Healthy communities require safe streets and sidewalks; inclusive gathering places and green spaces for everyone to enjoy; and easy access to medical services and fresh food. If you live in a rural town in America, these things can be hard to come by. Join Suzanne Kelley and Richard Amore in Small Towns, Healthy Places, the podcast that explores the intersection between health equity and community design in the State of Vermont. They’ll interview state partners, local leaders, and community members about creating vibrant places that support health and wellness. If you’re passionate about public health, improving the built environment, and placemaking, this podcast is for you.
About this episode
On July 10th and 11th, 2023, Vermont experienced historic rainfall and devastating floods. Maybe you heard about this weather event on the news – or maybe you lived through it.
But you may not know how Vermont’s communities came together during the storms, and over the days that followed. Today, we’re focusing on stories of resilience.
We’ll hear from the Mayor of Barre City, Jake Hemmerick, and the Executive Director of Montpelier’s library, Dan Groberg. We’ll also chat with the Executive Director of Friends of the Winooski River, Michele Braun, and Co-Director of The People’s Farmstand, Nour El-Naboulsi.
Listen to this podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Vermont’s foresters are charged with overseeing conservation and land management projects in the Green Mountains. That means they get a lot of face time with the stars of Vermont’s renowned fall foliage show, the trees, including red and sugar maples, poplars, beech, and oak. Here, a handful of foresters share their view from the woods as leaves change from green to red, orange, and yellow.
Name: Emily Potter
County: Lamoille (plus the Caledonia County towns of Hardwick and Walden)
How long have you been a forester? Since 2012; in Lamoille County since 2020
What drew you to this career? I wanted to be able to work outdoors and spend my life working in a field that would benefit the planet. While studying Forestry, I realized the humbling fact that being a Forester means continuously learning and thinking in “forest time.” Forest time occurs over a much longer time period. The actions we take in the forest today will resonate long after we’re gone.
What makes your region of Vermont forest unique from other areas of the state? Lamoille County is in what’s called the Northern Green Mountains biophysical region. This region of Vermont is distinguished by its upper elevation forests (including Vermont’s highest mountain, Mount Mansfield at 4,393 feet), coldest climate, and greatest annual precipitation. The large undeveloped blocks of forests in Lamoille County are important corridors for wildlife dependent upon remote, unfragmented habitats, and interior forest conditions.
How is the foliage in your region right now? Forests in Lamoille County are warming up to the idea that fall is around the corner. Red maples have started to show off their flashy reds and sugar maples and ash trees are hinting at their golden and purplish hues, respectively. I suggest higher elevation areas to see the first colors of fall. Heading toward Eden and Belvidere is usually a good bet for early color, as is traveling around Mount Mansfield from Cambridge and Stowe. Route 12 between Worcester and Elmore is another area worthy of a drive by just because of the expansive forest.
What do you like to do in your off time in area? I enjoy running year-round, swimming, hiking and biking in the summer; the fall is great for cooler hikes, longer bike rides, rounds of golf. In winter I have a blast cross country skiing and, when winter temperatures are cold enough, ice fishing. My goal is usually just to get outside to enjoy the beauty of Vermont in all seasons; the activity isn’t as important as just being able to appreciate how lucky I am to have the privilege to live in such a gorgeous place.
Where are your favorite places to visit in your area? Paddling on the Lamoille River and at Green River Reservoir State Park; running, walking or biking on the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail; going out to lunch with friends in Stowe or Morrisville; visiting one of the many Farmers’ Markets in Lamoille County; golfing at Copley Country Club or any of the other golf courses in Lamoille County; sampling Vermont beers at any of the many breweries scattered about; or generally just touring the county by car – you won’t find yourself anywhere that isn’t beautiful.
In episode 13 of Vermont Made, artist-builders Thea Alvin and Meg Reinhold discuss the new Yestermorrow Design/Build School exhibit Elements of Shelter, on view in the Vermont Arts Council Sculpture Garden through May 2025.
Sharing the fruits of local talent from the Green Mountain State. In each episode of Vermont Made, one artist, craftsperson, designer, specialty food producer, or other Vermont creative shares the story behind one thing they’ve made. Produced by the Vermont Arts Council and hosted by Desmond Peeples.
In 2023 and 2024, Vermont Made is sponsored by the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing.
Middlebury’s Yellow House Community brings neurodiverse people together to allow them to live an independent life as a community, much as their neurotypical peers do.
In 2019, two families founded the Yellow House Community, planning for the future of their special needs children as they grew into adults.
“We want to be our kid’s neighbors, but we want them to have a meaningful transition into their adult lives,” said Andrea Murray, one of the community’s co-founders. “We all need people. We’re all interdependent.”
The community defines interdependence as “the idea … that individuals can depend on and support one another as they strive to be their healthiest, happiest selves.”
Residents build relationships with each other, their communities, the land, and themselves through activities like visiting farms and picking their own produce. The Yellow House benefits the surrounding community, too, says Elyse Haydon, executive director.
“This is part of the change that we need in our culture, to learn how to better interact with people that are different than we are,” Haydon said. “Our friends here are part of the community. They have things to contribute. They are excited to be here and excited to be your neighbor.”
Todd and Stacy Stone expected their daughter Hillary to live with them forever. After a year living at the Yellow House, “we’ve seen so much growth in her,” Stacy said. “Don’t underestimate the power of friendship and community.”
The Northeast Kingdom’s Lake Willoughby has a lot of claims to fame. It’s Vermont’s deepest lake. It’s the star of countless stunning photos showcasing its dramatic, fjord-like landscape, nestled between Mount Pisgah and Mount Hor.
Now, it’s also the subject of an internationally recognized song by area youth band the Kingdom All-Stars.
“Willoughby Nights,” written by high school student Jazmine Bogie and performed by the Kingdom All-Stars, won the “People’s Voice” category of the International Songwriting Competition in May 2023. First released in February, “Willoughby Nights,” already has almost 10,000 views on YouTube in just the first six months.
The song pays tribute to the peace and tranquility found by the shores of the popular Vermont swimming, boating, and hiking destination. Bogie, whose family bought White Caps Campground when she started high school, says it’s a love song to her favorite place.
“You always write love songs, whether it’s for a boy or for someone else, and I just think the thing I really, truly loved was Lake Willoughby,” said Bogie, 17, who goes to Lyndon Institute in Lyndonville, Vermont. “It’s so hard to capture your love for your family and your love for where you live. It’s so much harder to capture that than for one person.”
Love is the central thread running through the song.
“Cause I’ve been to the city, I’ve been through it all, and nothin’ compares to this at all. Love and light and beauty, mountains so tall. So take a step and take a deep breath, no need to worry about the rest, ’cause we’re here and that’s the best,” Bogie sings on the song’s chorus.
Bogie says her family invested in the campground because of their love and nostalgia for the lake, from swimming and camping there as young kids to hiking and exploring the area as they got older. Now, she loves working at the campground and being part of her family’s business.
“It had been our dream for a really long time. I had been going there since I was really little and we all just kind of fell in love with it. We all achieved this impossible thing as a family. We’re just a little family from Vermont, and we’re all just really at home here. I was so inspired by my love for family and for the place that I thought, ‘This should be what’s in a song,’” Bogie said.
The song came together in one sitting in just a few hours, Bogie said, “just me and my guitar.
“Then I take it to the band and then my friends in the band come up immediately with guitar parts and drum parts and harmonies and anything you can think of and it becomes this effortlessly wonderful thing.”
Listeners will hear Bogie’s musical influences in the interplay of acoustic and electric guitar and a slow drum build toward a crescendo near the end of the song; her soft but crystal-clear vocals and songwriting stylings, she says, were influenced by the likes of Taylor Swift, Grace Potter, and early 2000s country music.
Right now, the Kingdom All-Stars has 10 members, most in high school. The band auditions new members every year.
Macey Mawhinney, 16, sings backing vocals on the track and echoed Bogie’s sentiments, saying she’s glad she grew up with the close access to outdoor recreation that Vermont provides.
“I like living in Vermont because I like the community here and I like the opportunities and all the activities that I get to do. I do sports here, so I run cross country, which is a sport that really gets you outside and in nature all over Vermont. It’s really fun. A lot of the runs that we do are trail runs and it’s nice to get out in the woods and enjoy the outdoor space that we have here,” Mawhinney said.
“It’s just a really beautiful place,” said Macey’s brother Zane Mawhinney, 18, who played guitar on “Willoughby Nights.”
“I see it from a distance a lot because I work at Burke (Mountain Resort) as a ski instructor and that’s always one of the things I point out, trying to connect with people who might not be from here. Willoughby is one of the big landmarks I point out.”
Asked to describe her love for Lake Willoughby, Bogie paused.
“I don’t even know how to describe it because there’s so much beauty to it. It’s so clean. The lakes are beautiful and the mountains are beautiful, but then you have the people and the culture. People work hard and they play hard. It’s taught me a lot about being independent,” she said.
She and both Mawhinneys think growing up in Vermont instilled self-reliance, a deep appreciation for the natural world, and a sense of community in them.
“I definitely think that having that feeling of community is a good thing to grow up with because you’re able to make connections to a lot of people and learn those communication skills from a younger age. Because of the nature of the Northeast Kingdom and Vermont, everyone knows each other, there’s a good community feeling, and that’s just a very supportive environment to grow up in,” said Zane.
“I think that people who really appreciate nature and who want sort of a more relaxed, slower lifestyle would really enjoy Vermont because everything’s so spread out, it’s so green, and in the fall, you have the reds and the yellows. It’s just a very beautiful, natural place, and since everything is so spaced out with those smaller, more tight knit communities, there’s a smaller sense of urgency,” he added.
“I get that moving to Vermont could be scary because the winters are long and they’re extreme and you can get pretty far north, but it’s easy to make relationships and it’s easy to find a good community and when it’s beautiful, it’s absolutely stunning,” Bogie said.
Macey also says her community’s support for the arts, including St. Johnsbury’s Catamount Arts, has enabled the band to make huge strides, including this year’s big international win.
“I still kind of am not really believing it,” Bogie said with a laugh.
