I have been doing some genealogy research lately and came across this:

“March 19, 1887 Yonkers Statesman: Thomas Mitchell of Webster Avenue who has been suffering for two weeks past with rheumatism and throat affection is able to be out again.”

Looks like back in the day the newspaper actually watched our for the community. I think Front Porch Forum is filling that nitch today (I know the Free Press certainly isn’t). If you are holed up and need a little help at some point, I hope you’ll let your neighbors know. We’ll bring soup.

See you at the rink!

Dear Friends and Neighbors: I have lived in this wonderful community of Richmond for the past twenty seven years. It’s been a wonderful place to raise my two children Adam and Beth. Beth is now grown, a college student, and I continue to partially support her during her college years.

As most of you know, I lost Adam in Iraq four years ago and the town was wonderful. I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for the support and kind words, especially allowing me to place a bench at the Round Church Park in remembrance of him, which will bring me back to visit often. I hope that when soccer and little league season starts, you will all remember that Adam played soccer and baseball here in Richmond. I hope that when you see a log drifting down the Winooski River on a hot summer day, you will remember that Adam, Anthony  and Dylan would float down the Winooski River. I hope that on the 4th of July, Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day, when you see all the flags, it’s because of Adam that they can be replaced at no cost to the town.

Beth and I must leave this wonderful community now. I have sold my home and will move to a place that is almost as peaceful. Everyone say’s that I raised two wonderful children but the fact is, the families of Richmond also helped. This is truly a wonderful community, Beth and I will miss this place immensely.

Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Kathrine

PS: To Bridge Street Café, could you please bring back the messy whessy? That was Adam’s favorite meal just because he liked to say Messy Whessy.

And more evidence of Vermonters’ capacity to support their neighbors was shared on the Charlotte FPF…

I noticed a very kind comment from someone in Charlotte (who I can only hope is on Front Porch Forum) posted about an essay I wrote for Salon.com.

It brought up a nagging guilt over the fact that I never said anything close to a proper thank you for everything so many people in our town — those who know me and those who don’t — did for our family when my husband was dying of cancer. I can only plead overwhelming grief, exhaustion and the fact that every resource I could summon was directed at keeping our teetering little boat afloat. And then so much time passed.

But I was raised with better manners. So I hope you’ll now accept my utter gratitude for the meals, the shoveled steps, incredibly, the beautiful bulbs planted in our yard so that we would have a bright memory of Kevin in spring. For that and so much of the organization of these things I especially thank my dear friends Liza and Tom Wright. But there are so many more. We do, as the commenter noted, live in a loving community and I feel enormously lucky for that.

The feelings expressed in the essay were never meant to ignore or diminish any of these considerable gifts. There are clearly things the best intentioned neighbors cannot fix.

Warmly,

Lee Ann

Thanks to the work of many in our community, Free Speech TV is bringing its 24/7 independent news, analysis and documentaries to Burlington Telecom. Starting March 1st, we’ll be able to tune in to FSTV on BT’s newest channel (122) on its “basic tier.”

But first, we need to rally to finish the task of making Burlington the first city in the country to offer a fulltime FSTV channel on cable. FSTV has until the end of February to raise a one-time $10,000 to cover its start-up costs.

Here’s some more good news: We raised half the money before we even launched this page.

A group of us founded the Friends of Free Speech TV in Burlington, and we’ve already pledged $5,000 as a Founding Friends Challenge Fund. That means that for every dollar you pledge here, we’ll kick in another dollar to match you. If we can raise just $5,000 by the end of February, FSTV will receive the full $10,000 it needs to launch its new channel in our community.

As America’s cities become larger and life gets more complicated, some long for a return to a small-town lifestyle, where they are greeted by name, and the front porch — overlooking a picture-postcard main street — is a place to talk to neighbors. While this rosy view of rural living may not exactly square with reality — especially in hard economic times with high unemployment — the urge to enjoy a more rural lifestyle is attractive to many.

e-Vermont, a consortium of seven different organizations, has come together to improve the economic outlook of rural Vermont through technology, while at the same time preserving what’s most attractive about a region better known for its maple syrup, skiing and mountain vistas than Internet connectivity and job growth…

As for those conversations on the front porch, there’s a forum for that called “Front Porch Forum.” … “it’s a platform for neighborhood conversations, with the goal of things spilling over from online conversations to in-person conversations. Needless to say, public officials take a keen interest in that, not just to follow what’s going on but to have an engaged citizenry.”

Typical items on the forum might be someone selling firewood, eggs or a canoe. Missing pets are frequent items, as well as local government issues such as a proposed tax hike to pay for heating repairs at the school, which may be on the agenda for the next town meeting…

Susan Clark, a resident of Middlesex, is a sixth-generation Vermonter who co-authored All Those in Favor: Rediscovering the Secrets of Town Meeting and Community. She wanted more frequent connections with her community than the once-yearly town meetings. So when she heard about Front Porch Forum, she became a community volunteer…

Clark said that in keeping with the benefits of face-to-face meetings, Front Porch Forum isn’t anonymous, and the person’s street… is also listed… And unlike social networking sites like Facebook, she said, “Front Porch Forum wants you to know what’s going on in your community so you’ll get out from behind your computer and go out and go to the yard sale or the town meeting or the school play or the concert or any of those things.”

Clark said that the forum helps connect the public with local government, but she cautions against loading a forum with such things as planning commission documents at first. Wait until they are hooked on community events and items of personal interest, she said.

When Duane Sorrel, of Middlesex, moved to town he found out about Front Porch Forum at a town meeting. Sorrel, in a YouTube video, said that when he posted his information, he got a dozen customers for his automotive business in the first two days. “My favorite post,” he says in the video, “is ‘lately there’s been bears eating chickens.’ That’s been pretty interesting.”

I wanted to post a huge thank you to the female driver who stopped in front of our home on Jan, 21st around 430 pm  and helped my father up our drive to the door.

You are a special person who ever you are and I am Thankful you drove by : This could have been a 911 situation. Again, My Thanks!!!  If you read this please email me, I would like to thank you in person.

And a huge thank you to the poster, Julia, as well, for sharing this tale… an inspiration for many others, I’m sure.

Patrick Kitano at Streetfight.com comments on that news, along with Nextdoor, Outside.in, Topix, and Facebook today… an interesting piece.

Indeed, the “neighbor conversation” online space is heating up tremendously, with at least a couple dozen start-ups and digital media giants trying to crack the code of neighborhood-level traction.

Three out of five Burlington, VT households connect with their neighbors through our offering, FrontPorchForum.com.  Amazingly, in 2011 HALF of them posted.

Most of us want to be more  connected to the people and place around where we live… this is a huge opportunity.

“… without a diary, their travels would ‘be no better than a flight of birds through the air,’ leaving no trace.” John Adams to his grand sons, George (14) & John (12), as they sailed for London 1815 – John Adams – David McCullough p. 617-4

I woke up this morning thinking about FPF and its predecessor maplecorner.com, seeing these as our collective community diaries that record where we have been and help us work together where we are going. Thank you everyone for broadening our community, giving us a way to better understand each other.

Last night I stupidly decided to try driving up the steep side of Lincoln hill rd through the deep snow. When I got to the steepest section my little car started spinning out, so, with no traction to turn around I began to head backwards down the hill. The snow was piling up on my back window, and with the inability to see I ended up losing control and somehow ended up in a 180 degree spin, sliding sideways towards the ditch. Luckily I was able to stop before I was completely in the ditch, but I was in a very precarious position. If I had released the e-brake, Im pretty sure that i would have slid into the stream below.

As I sat wondering what to do, I saw a flashlight bobbing down a nearby driveway. A young lady approached me with a shovel, and her father followed with his own shovel. They were obviously well practiced in the art of saving unassuming drivers from Lincoln hill in the winter, and got right down to business. They good-naturedly dug me out of the snow and pushed my car back onto the road, saving me from slipping into the woods. I didn’t even catch their names or thank them properly, because before I knew it I was heading down the middle of the road, safe and sound.

If it wasn’t for their neighborly concern, I would have had a ditched car and a very unpleasant night.

It’s people like that who help people like me get through the winter! I love Vermont.

Followed up today by…

I think this is what people mean when they say we are Vermont Strong.  I am proud to live here, too.

Our Dream - A compilation of dreams and lines written by Mrs. Earle-Centers’ 5th and 6th grade students at Calais Elementary (written after watching Dr. King’s speech in 1963 in Washington, D.C.)

I have a dream that one day everyone will have a friend.
I have a dream that one day people who are poor will get homes and food.
I have a dream that one day all humans will be equal in money, and in health—that no one will be hungry or forced to work to death.
I have a dream that everyone will have food and water and that no one in this world will starve.

I have hope and faith we will be able to help endangered animals, give them homes and treat them well.
I have a dream that people will stop abusing animals.

I have a dream that one day everyone will be safe.
I have hope and faith that we will be able to adopt kids that need help, be there for them and give them care.
I have a dream that all kids will get their own rights and learn to have some kind of freedom.

I have a dream that one day all people will be nice to each other.
I have a dream that one day, everyone can just be friendly, not mean or hurtful.
I have a dream that we will stop the flow of harmful words.
I have a dream that one day we will stand up against bullying and that bullying will stop.
I have a dream that that the people who were getting bullied will be happy.

I have a dream that everyone, no matter what race, will be friends not foes.
I have a dream that one day there will be no nuclear bombs or nuclear power of any kind.
I have a dream that one day this nation will make peace with other nations.
I have a dream that one day this whole world will be in peace, and that angry wars will come to an end,

I have a dream that one day everyone will show the people of the world that they care about what they need.
I have a dream that one day our nation’s weak will be strong, and the strong will be stronger.
I have a dream that our nation will carry on together and with strength.

I have a dream that one day everyone will get along.