Brattleboro’s Growing Resilience campaign press release.

The Southern Vermont mask making campaign needs a few more mask makers to fulfill the local need since we are all required to where masks when we return to reopening businesses. BAMA volunteer Oscar Heller has taken up the task of coordinating mask making for individuals. If you are willing to make a few masks, contact him via email.

Free to anyone. No registration required. Collect for up to three families. While Supply lasts. Wednesday, May 27, 2020 from 10:00am to 2:00pm at Brattleboro Union High School student parking lot.

We received an email from a neighbor:

“I grew up in a house tucked between two dairy farms. I never wanted to live downtown but was convinced to try it and committed to staying, liking our neighborhood. A few years ago, a stranger entered our house when we were home with the door unlocked. Then, someone shot our picture window with a BB gun, aimed where our cat usually sits. We live in a neighborhood where people were extensively going through cars recently. In the last two to three months, I got to the point where I didn't like to be downstairs by myself when I was home alone, and got nervous walking my dog at night. Nothing extreme or debilitating, but I was constantly aware of being a little on the edge.

Libby Weiland from the Vermont Community Garden Network was our guest for our May 15th BAMA Roundtable. Libby provided us a “Shared Garden Leadership” framework and resources. As Brattleboro embarks on a larger town-wide campaign to create “Help Yourself” gardens and BAMA initiates trainings and resources to help neighborhoods form GardenCorps—neighbors gardening with neighbors.

In the neighborhood where I live, on the top of South Street in West Brattleboro, we are in the habit of staying in touch. When isolation set in, we started waving to each other from a distance. And several younger neighbors wrote, offering any kind of help. We are so grateful to have caring friends and neighbors.

While many of our family, friends and neighbors are at work on the front lines—healthcare workers, supermarket employees, emergency responders—a whole lot of us are at home, often with family members, or alone, working (or not) and waiting anxiously for something to change.

With so many of us in seclusion for our own safety and the safety of us all, how can we find strength in each other? The Vermont Folklife Center believes that a pathway through anxiety, fear and uncertainty lies in the act of listening as much as it does in the act of telling one’s story.

Millicent Cooley along with a talented team of techies, recognized two local needs: 1) internet connectivity was not shared by all in our community, and 2) our local businesses would need to transition some of their business online quickly if they were to be resilient in this time of COVID-19. Be sure to reach via our Tech + MarketingCorps page if you need this kind of support.