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

When: Thursday, February 16, 2012: 8:00 am to 4:00 pm
Where: Vermont Technical College, Randolph Center
Register: Visit http://evermontworkshop.org for details and to register

Join community leaders from around the state to share ideas and learn how online tools are being used to create jobs, reinvent schools, attract visitors, improve civic involvement, and enliven Vermont communities. The workshop is sponsored by the e-Vermont Community Broadband Project.

Anne Galloway of VtDigger.org will be the keynote speaker. Session topics include mobilizing community resources for emergencies, a hands-on lab exploring online tools for business, a showcase of how technology is expanding the classroom for 4-6th graders, a look at conducting town meetings in the digital age, and ways to increase public Internet access in your town (and why).

Registration is $20 and includes course offerings, refreshments, lunch and the chance to win a Kindle reader and other prizes in our raffle drawing.

For more information about the day go to evermontworkshop.org. Pre-register online, by phone 802-859-3090, or by e-mail joanna@snellingcenter.org.

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.”

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.

We’re grateful to our partner on this new feature, e-Vermont.

FPF is expanding beyond Burlington… we now serve one-third of Vermont.  More than 32,000 members participate in rural areas, suburbs, and cities.  Imagine this level of engagement in every part of Vermont and beyond!  Let us know if you’d like to help bring FPF to your town (just enter your address on our home page and complete the form).

Three cheers for the tens of thousands FPF members in Vermont… and here’s to vibrant neighborhoods in 2012!

• $100 Gift Certificate to Outdoor Gear Exchange
• $100 Lake Champlain Chocolates Gift Basket
• 12 Pints of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream for Each of 5 Winners

I’ll post some of the entries here later… see submissions from past years here.  Happy posting!

UPDATE: Here are the lucky winners!

$100 Gift Certificate to Outdoor Gear Exchange
Stephen Handley, Bristol FPF
•   To work I can not go. Head to Sugarbush – they make snow.

$100 Lake Champlain Chocolates Gift Basket
Diane Fuchs, Essex Junction FPF
•   Forget the 2012 diet resolution– volunteer more hours in your community instead!

12 Pints of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream for Each of 5 Winners
Elga Gemst, Moretown FPF
•   2011: Swimming in kitchen with refrigerator.  2012: Lying on beach with book.

Jo McKay, Jay FPF
•   My baby is eating solid foods. Now we need a high chair.

Jen Quavelin, Burlington FPF
•   I’m thankful to live in a town where lively public discussions flourish.

Charlotte Comar, Pownal FPF
•   No fishermen on Barber’s Pond – Ice too thin… ‘fraid to fall in.

John Craig, Jeffersonville FPF
•   With the light always on, Community breaths through the Porch of Vermont.

Wow… we’ve got more than 1,800 entries… read more below!

• Sweat lodge on Decatur, neighbors welcome, nudity required, toasty buns heck yeah!
• Forget the 2012 diet resolution– volunteer more hours in your community instead!
• How to turn a dishwasher into a snowblower? Give her a shovel.
• Spaces between your fingers were created so that another’s could fill them!
• Nasty snow storm coming our way, seat belts on, cell phones away.
• Vermont Strong – Hope for those still struggling from Irene – Peace to All
• Occupy Burlington is still alive and well! Visit www.occupyburlington.org for more info!
• Gadzooks! My mother voted for Gingrich! Why not Huntsman as Obama’s veep?
• You’re a Vermonter if your car trunk doubles as extra freezer space.
• Tomorrow is my Birthday, so I yell “Hooray, I’m almost ten today!”
• Front Porch Forum here to stay put your check in mail today.
• Scanty snow and deep freezes; kill the deer ticks under the leaveses.
• Read Front Porch Forum every day. Hear about local happenings right away!
• Bed and breakfasts? Places to stay? Seeking rooms for the wedding day.
• My baby is eating solid foods. Now we need a high chair.
• Excellent Sony KV24FS120 TV, too large for me, is yours for free.
• Books, movies, magazines, and free wireless Internet all at your local library.
• Oh what fun it is to read Front Porch Forum today, hey!
• Run for local office. Pick up petitions at your local town office
• I have promises to keep; And miles to go before I sleep
• Is there fluoride in our town water? Who can tell me please?
• I spent my childhood praying to have children and they are amazing!
• Twelve words does it take for a twelve word entry to make.
• Brrrr, chilly outside; please keep all pets warm … bring them INSIDE!
• No fishermen on Barber’s Pond – Ice too thin… ‘fraid to fall in.
• find, sell, give, ask, inform; vent, warn, live, your Front Porch Forum
• Words are elusive. Twelve to play the Front Porch game? Embrace Brevity!
• Wanted to borrow: An infrared camera to do my own energy audit.
• Best bumper sticker: ” I am from Vermont, I do what I want!”
• Our rat, Pepper, has died. Free fish tank for your small critter.
• Currently looking for an occasional babysitter for our thirteen month old son.
• Fabulous babysitter, evenings or weekends. EHS sophomore, great with kids. References available.
• Mint repels mice. Store towel soaked in mint oil in glove compartment.
• Several free bunnies looking for a home. Call or email if interested.
• Looking for cheap used mandolin, an instrument to learn on, nothing fancy!
• I’m thankful to live in a town where lively public discussions flourish.
• I love black turkeys on white snow beside a mint green stream.
• two bassets want pals to chase, one dachshund wants to play ball
• Wishes for a peaceful and healthy 2012 to all of my neighbors!
• To work I cannot go. Head to Sugarbush – they make snow.
• This 12 word contest sure is attracting a lot of interesting entries.
• With the light always on, Community breaths through the Porch of Vermont.
• Front Porch Forum My news of the Neighborhood.  Well done. Thank you.
• Let’s promise to be kind to one another in the New Year.
• Littered trash beware, South Burlington residents care. You will be evicted, deposed.
• I am seeking help with snow removal; seeking snow first, removal second.
• Used mind for sale; fair condition; sometimes wanders randomly; best reasonable offer.
• I wanted the pygmy goats but I need new goat shed first!
• Get fit by joining snap fitness gym it is local and awesome.
• Twelve words is not enough to say what I want to say.
• My tires don’t inspire buyers. Should price be higher?  Plight is dire.
• Conquering dark solitude. We dance grinning, hand in hand, enjoying the band
• Snowshoe! Sled! Skate! Ski! But how? Winter, O Winter, where art thou?
• In our house, a happy quorum: Read/Post/Love “Front Porch Forum”.
• Moving is fun ooowhee! Come one, come all, to see what’s free!
• Finally reached my diet goal. With my luck, I’ll win the chocolates.
• Broadband… please; Teacher contract renewed; Lost animals found; MORE SNOW! Community United.
• Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently!
• Never look down on someone else unless you are helping them up!
• Twelve words that’s it. To challenge our wit. Really a tight fit.
• When it snows, our lawn looks just as nice as the neighbor’s.
• My kids are ice cream and LCC crazy; I must post this.
• Wanted: Random Acts of Kindness. Offer a helping hand to your neighbor.
• The Wolf Full Moon hiding in Middlesex behind the low hazy clouds.
• We have been car free since Labor Day! It’s great. Thanks, CarShare!
• I miss the Alchemist. I love Cork. Looking forward to Prohibition Pig.
• Broken straps, Replaced free. Tubbs snowshoes, Lifetime guarantee. Deep snow, same deal?
• Wanted: atmospheric water vapor frozen into crystals and falling in white flakes
• Town roads. To pave, or not to pave: that is the question.
• Seen today at intersection of Common Way and Greenbush: three legged fox!
• Even if you fall on your face, you are still moving forward.
• Angel Dog is not a family movie. Do not rent for kids.
• This is my first post! I work for Girl Scouts. Wanna volunteer?
• Wanted: atmospheric water vapor frozen into crystals and falling in white flakes.
• Hey all Bristol folks, remember to shop local, close to our homes.
• The snowy owl made it to Vermont, maybe there will be twelve?
• That’s how it is with Fred; people like to eat his bread.
• The sleeping cats hug the heat vents dreaming about the summer sun.
• A little peace on Earth, and big piece of pie for dessert.
• Sometimes I wonder: what would I Do if I couldn’t eat cheese?