease known as White Nose syndrome was discovered in a cave in upstate New York and spread rapidly east into Vermont. The syndrome gets its name from a white fungus that attacks the bat’s nose, ears and wings during their winter hibernation. The hibernating bats in attempting to fight off the effects of the disease exhaust their fat supplies and they weaken and die. All 6 of Vermont’s hibernating species have been affected and their populations have declined by over 90 percent.

There is some good news. According to Vermont wildlife officials, this situation seems to have stabilized somewhat for certain bat species. The Northern Long Eared bat has lost 98 percent of its population and does not appear to be recovering. However the Little Brown Bat seems to be holding on , doing better in the Champlain Valley. The Big Brown Bat is actually doing pretty well, maybe because they have two pups a year instead of the usual one.

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is very interested in monitoring the population of Little Brown bats and is working to determine if we still have a population in Norwich. Alyssa Bennett (Alyssa.bennett@vermont.gov) is collecting information and answering questions about them and is collecting samples of bat guano to analyze for species identification.

There are some things we can do to help our struggling bat populations.
• We can reduce our use of pesticides which poison bats as well as the insects they eat.
• We can plant flowers that attract night pollinators
• We can participate in citizen science programs sponsored by the Vermont Wildlife Department that monitor summer bat activity.
• We can install bat boxes in our yards to make our land more bat friendly.

As much as we appreciate these amazing creatures, we do not want them in our houses. If you are find a bat in your home, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife web page gives instructions on removing it.