Category Archives: Community Building
Free fishing rods and meeting a neighbor
“I love Front Porch Forum — our pair of free fishing rods were picked up this morning by a neighbor, who I hadn’t previously met, while she was out on her walk. Her two little boys couldn’t be happier.” Posted by Linda on the Appletree Point FPF in Burlington yesterday.
People get great direct results when they post on their local FPF, such as when they unload an item they no longer need. But it’s the connection to neighbors — see Linda’s story above — that carries more weight over time.
Front Porch Forum’s mission is to help neighbors connect and build community… one lost pet, plumber recommendation, borrowed ladder, or pair of free fishing rods at a time!
Richmond officials communicate with public
Richmond Rescue posted a report to the citizens of Richmond, Vermont, on their local Front Porch Forum this week. It started…
Each quarter I will be posting a number of statistics about Richmond Rescue to help you stay more informed about our business.
In the first quarter of 2015 we went on 173 calls and transported 109 patients for a transport rate of 63%. Our average for this period in the last 3 years was 160 calls and 106 transports and a transport rate of 66%…
A Richmond FPF member responded today with…
I really liked seeing the Richmond Rescue statistics posted in Front Porch Forum. It gave me an even greater appreciation of the work these valuable volunteers provide our community.
With all of the talk about break-ins in town, I wonder if the police department could provide us with some up-to-date information in Front Porch Forum about what is going on. Are our crime statistics going up? Have any perpetrators been caught? What neighborhoods are being affected? What is the police department doing about the situation?
Front Porch Forum is a wonderful vehicle for getting out information to the community about current issues and concerns. The Town Clerk uses it frequently. The Rescue is now using it. I would like to see the police department use it as well to keep us informed and up to date.
Woodbury considers Town website
The tiny Town of Woodbury, Vermont, asked its citizens yesterday on the Woodbury Front Porch Forum if it should create a Town website. Since three-quarters of the Town’s 400 households participate on their local FPF, this was a sensible move.
The feedback is starting to come in. Here’s one person’s perspective…
If you decide to have a website, which is probably a good idea, please continue to post selectboard agendas and minutes on Front Porch Forum. It is convenient at this site and has visibility.
Many Vermont towns post public meeting agendas and minutes on their local FPF because so many people tune in there.
Dog recommends sitter
Thousands of recommendations flow through Front Porch Forum. But yesterday on the Middlebury FPF we saw our first recommendation made by a dog, submitted by human Christine:
This is an easy recommend. Debbie was recommend by FPF and also by a friend. She wanted to meet our dog before she came to care for him, so he wouldn’t be surprised. My dog highly recommends Debbie.
Neighbors find and deliver wheelchair for neighbor in need
Ruth posted the following on her neighborhood Front Porch Forum in South Burlington the other day…
Am looking for a manual-drive wheelchair for outdoor use on lawn & in garden. Appearance not important but must be in good condition, which at present, I am not. Thank you.
She followed that a couple days later with…
My new wheels… Thanks to The Forum & member Paula, I have a loner wheelchair from the Samaritans at Fanny Allen Hospital to use while my new Cyborg hip heals & I learn to walk again. Thanks to St. Mike’s senior, Kristen, for driving me to Winooski to bring it home.
This is a wonderful example of community building. Ruth, by asking for help, Paula, by supplying information, and Kristen, by offering hands-on assistance, combined to show their neighborhood how to pull together and solve a neighbor’s problem.
Angel delivers cleats and glove to Little League rookie
“Wow! I came home from work today to find brand new cleats and glove on my front porch. My son is all set for Little League. What an unbelievably generous and thoughtful gift from a complete stranger. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Barbara, you are an angel :)”
• Gretchen, Mad River Valley FPF
People ask why we work so hard to host Front Porch Forum across every community in Vermont. That’s easy to answer! It’s the constant flow of neighbor success stories — large and small — that stream through FPF every day. Here are a few more examples from the past week:
“I posted a need for firewood to get through to spring, should it ever arrive. I ran out and was in a fix with dry wood almost impossible to find. So thank you to the Front Porch Forum neighbor who came through for me. It warms the heart when someone you never met goes out of their way to be generous with their abundance. Thanks also to FPF that made this possible.”
• David, Jericho FPF
“Overwhelming response to the free paint…gone within minutes of posting! Front Porch Forum, great way to make room for spring.”
• Susan, Montpelier FPF
“FPF really worked! I received 8 recommendations for a good massage therapist. Thank you all for your help.”
• Stephanie, Burlington FPF
“Wow! Can’t thank the Barre/Berlin communities enough for their veterinarian recommendations yesterday. FPF gratitude to all.”
• Amy, Barre City FPF
“Shortly after yesterday’s FPF edition was posted, I received a helpful phone call from a new friend and was able to solve my computer problem! Gotta love the FPF concept; and to think I heard an interview with the founder on NPR earlier in the day, just magic! I will be supporting them again and hope you all do the same.”
• Ralph, Vergennes FPF
“Thank you for all the great responses and suggestions for donating egg cartons. Mine will be making their way to VYCC. FPF rocks!”
• Joanna, Richmond FPF
“Wow, FPF members are truly great! I shouldn’t have been surprised when I woke up the morning after my request for landscape designers to several recommendations!! Thanks so much… Looking forward to our spring project!”
• Nancy, Montpelier FPF
“Sharky the Cat had been missing since September- amazing reunion! Front Porch Forum made one family elated beyond description… thank you everyone for your interest.”
• Trish, Mad River Valley FPF
Front Porch Forum’s story aired across Canada
Spark, with Nora Young, covered Front Porch Forum over the weekend on CBCRadio across all of Canada and some of the United States.
Sugaring theft in Waterbury brings out the best in neighbors
Steve posted on the Waterbury Front Porch Forum last weeks…
Hello neighbors – Sometime in the past 2 days someone stole 20 sap buckets, covers, and spouts that were out on maple trees on our property along Maple St. Disappointing by any account but when you factor in that this is a family sugaring operation, with all of the tapping done by our 3 year old, 7 year old, along with neighborhood children and friends – all of whom are looking forward to the first boil of the season, it really sours what is otherwise a sweet experience. I’ll also mention that we are planning on hosting 160 Thatcher Brook Primary School students for a sugaring field trip in a couple of weeks.
If by chance you know who may have committed this act, or perhaps the guilty party is reading this themselves, please return what you have taken. Leave them by the road (the same spot where you left 4 buckets by accident is fine) – no questions asked. Let’s support this great Vermont tradition of sugaring, not turn it into sour grapes.
Followed today by…
We would like to thank everyone in the community for all the support shown since posting about stolen sap buckets last week. Although the stolen ones haven’t shown up we’ve been able to recoup our loss through the generosity of the community we live in. Thank you Jen, Tim, Christl, and Michael for your donations!! Let sugaring season go on!
Precious photos lost on old-school floppy disk?
Follow-up posting from Steve yesterday on the East Montpelier FPF…
I want to thank all of you who sent me emails with offers of help in regards to getting access to my floppy disk that had some pictures on it that I wanted. I am all set. I have retrieved the pictures thanks to a neighbor that had the correct equipment.
And thanks to the Front Porch Forum for all of the people it reaches out to in the area.
Are Americans losing the concept of neighbors?
From Carol Coletta on the Knight Blog:
Are neighbors vanishing in America? Marc Dunkelman thinks so.
Marc is a fellow in public policy with the Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions at Brown University and author of “The Vanishing Neighbor: The Transformation of American Community.”
Here are five things you should know from my conversation with Marc and from his book:
1. The General Social Survey reports that the percentage of Americans who say they have eaten a meal with their family and with people outside their neighborhood has risen. But the percentage of Americans who say they have eaten with someone in their neighborhood has plummeted.
2. Being “neighborly” today means that you should leave people alone, rather than engage.
3. Thanks to technology, the opportunity to invest in relationships has vastly expanded. However, we are using tech to invest in a limited set of relationships generally, with people who share our interests and our point of view.
4. The way you drive new ideas in the workplace is to force together people with different perspectives, fields of expertise and ideas. But we haven’t applied that concept to the way we view communities. We no longer have conversations with people with different points of view because we’ve lost “middle-ring” relationships.
5. The township has been the architecture of community throughout American history. People with different points of view couldn’t avoid each other. But we are moving to an architecture of networks where there are intense nodes of inner-ring relationships and that connect to a wider range of people who share our interests.
Listen to my conversation with Marc here. And sign up for the “Knight Cities” newsletter to get alerts as soon as new conversations are posted.
About Blog
Ghost of Midnight is an online journal about fostering community within neighborhoods, with a special focus on Front Porch Forum (FPF). My wife, Valerie, and I founded FPF in 2006... read more
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