Author Archives: Gisele

Gratitude for days…

Posted on Monday, November 21, 2022 by 1 comment

Kindness is no stranger to Front Porch Forum‘s members. Every day we see neighbors posting appreciation for the people in their community. We’re sharing a few recent stories of gratitude this week. We are grateful for all the people making neighborly connections happen. ♡ Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Today a large tree fell across our steep, twisty driveway. Carey, a friend and neighbor, offered to send her husband to clear the obstruction. A new neighbor, Doug, followed me up the driveway and attempted to move the tree. Eight hours later, Dakota and Andrew, a young couple and future neighbors, skillfully attacked the tree and opened up access for us. Our gratitude to all of them for demonstrating the kindness and neighborliness that makes Vermont a special place to live.
• William in St. Johnsbury

Thanks to all the folks who had seen hubcaps in the area, I got mine back! Yay for FPF!!!
• Sue in East Montpelier

Many thanks to all who reached out to provide a dog crate for my daughter’s visiting puppy! I have secured a crate for the week (and actually longer)! I am grateful to live in such a giving community where people reach out just to lend a hand. It’s a good start for Thanksgiving.
• Terry in Randolph

A couple weeks back I requested donations for a young couple that is new to the area, relocated from the deep south. They’ve never experienced winter in New England before. The donations were dropped off to them and they are warm and cozy as can be while navigating daily life with snow! Thank you so much to everybody who reached out and orchestrated getting donations to them, the generosity from this community is outstanding.
• Tanya in Randolph

Use FPF to Recommend Local Businesses

Posted on Monday, October 10, 2022 by No comments yet

Front Porch Forum takes our members’ privacy seriously.  When members post to their Forum, they know that what they write will be visible only to the members of their own FPF and of immediate neighboring Forums.  This allows members to engage freely in conversation about local issues, which is central to FPF’s community-building mission.

There are a few situations, though, where it might make sense for members’ postings to be more broadly visible.  One of these is when a member recommends a local business or nonprofit on their Forum.  Recommendations on FPF are an important resource for our members, and making them more broadly available helps support the nearly 12,000 local businesses and nonprofits that are members of FPF.

With this in mind, FPF recently launched a new feature:  Recommendation postings for businesses or nonprofits now show up on the business or nonprofit’s listing in FPF’s Community Directory!  Those postings are visible to any FPF member who views that listing, even if they aren’t a member of the Forum where the recommendation originated.

So if you are a business owner or nonprofit leader, ask your customers and supporters to post a recommendation for you on their Forum.  (While you’re at it, ask them to “favorite” your listing as well!)  When it shows up on your Directory listing, FPF’s 220,000 members all over Vermont will be able to see how much FPF members value what you do!

Solving Social Media’s ‘Local Paradox’

Posted on Thursday, October 6, 2022 by No comments yet
Stanford SOCIAL INNOVATION Review

A new article in a Stanford University journal underscores various failures of Big Tech social media, and highlights Vermont’s own Front Porch Forum as a better way.

In the bowels of social media giants, like NextDoor and Facebook, live online spaces for local social networks to take hold (e.g., a neighborhood based Facebook group). 

One might think a healthy form of social connection would come from these local online networks because they’re grounded in real-world relationships and physical space — you could literally bump into that posting’s author on your way to school drop off — but in practice, as this article points out, local social media can be even more toxic than global platforms. It’s dubbed the ‘local paradox‘. 

The solution to this local paradox, they say, is to build networks that are values-driven, closely moderated, trusted, and local. Further, they share Front Porch Forum as a leading example

Vermont and Its Pigs

Posted on Thursday, September 22, 2022 by No comments yet

There’s a few great things Vermont is known for… If beer, pigs, and good neighbors aren’t near the top of that list, then we don’t know what is! Members in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom FPFs helped this little pig find its way home.

  • I just saw this pig wandering the highway between Red Barn Brewery and Goodfellas… He seemed bummed.”
  • We have a lost tan and black pig who has settled in at Red Barn Brewing the past day… Email or call with any owner info. Otherwise he seems fine and is hanging around in our beer garden area.
  • “”hanging around the beer garden” – This pig has found his happy place. He may never want to leave. : )

Stay safe out there piglets!

One Vermonter’s Response to Inflation

Posted on Monday, July 11, 2022 by No comments yet

A recent Front Porch Forum posting in the Northeast Kingdom…

My favorite shopping place is FPF. As we are all struggling to get by, we think we can’t afford to buy what we need. But then the generosity of an FPF neighbor comes through. They have helped me several times! Thank you Neighbors 🤗

• Randall in East Burke

Clearing the garage…

Posted on Tuesday, June 28, 2022 by No comments yet

Sometimes you need just a little bit of something to finish one small project. For this neighbor, it was leftover paint.

Thanks to everyone who donated spray paint for my small projects! What a great way to get rid of unused paint cans. If people are clearing out their garages, consider posting things like this. There’s always someone with a half-finished project that could use your unwanted paint/nails/scraps of wood/etc. What a great forum we have here!

Catharine in Brandon

FPF Now Has 215,000 Members!

Posted on Tuesday, May 31, 2022 by No comments yet

Members are joining Front Porch Forum across Vermont every day… We just surpassed 215,000 members in a state with 270,000 households*. That’s a lot of traction!

Do you know anyone in Vermont that’s not on FPF yet? Tell them to sign up at FrontPorchForum.com!

*Household data is from 2020 Census

A Big Shout Out to Local Business

Posted on Tuesday, March 29, 2022 by No comments yet

A recent posting to the Williston Forum by FPF member Jeff:

I would like to take a minute to say thank you to Corey and Jake at JC Property Management.

On a recent early Sunday morning, on our way to go to a ski race at Sugarbush, we stopped at a parking lot in Hinesburg to grab something out of the back of our Suburban. Unknown to me, one of our bags fell out of the back. When we got to Sugarbush, we discovered the bag was missing.

After getting home and not finding the bag, we realized what had happened. After driving back to check the parking lot, we called the Police hoping someone turned it in. We also posted on Front Porch Forum. That was the best thing we did.

About a week later I received a call from Kory. He and his partner had found the bag while plowing that snowy morning. He had been searching for the owner. But, there was no identification tags on the bag. He was told by a friend to look on FPF.

Thankfully, he did. We were reunited with the bag. We had offered a reward for the safe return of the bag. Kory would not take the reward. He was just doing a good deed.

I want to thank Kory and the guys at JC Property Management. They are really good, honest guys. If you need work done at your property, I highly recommend giving them a call.