When Alex and Cristy Beram lived around the corner from each other on Willard Street in Burlington, they lived different lives and never met. Cristy was busy finishing her degree in sociology and Italian studies at UVM and Alex was making his name in the local music scene. Years down the line they would be set up on a blind date in their respective new homes in Charlestown, Boston, and twenty years later they would return to Vermont together, a married couple with two small children.

Not long after the two were married sometime after that fortuitous blind date in Boston, Cristy brought Alex on a trip with her brother to the Quechee-Woodstock area where she and her family used to come regularly as children. Experiencing the bucolic Upper Valley with adult eyes and minds brought a whole new appreciation of all that the area had to offer. Cristy’s memories of skiing on Quechee Hill would come full circle when her own children learned to ski there in a few years’ time. The couple bought a condo here in 2018 and began their own traditions by taking advantage of all the seasonal activities right outside their door with extended family coming along to share in the fun whenever possible.

The closeness and bonding that the easily accessible activities of the Upper Valley provided, could not be lauded enough by the family. The ease of abundant life here led the couple to inherently assume they would end up living in the Quechee or Woodstock area full time. The future was discussed in this way without much fanfare: it was obvious. Maybe the move would come when the kids were all grown up, or maybe when Alex and Cristy retired, “it was always going to happen, it was just a matter of when.”

Alex’s résumé ranges from touring musician to artist manager to the Reggatabar Jazz Club manager in Harvard Square, then eventually getting himself into international expansion after earning his MBA at Boston University. Cristy was working for Fidelity at the start of 2020 when the pandemic hit. The prospect of Vermont seemed even more prudent as restrictions around COVID changed the world for everybody, and the family began to assess “how to make the most of the short time” they have together.

Alex says the awareness of being blessed enough to be healthy and safe through the pandemic has only reinforced their choices. When Alex was soon able to work remotely, the decision to transition to their Quechee condo full-time quickly became very real – it was happening! The kids, Rosie in fourth grade and Beau in first grade, have had to process some big feelings around leaving behind the familiar neighborhoods, close family, and friends in Boston. The upheaval the pandemic brought combined with the happy memories of summer camps and golf clubs in Quechee has helped make the kids much more amenable to the transition.

Finally, it was when Alex’s job had to let him go in the fall that the couple returned to an ever-present daydream. Maybe they should try to buy a small business that the family could run together? This would complete the idyllic, tight-knit family picture that Vermont had fostered for them for so long, and it wasn’t unprecedented. Way back when, in Burlington, when Alex and Cristy lived as strangers on the same block, Alex made his way in the food industry working for a variety of cafes, bakeries, and restaurants in town. This had led him to eventually pursue an MBA. And, aside from working from home stuck behind a screen, how could the family really, actually work together and be a part of their new community? The posting to purchase and run Woodstock’s Village Butcher for the retiring former owners seemed like it was put out there just for them.

The Berams love what longtime former owners, George and Linda Racicot, created in the 50-year-old shop. The daily connection with the various community members of the Woodstock area is the part that Adam says will bring them the most joy, and that is what enabled the Village Butcher to thrive for five decades. Happy to have such a fine foundation from which to resume business, the Berams plan on finding and creating what improvements can be made while continuing the long tradition of a small-town butcher full of local sundries, great sandwiches, and a good cup of coffee. The excellent cuts of meat will remain along with many familiar faces. From a market perspective, the Berams feel that they’re familiar with every type of customer that might come through the door, after all, the tourist, the second homeowner, and now, finally, local community members themselves.

When asked out of context, Dave Courtney doesn’t recall the exact year he started working at the Quechee Ski Hill, but he does know that he recently retired in 2018. However, I’m not meeting with Dave to talk about his long, Quechee-based ski career. Dave and I are meeting to talk specifically about an exciting offshoot of his many years on the hill. Dave’s son, Will Courtney, who skied the Quechee Hill with his dad since he was three years old, was hired this year to be a member of the US Alpine Ski Racing Team as an assistant coach and strength and conditioning coach. So, “like father, like son,” it was Dave’s role at the Quechee Ski Hill, and his own passion for skiing, that lit the fire in his son Will to fall in love with the sport and pursue his own professional career.

Will tries on skis at an early age.

Dave was instrumental in turning the Quechee Ski Hill into a member of the Mid-Vermont Council and starting up the Quechee Ski Racing Team. Dave talks about these social gains for Quechee and their positive impact on giving local kids the opportunity to have their own ski hill and to be able to advance into racing and grow as athletes should they choose to take up skiing as a sport. Dave’s passion for skiing and his drive to bring the local offerings to that next level benefitted an entire community, including his own kids who were just toddling when they started, to find excellence on their own hometown hill. Looking back, Dave says with a smile, “It was never about a World Cup Ski Racer coming out of this place.”

It appears that Will Courtney appreciated the old ski hill as much as his father did. Dave and his wife, Claire, knew that Will was enthusiastic and motivated and thus agreed to let him attend the Mount Mansfield Winter Academy for three months during his 8th grade school year. From there, Dave and Claire decided to send Will to Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine, a secondary school long known for its on-snow competition program for young athletes. Will (writing from the World Cup Event in Austria) speaks of the importance of ‘giving back to one’s home program.’ In fact, he credits discovering his affinity for coaching while helping out with the Quechee Ski Team’s Annual Christmas Camp while still in high school.

Will with his first coach, Marilyn Cochran,
and his constant finish-line supporter, Jim. When Dave asked Will that morning how
he thought he would do, instead of his usual “top 5 or 10” answer, Will said he was going to win.

Later, while attending UVM, Will began working weekends with the Quechee Ski Racing Team as a Head J3 Coach.

“Once I graduated from college, my goal was to ski as much as I could. At that time, my most direct path to doing so was to pursue a career in coaching ski racing. I had the opportunity to coach full-time through the winter months at Killington Mountain School (KMS), my first professional’ coaching role. Once I completed that first season, I knew that I wanted to gain more experience and continue to work with athletes on snow. Meanwhile, I was able to support myself on my salary and live a rewarding life. I knew that, like my dad, I could not spend my life sitting at a desk.”

From KMS, Will coached at Green Mountain Valley School’s highly regarded Alpine Ski Program. For a few years, Will coached with former UVM athlete Paul Epstein’s Global Racing Ski Team, after which he was the men’s head coach for the Park City Ski Team in Utah where he was working under Jesse Hunt at Park City Ski & Snowboard. Jesse Hunt (originally from Vermont as well) was the previous Alpine Director for the US Ski and Snowboard Team, a position he returned to in 2018. In the spring of 2019, Will was hired by the US Men’s Alpine Ski team as an assistant coach and a strength and conditioning coach. Will went from learning to coach on the Quechee Ski Hill to coaching on the National Team in about ten years.

When I asked Will what makes him a successful coach, he obviously had a lot to say, but is modest about his own abilities, answering that “…the most important trait to being an effective coach is the ability to connect with an athlete. Effective connections can be derived from  effective communication via open and honest dialogue between the athlete and coach… If the coach fails to develop a connection with the athlete through communication and trust, the effectiveness of the coach is minimal.”

Will’s US Ski Team jacket

Will explained that the highly competitive levels at which he’s coaching makes that personal element all the more important, describing how close coaches and athletes need to become:

“As an athlete achieves higher levels of success, the sport demands more attention to minute details, from sleep and recovery, to strength and conditioning, to extensive travel logistics, and to daily time management, among others. As a result, the role of the coach is to help the athlete manage the entire process effectively so as to maximize the effectiveness of the preparation,” said Will.

When it comes to his success, Will was much more eager to emphasize his family over his own abilities unequivocally stating that his “… parents, without question, supported my decision to pursue ski racing at a young age. They instilled in me a focused and deliberate work ethic, and I understand now that they had no doubt that I would work tirelessly to achieve my goals. My mother and father made tremendous sacrifices… I have my parents to thank for enabling my passion for this sport to grow into an obsession.”

The Courtney family: Will, Dave, Claire, and Jim

Dave and Will both inherently speak to the communities of Quechee, larger Vermont, and New England as being a part of world ski culture through every little hill that is given over to the local ski runs and kids programs. It’s a story of accessible mountains, supportive families and peers. The story, as Dave and Will both tell it, makes the world of alpine skiing sound like another small, tight-knit community similar to Quechee or Hartland.

Familiar names and faces that Will has met through his many lessons, races and jobs grace his presence at the Olympics. As an example, Will
mentioned that he works with Ryan Cochran-Siegle, the nephew of his very own first coach in Quechee, Marilyn Cochran, of the renowned family of ski racers. River Radamus is another coworker and cousin of long time-friend, Andrew McNealus, with whom Will grew up skiing and is now the Assistant Coach at UVM. So the answer to what comes next for Will Courtney may not come as a surprise. Will said he hopes to maintain his role with the National Ski Team through the 2020 Olympics in China. “In the long term, I hope to return to the ski club or academy level to bring my experiences from the World Cup back down to the developmental levels of the sport, with the aspiration of guiding the next generation of athletes to the pinnacle of their abilities.”

This past year the Ottauquechee School raised money to undertake a cutting-edge learning program for their students. With donations from the annual Scholastic Book Fair and a Donors Choose Campaign (donorschoose.org), Rebecca Whitney, the school’s library media specialist and Principal Cathy Newton managed to create “STEAM Time” to focus on: science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics. Working in collaboration with the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education at the University of Vermont, dedicated STEAM learning time found its way into the little big school in Quechee.

The general idea of the program is to create the time and space for students to learn how to approach these subjects, how to work together as a group to focus on an issue, and to collaborate on ideas and resolutions. No small part of a new program in a school is finding the time for different grades to meet during the week. Students gather several times a week in the school library to work on the STEAM program, while teachers use this time to collaborate and plan their own classes.

It took dedication and a lot of work from Rebecca and Cathy to get this program up and running in the school. Rebecca speaks to the inspiration that drove the initiative when she talks about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, a United Nations agenda that “emphasizes a holistic approach to achieving sustainable development for all.” Rebecca has seen learning programs based on the goals and has fashioned the upcoming second year of STEAM learning time around a few of the goals such as “Reduce Inequality” and “Build Resilient Infrastructure.”

“I am very proud of this vision and look very forward to helping my students learn 21st-century skills through the lens of these global goals. We are global citizens and need to learn the effective communication, outside the box thinking, and empathy for others and our planet that will inspire these students to look beyond Hartford, Vermont, to thrive in the world beyond here,” she says.

Applying design thinking elements to fairy tales

During actual STEAM Time the students are engaged in harnessing and developing their critical thinking skills. Each group at their weekly meetup is guided by Stanford’s Design Thinking Elements: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. These are the primary tenets of STEAM Time no matter what the subject matter. For an initial project, students used fairy tales to get familiar with the design thinking elements and their process. Familiar fairy tales were used as though they were tasks to be resolved.

The first design thinking element of empathy is accomplished with reading the chosen story and considering it from various viewpoints. From there, defining the problems presented in the story happens easily. Students then come up with ways to resolve some of those problems, such as “rehabilitate the witch in Hansel and Gretel” while another group was determined to engineer a way for Rapunzel to escape her tower. These issues and resolutions were put to the test when groups designed their ideas into working projects and presented them to other student groups.

Beyond fairy tales, the kids quickly moved into more technical subjects. December included participation in a worldwide program called the Hour of Code. Grades 2 through 5 accessed resources and interacted online with age-appropriate games and lessons designed to make the world of computer coding more fun and accessible. The kids “intuitively picked up the nuances of coding incredibly quickly!” says Rebecca.

Developing transferable skills

Design thinking, or creative problem solving, is the underlying process of enrichment taking place in the STEAM groups. The students are ultimately learning a pre-determined and reliable process to approach intimidating subject matters like robotics and math, and that design thinking applies to any subject matter. Design thinking also neatly replicates the Vermont Department of Education’s standards of “transferable skills.” These skills are a way to determine a student’s overall comprehension of the underlying elements of learning; they include effective communication, creative and practical problem solving, and integrative thinking. STEAM Time is essentially a class in learning these skills more overtly than is typically found in an elementary school setting.

This first year of STEAM was such a success that the students agreed to present at the Vermont Dynamics Landscape Conference at Champlain College in May. VITA-Learn, a Vermont State educational organization that seeks to promote information technology support to schools and students throughout Vermont sponsored the conference. Eight students, grades 3 to 5, accompanied Rebecca to Champlain College in Burlington. Rebecca says that the conference was a lot of fun and a great success; the standing room audience was packed, and it was all to hear what the kids had to say.

The students presented on their personal experiences with STEAM over the past year and what they thought about the program. Here’s what some of them had to say:

“We get to make really cool things for a benefit for the planet, or of some type of purpose.”

“Everybody has different ideas, but they’re all so good. There are so many things that we can do to help.”

“Sometimes it’s easy, but most of the time you’re challenging your initiative and your mind.”

It’s an exciting time to be a student at the Ottauquechee School. You can learn more about the program through the school blog www.oqsvt.com/ and at the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Technology website www.uvm.edu/cess/tiie. This exciting STEAM development will probably continue to gain attention as more schools seek to bring such novel formats of teaching universal learning concepts, global goals, and design thinking into their classrooms. Thank Rebecca and Cathy for the amazing work done here for the Ottauquechee students and the larger world outside of our community.

Eric Emery met Andrea Chula while attending Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire. After graduation, the couple married and moved to Denver. Eric’s father had recently passed away from pancreatic cancer, and instead of settling in New Hampshire they decided to go live someplace new before their careers and family made that more difficult. Both avid skiers, they chose Denver because they wanted to spend some time “skiing in the powder in the Rockies.” When not on the slopes, Eric worked in sales for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Andrea worked as a pre-school teacher at the Cerebral Palsy School of Colorado.

They didn’t stay away for too long. It was when their first child, Ayela, was born that led to thoughts of moving back home after seven years away. Home for Eric and Andrea would always be in New England. Eric grew up in Hanover, New Hampshire, and Andrea’s parents were in Northfield, Massachusetts, where she grew up. The question of where exactly was up for conversation.

Eric credits Andrea with decisively choosing Quechee as the nest for their family. The couple looked all over the Upper Valley, finally deciding that Quechee was the best place to settle. They purchased their home in 2011. Eric says that considering the amenities of the community it made sense for a family of four. Sports are important to Eric and Andrea, they were both ski racers in high school and college, so the camps, clubs, and groups available to the children through The Quechee Club was especially enticing to the young parents. Having a ski hill right in the community was the perfect scenario. “Ayela and Jayce already love skiing and are great golfers,” says Eric.

Eric and Andrea have comfortably settled into the area as well. Eric works in sales at Townline Equipment, a successful, locally run business in Plainfield, New Hampshire, that sells and services new and used tractors and construction equipment. Andrea works from home as an independent consultant for Arbonne, a vegan health and wellness company. Ayela is going into third grade at the Ottauquechee School, and Jayce will start Kindergarten there this year.

“We love the Ottauquechee School. It’s an amazing public school. Our children are happy there. We like the teachers and the other parents. We have good friends whose kids go to school next door at the Waldorf School. Our kids can meet up with their kids after school and play on the athletic field or go to the Quechee Library. This just adds to the sense of community for us,” Eric says.

The Emery’s take advantage of everything that Quechee and Woodstock have to offer, especially the Quechee Balloon Festival held over Father’s Day Weekend, says Eric. “This is such a unique event. There’s nowhere else around here that has something like this.”

Getting involved in the community

Eric joined The Quechee Club’s Winter Sports Committee in 2017, and is eager to be an active member of the community to “make sure that younger, year-round members have a voice and opinion in winter activities.” Eric is adamant that the reputation that some have of Quechee lacking something of a community is not true and he promotes the idea of his family’s decision to buy in Quechee and raise their kids here. Eric hopes to support even more kid-centric activities to further attract young families to visit, engage at the club, and maybe fall in love with the place.

“The Quechee Club, and especially the Recreation Department, is doing a phenomenal job incorporating kids and family into club events. I’ve seen this change since we first moved here,” says Eric. And Eric points out other changes that continue to make this area appealing. “The whole Route 4 corridor is really developing; there are more restaurants, grocery stores, and coffee shop options.”

“For us, the biggest draw to Quechee is the sense of community. This is not just a resort or a seasonal destination. It’s a real community. Our family takes advantage of all four seasons and what they have to offer for the whole family. That’s why we chose Quechee to call home,” says Andrea.

Making it a family affair

The Emerys have felt and seen the Quechee charm do its thing. Two years ago, Andrea’s parents, Karen and David Chula, bought a home right next door to the grandkids, and are living there full-time. Living in Northfield, Massachusetts, the Chula’s came for visits, and like Eric and Andrea were drawn to the area, and – both avid golfers – the golf courses. David is now one of the golf-course rangers.

Their move here has made the home nest in Quechee more complete than Eric and Andrea could have thought possible. The Emery’s won’t be leaving anytime soon, the family only plans on deepening their connections and commitments to their unique community.

The next time you see Joe O’Donnell around the Quechee Green, you should probably stop and shake his hand. If you know Joe, you were probably going to do that anyway, but this time around you should ask him about his self-published book, Deadly Codes: A Gallagher Novel, and the feature-length film Bent that’s based on his book. Joe’s gregarious and positive nature makes him truly enjoyable to interact with, and his excitement is contagious.

Previous to attending the premiere of a movie based on his own novel, Joe had already worked a highly reputable career in pediatric dentistry. He went to school in his home state of Pennsylvania and then Boston, specializing in pediatric dentistry. In 1972, Joe was appointed to the faculty of Tufts University where he was an associate clinical professor of Pediatric Dentistry. In 1976, Joe founded the Tufts Dental Facilities for Special Needs Individuals, a statewide program that he considers the greatest accomplishment of his career. Before this program, special needs individuals found it difficult to obtain dental care from community dentists who often did not have the training or facilities to meet their special needs. With the help of a grant to Tufts from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Joe established a teaching program for dental students and post-graduate residents at Tufts as well as six clinics throughout Massachusetts, all of which had equipment and facilities specifically designed to expedite the delivery of dental care to persons with disabilities. Also, Joe opened his own pediatric dental practice in Winchester, Massachusetts, in 1974, and later expanded his practice to open a satellite office in Reading, Massachusetts, in the 1990s.

Settling in Quechee

It was in the ‘90s that Joe bought a condominium in Quechee before his wife, Ronney, had even visited: that’s how positive he felt about the place. After having golfed in Quechee with friends over several years, Joe always thought Quechee would make a great location for a second home – a weekend getaway with golf, skiing, swimming, and other activities. One weekend, while his wife, Ronney was in New York visiting her family, Joe drove up to Quechee somewhat spontaneously to look at real estate and get an idea of what type of properties were available.  After looking at six different places, Joe was preparing to leave when the realtor’s cell phone rang with news of a condo that had just come on the market. A few hours later, Joe had to make a somewhat uncomfortable call to Ronney and explain that he had just bought a property in a place she had never been or seen. Joe jokes that lunch at Simon Pearce helped seal the deal for Ronney, and she even discovered her own enjoyment of golf with the help of Andy Prosowski. Director of Instruction at The Quechee Club. The O’Donnells have taken lessons from Andy every summer since.

Beginning his writing career

In 2008 while lounging on a beach, Joe turned to Ronney and said that he was “thinking of trying something different” – he wanted to write a novel. During his years at Tufts, Joe did a lot of the usual writing expected of a faculty member:  case reports, journal articles, grant proposals, letters of recommendation, etc., but he had never attempted creative writing. The Dean asked him to write a eulogy for a deceased faculty member and liked it so much that it was published in the Tufts Journal, and urged Joe to consider doing more writing. Joe put together some thoughts for a fictitious story based on his five real estate partners who were in the process of dissolving their mutually beneficial partnership. Fatal Gamble, his first novel, is based on the premise that strange things began happening to the individual members 25 years after the dissolution of their partnership. The main character, a Boston private detective, named Gallagher, is hired to investigate a series of unsolved murders. And, if you’re the type who likes a book with an unexpected ending, Joe has written a second novel, Deadly Codes: A Gallagher Novel, which features Gallagher, the main character of Fatal Gamble.

Joe’s books are self-published, and he jokes about the reactions of the many literary agents that have turned him down citing that he’s a dentist, is too old, and has no creative writing credentials.

From novel to movie

By 2010, Joe had two self-published novels that relatively few people had read, and even fewer had bought. Ronney’s cousin gave Joe’s books as a Christmas present to a friend in New York. The friend, in turn, sent them to an acquaintance in Hollywood. Long story short, they ended up in the hands of Academy Award winner Bobby Moresco (best original screenplay for Crash – Best Picture 2004). He was so taken with the idea of the Gallagher character in a film noir style movie that he got in touch with Joe, and they met at Legal Sea Foods in Boston. “It was like being touched by a bit of magic and a huge stroke of good luck,” Joe says. The dream dinner ended with a reality check, Hollywood style: Moresco’s best advice was to tell Joe to go out and raise a million dollars for development money to get the project off the ground.

Raising one million dollars was a daunting task, but Ronney’s cousin and Joe found friends and business people who read the novels and were eager to partner in the project.  Over the next six months, Bobby Moresco wrote the screenplay based on Deadly Codes, and the search began to find a production company and a sales team to launch the screenplay to the screen. However, as Joe found out, movie projects, in particular, those that are independent films, are painstakingly slow with many ups and downs along the way. In 2016, nearly eight years after Joe published his first novel, and six years since he met Moresco, Joe received another unforgettable phone call. The production company AMBI Films, was in discussions with Moresco about another film, was interested in the Gallagher project, and a deal was made. The movie, Bent, was cast with Karl Urban as Gallagher, and Sofia Vergara and Andy Garcia in the other two prominent roles. Finally, but still unexpected overall, Joe got to travel to Italy to be on the set and watch his book being made into a movie in just 30 days. “For me, seeing the characters I created come to life on the screen was a thrill beyond description,” Joe says. Bent was released to select theaters in March 2018, and you can watch it online via video on demand through multiple websites.  The film has been released in Europe in more than thirteen countries including Spain, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy, among others.

I’m not going to fill you in on the movie so that you have to watch it before the O’Donnells are in Quechee again this summer. Now retired from his career in dentistry, Joe and Ronney return to Quechee in June from their home in West Palm Beach, Florida. Their granddaughters: Alessandra, Shira, and Hasana, will be attending summer camps at The Quechee Club while grandparents, Joe and Ronney, work on their golf games with Andy. Joe is an exceedingly friendly and approachable person, plus he tells his story with more fun and more interesting anecdotes than I could fit here. The good fortune, magic, and hard work it took to turn a self-published book into a feature-length film (actually, the budget was only $5 million – so it’s considered a low-budget film) is a novel-worthy tale in itself, and Joe’s a great storyteller.

A to Z Cakes is an inspiring entrepreneurial tale based right here in Quechee. Abbi and Dan Courtemanche have built a successful cake making company out of what Abbi describes as a “happy accident.” Not quite ten years ago, Abbi and Dan were planning their wedding. For reasons most of us could not fathom, Abbi decided that she could make their wedding cake despite having never attempted such a fete before. The cake was such a success that wedding guests asked for the name of the baker. Abbi was shortly hired to make what would be the second of many cakes to come.

Abbi and Dan both grew up in Hartland. Abbi went to school in Quechee and then in New York briefly to focus on her dance studies. Abbi came back home to graduate from Hartford High where she met Dan. He is now an accountant in Hanover, but he “moonlights as a baker” for Abbi. The first few years, they baked the cakes at home in Hartland. Six years ago the couple bought a house in Quechee and refurbished the garage into a commercial kitchen. Along with being a home-based business, Abbi insists the whole endeavor wouldn’t be possible without her and Dan’s extended families. Both families come together to help with anything from transportation to babysitting, even learning to make sugar flowers when needed. An extreme example of such support includes Dan successfully lifting an 80-lb cake and sprinting it across a lawn as storm clouds ominously approached the wedding scene.

Self-taught in the art of cake making

Abbi’s education has a core of art and dance, and she still teaches dance part-time as a kind of reprieve from cake making. Abbi has never had any formal training in baking, let alone sculpting with fondant, or reinforcing eight-tier cakes with inner hardware. When you look at pictures of Abbi’s cakes, it’s difficult to believe that she is self-taught, but she promises it’s true, saying it has taken copious amounts of creativity, perfectionism, and optimism to lead the way. The cakes speak for themselves, with each being completely customized and unique; the average cake takes 15-25 hours, but the larger, more intricate cakes can take up to a month to finish.

Growing their business through “word of mouth”

In the beginning, Abbi and Dan didn’t even know what a popular wedding destination Vermont and the Upper River Valley had become. For the past nine years, the home-based business has continued to grow organically with 75 percent of the A to Z Cakes business being weddings. “It’s particularly fun when we get to make a wedding cake and then the couple returns for a baby shower or anniversary cake,” she says. A company website (atozcakes.com) is kept up-to-date with pictures of new creations and customer reviews, but this is the extent of their advertising. Abbi and Dan have focused on local business relationships instead. The Quechee Club and The Quechee Inn at Marshland Farm both refer potential customers to their business. It’s a community-based business in a sense, as these local business relationships have fostered the “word of mouth” tradition that has driven the company’s growth.

The A to Z Cake story has many elements of the best things of the Upper Valley and Vermont culture including independent hard work, supportive families, and a supportive business environment to help foster the endeavor. The story even starts with a bit of a fairytale touch: a bride decides to make her own cake. While looking at the beauty and construction of their cakes, I ask Abbi if any customer request has caused her to be disheartened or worried about her ability to pull it off (I even tell her it can stay off the record). She doesn’t hesitate to say that the unexpected challenges are what keep her motivated to learn and accomplish each customer request. “It really is a labor of love,” she laughs with all seriousness. The family now includes a daughter, just about to start kindergarten, prompting Abbi to say that there are no changes in their business plans in the near future with regards to slowing down or speeding up. For now, Abbi and Dan will be keeping steady with their very busy craft of making a “work-life balance” that includes working eight days a week.

There is a new gem hidden in the surrounding hills and hollows of the Upper Valley. The Grange Theatre in Pomfret, Vermont, formerly the Teago Grange Hall, is the newest branch of the ArtisTree Community Arts Center. The theatre’s first season wrapped up in late October. Maybe you were lucky enough to see The Little Mermaid or get a seat for the sold-out Patsy Cline. If you’ve been to a show already, you were probably impressed before it even started. The old grange still looks like a well-maintained meeting hall where over the years countless couples married and community dinners were served. Now you step inside the building to find yourself in a thoroughly modern stage theatre.

Actors from New York perform in Godspell

I met with Theatre Director Chris Flockton for a tour. The outside of the building is stark white and simple, with the dramatic, wide backdrop of the Vermont countryside and hills, including a view of the Suicide Six Ski Area. The foyer includes some historic pieces of the grange and an original small office space serving as the ticket booth. The main stage is small with a rear interior space and an upper level. It’s not too far from the stage that the rows of chairs begin. The 85 to 100 seats are comfy and classic red, but also removable. The original windows are still in place but have been equipped with automatic, remote controlled blackout shades. Chris tells me that foam insulation was put in the walls to keep the noise from neighbors and passerbys. Thoughtful touches like these were used in the interest of preserving the old grange as much as possible. Architect George Turner and Wright Construction helped to restore a grange hall and create a modern theatre all within the same space. The broader idea behind the preservation is that the community can still use the building for events and gathering.

Chris is happy to report that the first running season of 2017 has been successful. The season consisted of four back-to-back shows. The first was The Little Mermaid as performed by Upper Valley kids aged seven through 18 who attended a theatre camp before showtime. The musical Patsy Cline played a few sold out shows. Actors were hired in New York and given the opportunity to stay locally in Pomfret while rehearsing. The play Godspell came next with 10 actors from New York City and a six-piece band. Another musical, The Marvelous Wonderettes, will wrapped up the season.

Grange Theatre

During the “off-season,” November through May, the theatre’s focus will shift to community-based projects. A holiday show, open mikes, and short act plays are in the works and sign up sheets are available for anyone interested. Chris is emphatic that anyone can call him if they have interest in any aspect of theatre work. There will also be official classes such as intro to acting, improv, and a Shakespeare intensive. Chris anticipates classes in which students of all ages can shadow a professional through the entire production of a play from casting to curtain drop.

The ultimate goals of the theatre include using the space year-round with high-quality productions summer through fall and community-based projects in the winter. Hiring, teaching, and involving Upper Valley community members is important to the mission, as well as keeping the theatre accessible: theatre tickets have not been higher than $25 a seat. All proceeds cycle back into the theatre program and the non-profit ArtisTree.

What Chris brings in experience is worth noting, his acting resume is diverse and lengthy, including soap operas (Guiding Light), voice-overs (The Fabulous Life), and some movie acting (Boondock Saints). Chris is also well-versed in teaching young children and has conducted outreach programs such as “Shakespeare in the Schools,” managing to teach 40 eighth-graders A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Chris moved to Vermont six years ago with his wife and a son who currently attend the Upper Valley Waldorf School in Quechee.

The set of Godspell was colorful and had a life of its own

The surrounding towns and communities have just been made all the richer with this addition to the ArtistTree Community Arts Center. Those who gain the most are Upper Valley theatre fans and local kids who have an interest in theatre. There are also the countless kids and adults who will discover their love for theatre in the seasons to come. The Grange already has that magical theatre feeling, and it has only just begun.

Rebecca ‘Becky’ Whitney is the resident librarian for the wee ones of Quechee. Some might say a children’s librarian is the most important of all types of librarians. After all, who first shows us that libraries are incredibly special and magical places where one can disappear from the busy world into the endless possibilities which bookshelves possess? Libraries can be overwhelming. We all need a guide in the land of enchantment sometimes, especially when we’re still little. While Becky is somewhat new to the position – having been at the Ottauquechee School Library for just under a year – she has enthusiastically taken on the role of being their guide.

Becky feels lucky she and her family moved to the area nine years ago from San Diego, although she is originally from Connecticut. Some might recognize her last name from her husband’s, family’s business The Whitney Pension Associates. While Becky stayed home with her three kids for the last eight years, she also successfully ran a private photography endeavor called Rebecca Whitney Photography during that time. Volunteering at the school with the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) led Becky to become more involved with the school until she eventually took on the librarian position. Now she works at the same school her three kids attend, and despite already having a Masters Degree in secondary education, she is completing a certificate program in library media science.

Enhancing the space and arrangement of reading materials

Becky with her daughter Emerson

Becky has been hard at work in her first year. First came a renovation of the library space: the walls were painted, and shelves were rearranged to create large open spaces closer to the walls, and windows, and smaller, cozier spaces for the kids. There is still a lot of work to be done to finish her plan. Becky is hoping for “a few good people” to donate some carpentry skills and assemble some more bookshelves for the space. The school can provide all the materials; they just need a builder! And, any comfy seating is most welcome.

Beyond the environment, Becky has rearranged the books into different categories as well. The side of the library contains tables and chairs, and is considered the academic area and holds the non-fiction books. Wordless books for beginning readers are arranged by topic, just like books with words. Becky tells me this is a new approach in the library world. This way the kids can learn to browse the books independently by subject matter even before obtaining their reading skills. She has also implemented a ‘makerspace.’ Makerspaces are thematically based how-to sections of a library or other community space. Becky has created a S.T.E.M. makerspace full of science, technology, engineering, and math books of the how-to and kid’s level variety, including books on robotics, Legos, puzzles, and drawing. During the last book fair, Becky and the community managed to raise $1300 through Scholastic Books for the library, and she plans on using the money to expand the makerspace book collection.

Some of the current programs include reading and collecting poetry for National Poetry Month. There’s a reading contest going on all year. Whichever class collectively reads the most books – including books read to them by teachers and parents – gets a pizza party.

The younger kids are learning to be comfortable with books. At the beginning of the year, the kids participated in a poll which asked questions like: “Do you have books in your bedroom?” “Do you have a television in your bedroom?” “Do you have a library card?” From there, Becky and the teachers could determine the level of normalization to books and time spent with books the average child and class needs. She relates the success of such books as The Princess in Black, by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale. The boys expressed distress about having to endure a ‘girl’s book,’ but the princess turns out to be a ninja, and a majority of the boys asked to borrow the book.

Future plans

Becky’s larger vision is to make the library space much like a bookstore in that a child can find a private nook where they can disappear into a book. There is even an idea for a tiny loft corner with some beanbags or glider chairs below the loft. With only the modest needs of a few good carpenters and some chairs, Becky’s ultimate goal cannot be too far away. Beyond that, she would love some volunteers who would want to spend time in the library – with and without the kids around. Becky would love some company and help in making the library a magical space.

If you are interested in getting involved, or to find out more about the library, visit the Ottauquechee Library School Facebook page, or Becky’s blog at oqslibrary.blogspot.com.

If Brad Pirkey isn’t a familiar face or name to you around the Hartford/Quechee area, maybe you recognize his brightly colored food bus. Chef Brad’s CrazySide has been around the area since 2012, and it’s hard to miss. Most recently you’ve probably noticed the colorful addition to Fat Hat Corner where Quechee Main Street meets Route 4. Chef Brad’s bus has moved into the corner, and it sounds like the CrazySide may have found a home.

Pirkey grew up in the Woodstock and Killington, Vermont, areas graduating from Woodstock High in 1980 where he claims his only ‘A’ was for a quiche cooked up for French class. Talking with him it sounds like his evolution into a chef was natural, and easily led him to become a restaurateur. He was given the lead in kitchens since he was a kid starting at places like Rumbleseat Rathskeller in Woodstock and Cindy’s Pizza. After high school and a bit of travel, Brad attended Johnson and Wales College of Culinary Arts in Providence, Rhode Island.

Pirkey owned The Corners Inn in Bridgewater for 15 years (called Z Corners Inn by new owners since 2011). The Corners Inn was a success for him, but eventually, he needed a hiatus. Pirkey put the restaurant on the market, and set about driving his VW bus around the perimeter of the country for nearly a year picking up cooking jobs here and there along the way – he even rented an ice cream sandwich shop in Palm Coast, Florida for a time. Eventually, The Corners Inn sold, and he got homesick for Vermont and came back in 2012.

Combining his restaurant experience with his travel experience, Pirkey started a food truck. First obtaining an old BBQ cart, he looked to start up in Bridgewater again. He spied the perfect spot on Route 100a and realized it was at the Maple Leaf Farm. The owners of Maple Leaf told Pirkey that the family had always thought selling hot dogs and hamburgers alongside their farm stand would be a fun addition. The situation was perfect for everyone involved: Pirkey moved onto the land and did farm chores for 20 hours a week while keeping the original Chef Brad’s CrazySide up and running. A plague of bad luck ended the fortunate scenario. In 2014, the first CrazySide was destroyed in an accident, and Pirkey left the farm to attend his ailing mother.

Later that same year, longtime friends helped Pirkey obtain an old camper and motivated him to set up the CrazySide again on Route 12 just before Hartland Hill Road in Hartland, VT. This version of CrazySide lasted two summers. You can tell how much he enjoys his CrazySide when he talks about the lot being full with families meeting up to eat and kids running around. The CrazySide was such a success he started to look for a permanent home and quickly found it. Fat Hat Corner was renting the secondary building on the property. Kind of like the fortuitous nature of Maple Leaf Farm, Pirkey found the ad on the Upper Valley Listserv.

Now, Chef Brad’s CrazySide can stay open all year long. Even though he always swore he wouldn’t be a line cook beyond the age of 50, he is currently working up a creative menu and cooking it to order Wednesday through Sunday from 11 am to 2:30 pm. The menu changes nearly every day and is on Facebook at Chef Brads “Crazy Side” or visit chefbrads.com. There are always two soups with one vegetarian option, and a grilled cheese of the day alongside a seared salmon sandwich and smoked turkey with kimchi and swiss – just for some ideas on the rotating list. Pirkey is excited for the summer when the bus will be an ice cream parlor, and all eating will be outdoors except during inclement weather when the colorful building will be open for people to sit inside. For now, it doesn’t feel like winter when you go into CrazySide. The color, atmosphere, and menu are warm and bright – and it’s all coming from Pirkey himself. Make sure you welcome the local wanderer, and you’ll probably find yourself hoping that the CrazySide has found a home, and will stick around for a good while.

From my interview with Kristen Coats, I have no doubt that the Upper Valley Haven in White River Junction is incredibly lucky to have her. The Walden University graduate in public health spent almost six years working for Dartmouth-Hitchcock where she coordinated the Upper Valley Heal program. It was at Dartmouth-Hitchcock that Coats says she developed a true appreciation for the fact that people are healthy if their environments are healthy.

Having been at the Haven for only a year, it’s easy to see that Coats infuses her work with that same passion today. As leader of the nutrition program, she has no problem talking effortlessly about all the different areas in which the program has grown. Healthy Eating is a component of the program that involves the community food shelf and reaches the most people, around 1400 households every month. The program began when staff and volunteers noticed that many people accessing the food shelf passed up a lot of the fresh produce that the Haven “is lucky enough to get on a daily basis,” say Coats.

The strategy involved the staff and volunteers seeing what’s available for the day, heading to the café kitchen – a cooking space with a pass-through to a large dining area – and working up a recipe with the available ingredients. People coming through can stop and chat with staff and see what recipe is being created for the day. If they’re interested, they receive a recipe card and a bag with the ingredients. At these times, the kitchen and connected café serve as a teaching model in which staff can explicitly teach or simply model a cooking process.

Newly launched in November, the Haven has started a small food pantry at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) for new or expecting moms going through recovery. The pantry is accessible for moms to fill a bag of food staples such as eggs, milk, cheese, and canned goods once a week. There’s also a large focus on grab-and-go snacks for moms to get nutritious food before meetings or appointments. The food pantry remains open at night so that intensive outpatient clients going through treatment have access to the food as well.

The third dynamic program that described is the Haven’s involvement with the Ledyard Charter School located on Hanover St. in Lebanon. The public school serves about 40 students and doesn’t have the facilities for meal preparation and serving. The Haven has become an integral part of the program by being the school’s largest food donor. Through the non-traditional food process at the school, the students are gaining some valuable education by helping with menus for the week, food deliveries, and prepping. One of the goals is for students to have a better understanding of the current management of food systems. Through the program, breakfast is provided at the school along with snacks and bags of weekend food for students to take home.

How do these programs get funded? Coats can’t speak highly enough about the Vermont Food Bank and local grocers who donate fresh food and other products. Haven drivers pick up 18,000 pounds of food per week, which doesn’t include all of the donations. Willing Hands delivers to the Haven seven days a week as well. Willing Hands started in 2004 at the Hanover Food Co-op as a progressive food-recovery program. Members reach out to local farms and grocery stores and glean fields after harvest. Find out more about willinghands.org.

Coats is extremely humble talking about her work. For her, a major achievement is helping someone make any small change to their diet. When it comes to food quality, she uses the phrase “little by slow” to remind herself and others, that food culture is intensely personal, and “that changing those behaviors can be a slow process in which the little victories amount to meaningful progress.” She explains that the Haven is constantly striving to create an equitable space for community members. I was quickly convinced that, when considering the resources, time, and coordinated efforts by volunteers and community businesses, the Haven food programs are indeed accomplishing some amazing things every day, every week and every month for our neighbors in need.