Mel and Damaris Hall, the owners of the Quechee-based Global Village Foods, are a friendly, humorous, and hard-working husband-wife team with a passion for connecting with the community and affecting social change through their business. Recently partnering with Vital Communities on the New England Food Vision Prize, they are currently seeking to share their delicious variety of Pan-African foods with an even wider community while continuing to source many ingredients locally and offering great wages and working environment for employees.

Damaris began to learn about food production and hard work growing up on her family’s large farm in Kenya (which featured vegetables, tea, coffee, and more).… Read More

The Quechee Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Quechee Reads group recently read and discussed the book, Courageous Discomfort: How to Have Important, Brave, Life-Changing Conversations about Race and Racism, by Shanterra McBride and Rosalind Wiseman.

Wiseman is best known for her book, Queen Bees and Wannabes, which was the basis for the hit movie, Mean Girls. McBride is the founder of Marvelous University, a social enterprise that offers leadership development for girls and young women. It was their decades-long friendship and their shared interest in building the self-esteem of young women that give the foundation for their book on race and racism.… Read More

The Quechee community may be known for what is seen: beautiful golf courses and a lovely ski hill. However, there is more than meets the eye, as Ginny Stone can attest. Ginny is the wellness coordinator of the Quechee Club Health Center, and she presents a holistic approach to exercise that incorporates spirit and mind into the body experience.

Having graduated from Springfield College in Massachusetts with a degree in exercise physiology, health, and wellness, Ginny is imbued with the school’s holistic approach of the connection of spirit, mind, and body.

When I came to interview Ginny in her little office at the club, she immediately showed me a beautifully drawn thank you card from a young staff member who was leaving to attend graphic arts school.… Read More

Informed by books such as Differently Wired: A Parent’s Guide to Raising an Atypical Child with Confidence and Hope by Deborah Reber

This is a statement of gratitude and love, and a call for action for learning what is often difficult. My focus is to say thank you to my granddaughter and our family for helping me to continue my commitment to all human beings to fully learn from differences and embrace the possibilities we together must create. I know now that my intellectual training, my life experiences, and my love had not prepared me for what I needed to learn.… Read More

On Earl Hatley’s first visit to Quechee in August 2017, he drove by the Polo Field and saw a sign for the Scottish Festival games taking place that weekend. Having a Scottish great-grandmother on his father’s side (his father was Cherokee/Shawnee) he pulled in and walked around.

“I immediately got goosebumps all over as I felt I was standing on ancient sacred ground,” Earl recalled. “I saw a vision of Indigenous Peoples dancing on that ground and thought, how appropriate. This ground could someday host a celebration of the Abenaki Nation and the Scots and in doing so, the original peoples and the settlers will be honored on the same ancient ground.” … Read More

Ten years ago, my family was living in Baku, Azerbaijan, because of my husband’s job as a government contractor. I was working as a teacher and soccer coach at Baku International School. The soccer team was on its way to a match against an elite local soccer club. When we arrived, a security guard boarded the bus, looked around, and asked (in Azeri) who was in charge. My interpreter indicated to the security guard that I was in charge and he informed me my team was not being granted permission to enter the soccer stadium. Through my interpreter, I asked “Why?”… Read More

Each year, thousands of Upper Valley residents take part as participants, volunteers, and donors in The Prouty, the annual fund raising effort for the Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC) at DHMC. This year – the 41st for the event – is no different as preparations are well underway for another successful event. Over the years, The Prouty has become a multi-generational endeavor, with entire families involved. That is certainly the case with Quechee’s Krysta Frye Kostrubiak.

“I think of us as being a Prouty family for most of my life. When I was younger, I would walk in The Prouty with a family friend while my parents did their 100-mile tandem bike ride,” says Krysta.… Read More

“I am not sure she should get a driver’s license. If she is stopped by the police, her chance of racial profiling is high in Vermont.”

“When the kids go to school, I am worried when the teacher asks them a question and if they are slow to answer, the teacher is more apt to interpret it as insubordination more so than if they were white.”

 “I just saw a pickup truck with a Confederate flag flying on it in your neighborhood. Is it safe for the children to walk to your house?”

Such are the worries posed by my daughter because she is the mother of two children who are black and living in Vermont.… Read More

The Ottaquechee Health Foundation (OHF) states, “There is no other organization in the region doing what OHF does for our communities.” What sets OHF apart from other local organizations – and other organizations with similar missions – is that the Foundation offers financial assistance to people with unmet medical expenses and homecare needs. In addition to providing financial assistance, OHF improves the health and well-being of residents through community events and partnerships, education opportunities, and the support of wellness initiatives. Based in Woodstock, the Foundation assists the healthcare needs of nine towns: Barnard, Bridgewater, Hartland, Killington, Plymouth, Pomfret, Quechee, Reading, and Woodstock.  … Read More

When I adopted my daughter almost 32 years ago, no one knew George Floyd. Rodney King was the first video taping of brutal police beating that I could remember, and it never occurred to me when I looked at her beautiful brown little face peeking out of that pink fleece blanket that she would be subject to any kind of racism. I didn’t truly understand the ramifications of “racism” as we know it today; not just the overt confederate flag waving type, but the stares in the stores, the limits on her that are bred in the institutions white folks take for granted.… Read More