Archive for the 'Organizations' Category

Every Vermont kid has dreamed of having a tree house. Some adults still do. It’s never too late to get started on that dream. Lincoln’s Zeno Mountain Farm, an organization that runs camps for ‘people with and without disabilities’, has brought tree houses and dreaming building to an art form.

Zeno Mountain Farm is a series of camps, including sports camps in Florida and California, an adventure camp in Guatemala, a film camp in Los Angeles, and summer and winter camps in Lincoln, Vermont. These camps are where dreams come true.

People of all ages and abilities are part of Zeno Mountain Farm including people with Cerebral Palsy, Downs Syndrome, law degrees, Autism, a love of art, teaching certificates, Cognitive Delay, carpentry skills, Williams Syndrome, a willingness to dance in public and Spina Bifida.

The wheel-chair accessible Vermont tree house shown above is the center piece of Zeno in Lincoln, where a month-long camp session brings 65 people together for pottery, dancing, music, acting, poetry, art, sports and adventures in the community. One of Zeno’s recent community adventures included the construction and exhibition of a winning float in the Bristol Fourth of July Parade.

Learn more about Zeno Mountain Farm and get inspired by the beautiful people in Chris Bohjalian’s recent article in the Burlington Free Press.

Then it’s time to start building. Here are a few Lincoln Vermont Properties with lots of acreage and trees – they might make it possible for you to fulfill your childhood dream of tree houses, or start an awesome foundation…

The One-World Library Project is a “world library within a library” with a collection of books, films, and other media about world cultures. OWLP items are available for community members to check out at the Lawrence Memorial Library in Bristol. The One-World Library Project also hosts regular programs at the library on the various fascinating cultures that fill our planet. For more information about the One-World Library Project please call 453-4147 or go to http://http://oneworldlibraryproject.org/. The next program takes place one week from today. 

Thursday, June 24, 2010
Behind the Camel of the Cook: On Foot and On Camel in The Sahara Desert
New Haven resident, yoga instructor and adventure traveler, Sansea Sparling, traveled to the Tasseli Region of the Sahara Desert in Southern Algeria, to live and trek with the Tuareg Nomads for a month. Come join us in learning more about Sansea’s adventures.
For more details click here.
7:00pm, Free, Lawrence Memorial Library. For a map to the library, click here.

The last book club meeting, on Tuesday the 8th, was held at The Brick House at Shelburne Farms. It is part of the Shelburne Museum and an incredible Colonial Revival home overlooking the lake. It was restored by Electra Havemeyer Webb and J. Watson Webb in the early 1900s. We had a tour of the home, a fabulous dinner in the formal dining room, and then a discussion of the book by Edith Wharton, “House of Mirth“. Here  is Christine with her summer hat on!

Now that the weather is getting nice (my favorite time of the year, though I realize winter is a favorite for others), it is a perfect time to hit the road and check out more of Vermont.
The Vermont 251 Club was created for exactly that purpose, to encourage Vermonters (and anyone else) to explore their state – all 251 towns. First suggested in a 1954 Vermont Life article, the club now boasts over 900 members.
A membership is $6 a year or $25 for 5 years, plus a $3.50 membership fee. Members are connected with a community of fellow club members and can keep track of their progress through the main website. Access to members’ contact info can also get you tips on what to see and how to get there!
Keep checking back here often to get ideas about events to attend and places to visit!

The Green Mountain Chew Chew Food and Music Festival is celebrating its 24th and final year this weekend, June 26, 27 and 28 at Burlington’s Waterfront park. The festival has brought together more than 400 food vendors from the area over the years and has become a ‘summer must’ for locals and tourists alike. The decision to end the fest stems from increased production costs and a devastating $20,000 loss after it rained two of three days last year says Rick Norcross of Burlington, the event’s founder and coordinator.

Come partake in the last blast for this great meeting of Vermont restaurants, musicians and eaters. Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for children 12 and under (first 2000 child tickets are free!) and tokens are 9 for $5. Most food items are 3 tokens, with some being 4 or 2. The event is held from 11-9 on Friday and Saturday and from 12-6 on Sunday. Check out participating vendors here and scope out the music here. You may need to make a full weekend of it!!

Image via Wikipedia

Composting is one of the best things you can do for your garden and the environment. According to Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources, just 30 percent of total waste is recycled in Vermont and at least half of all waste going into landfills is compostable organic material. For a home compost, any kitchen scraps, (except for meat or dairy), including egg shells, can be composted, as well as any lawn and garden waste. Adding layers of manure, dry leaves and dry grass clipping to your compost pile will increase the rate at which it decomposes as well as help keep odor down.

The spring issue of edible Green Mountains has a wonderful article (pg. 19) about the benefits and purpose of composting and highlights the work of the Highfield’s Institute in Hardwick, VT. Highfield’s was developed ten years ago and offers technical advice to businesses and communities that want to compost, as well as workshops for farmers with large-scale composts (including ‘animal mortality’ – the official term for leftover animal parts or dead animals) and backyard composters.

To learn more about Highfield’s Institute, visit their website.

To learn more about starting your own home compost check out eartheasy’s guide to composting.

Each year, the Vermont Housing and Finance Association (VHFA) publishes a report “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Housing and Wages in Vermont,” as part of an annual series that tracks housing costs in relation to Vermonters’ incomes. For the last several years, Vermont’s tight housing markets have helped keep prices up while wages, particularly in Vermont’s biggest job categories, have not kept pace. Now, as the recession piles up lost jobs and incomes, the situation has grown more complex and more difficult to
solve.

“We are all going to be called upon to work harder and more creatively, and probably with fewer resources,” said Sarah Carpenter, Executive Director of Vermont Housing Finance Agency. “Vermonters need housing they can afford as much as ever, and we need the kind of economic stimulus housing development can provide.” Carpenter noted that both private and public resources for housing investment are becoming
harder to obtain, and, despite low interest rates, tighter credit and higher financial requirements are making it more difficult for many consumers to qualify for a mortgage.

Among the report’s findings:
• The median purchase price of a home in Vermont has remained stable in the last year, at $200,000.
• A Vermont household would need an annual income of $63,000, as well as $14,000 for a downpayment and closing costs, to afford that home.
• The median household income in Vermont is just under $52,000, enough to afford a $163,000 home.
• The Fair Market Rent for a modest two-bedroom home is more than $900 a month, and more than half of Vermont’s workforce earns less than the $36,550 needed to afford that rent.
• Vermont’s rental housing market is the tightest in the nation, and its homeownership market is the fourth-tightest.

All this leaves many Vermonters scrambling to keep a roof over their heads.

Erhard Mahnke, coordinator of the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition, said there is a glimmer of hope coming from Washington, D.C., in terms of more funding for housing, homelessness prevention, community development, rental assistance, and other programs. “After years of neglect, there are signs change is on the way,” Mahnke said. “New federal spending will bring more than $40 million in additional housing and community development dollars to Vermont over the next two years. Last year saw passage of significant new housing legislation, including creation of the National Housing Trust Fund, the first new housing
development program since the early 1990’s. This will allow us to play some measure of catchup, but to make real headway, we need to maintain funding for homegrown solutions like the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board.”

Copies of the new report are available online at the VHFA website, www.vhfa.org; the
Affordable Housing Coalition website, www.vtaffordablehousing.org; the Vermont Housing
Awareness Campaign website, www.housingawareness.org; and the Vermont Housing and
Conservation Board site, www.vhcb.org
.

Original Source: VHFA News Release, 4/28/09

This coming Saturday, May 2nd, is the 39th annual Green Up Day in Vermont. Started in 1970 as a way to clean up roadsides after the winter snow had melted, Green Up Day is a state-wide effort to pick up litter wherever volunteers can find it. Each year, more than 40,000 bags of trash are collected by 15,000 volunteers.

Beyond the benefit of cleaning up our state, Green Up Day is also a wonderful opportunity for community members of all ages to work together and to enhance respect and appreciation for the environment.

To find out what’s going on in your community, contact your area’s coordinator here and check out their participation guide to see how you can help.

We’re all about supporting a greener environment and way of living here at Vermont Lodging Properties. While you’re here, check out some of our Green Homes, as well as past posts on Green Living in Vermont.

The Vermont Foodbank‘s mission is to “gather and share quality food and nurture partnerships that will end hunger in Vermont.” They do this by serving 66,000 Vermonters annually; approximately 10% of the state’s population.

Since it’s inception in 1986, the Foodbank has grown to supply 270 sites with food, including food shelves, community kitchens and schools. They run and support 11 different programs which provide food for school children, nutritional and hunger awareness classes, food “rescues” from restaurants and supermarkets (food that otherwise would be thrown in the garbage), and a farm-produce gleaning program.

With the need for assistance growing every year, now is the time to help support the Foodbank and all of the Vermonters it serves by volunteering,  donating or acting as an advocate. Check out their events page for opportunities to help, including the annual National Association of Letter Carriers “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive happening May 9th (mail persons will pick up non-perishable food items with your mail).

The Birdseye Building Company, based in Richmond, Vermont, is entering it’s 25th year as one of Vermont’s finest creators of luxury properties. With a staff able to complete a project from it’s conceptual design stage to the finishing touches of interior design and landscaping, Birdseye continually provides an outstanding level of service to it’s clients. In their own words,

“Our design philosophy is to create buildings that are beautiful to behold, healthy to live in and efficient to own. The artful integration of the built and the natural landscape provide the Architectural cornerstones for buildings that celebrate texture, color, light, proportion and scale.Our designs strive to provide an atmosphere that is elegant and joyful and helps to sustain and nurture the human spirit in daily life.

Each Birdseye home represents the finest in Architectural design and building innovation. Our passion is reflected in the creative energy we devote to each project, combining the varied elements of lifestyle, environmental considerations and financial constraints. Our commitment to our client’s needs and the awareness of our increasingly fragile environment inspires the creation of buildings that embrace beauty, practicality and sustainability.”

Birdseye Building Company’s dedication to sustainable and green building earned it the cover story in the Spring 2009 issue of Green Business Quarterly. You can learn more about some of their renewable energy projects from their blog. As members of the US Green Building Council, they are experienced in geothermal heating and cooling systems, solar thermal hot water systems, wind power, and construction waste control.

I invite you to browse through their project gallery, as well as their woodworking, metal, glass and landshaping galleries. The beauty of their projects, along with their environmentally conscientious approach to building and design truly makes Birdseye Building a valuable resource. For more information, visit their website.

With the “green” building movement gaining popularity worldwide, one may wonder if it is better to build from scratch or remodel an existing building. As Robert Lockard mentions in his latest LuxuryRealEstate.com magazine article “Seeing Green”, remodeling an existing building is an ultimate way to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Remodeling a home that already exists saves on materials and transportation, as well as offers an opportunity to invest more in eco-friendly upgrades than one might not otherwise afford. Lockland presents a balanced overview of what it means to own or create a “green” property, as well as helps define just what exactly “green” means.

Here in Vermont, the Vermont Green Building Network focuses on “promoting the environmental, financial, community, and health benefits of green design, construction, and building operation practices” Their website has myriad resources on how to and the benefits of building green.

If you are interested in remodeling a property, the Department of Planning and Development in Seattle, WA has put together a great site on how to remodel in a ways that are environmentally conscientious. Check it out here.