Fall in Vermont & Catching up

Fall in Vermont

In honor of autumn, I changed my theme! I hope you like the change!

It’s fall in Vermont! It is very exciting! There is a great deal of fall foliage that I get to see every time I go to work and travel about town. Leaves are falling everywhere! Fall in Vermont may be a magical thing!

This week, our VISTA Leader Anna came to visit Bennington for our first site visit! We traveled to the top of the Bennington Battle Monument! I’ve included a picture of me pointing at the view of the state of Massachusetts from 200 feet in the air, and other pictures of some of the views from the top.

More fall updates to follow! Nicole and I are hosting a VISTA Thanksgiving in November so that should be fun!

First...

5 Things I'd like to accomplish with my time in Vermont (in addition to having an amazing year of service):

1. See a Moose
2. Hike to the top of a (small) mountain
3. Visit all of the covered bridges in Vermont
4. Tour the Ben & Jerry's factory
5. Buy something that's camouflage

Here's to dreamin' big  :)

Catching Up!

The past three weeks have been extremely busy!

Nicole, and my supervisor Kiah and I helped at The Kitchen Cupboard, an affiliate of the Vermont Foodbank, for a day of service sponsored by Curves of Bennington. We scrubbed an industrial size refrigerator and scrubbed bathroom walls in preparation for painting, and got to fight off spiders and interact with the lovely volunteers!

September is National Recovery Month, and on September 20th I was privileged to participate in the Turning Point Recovery Center Open House Celebration in Bennington. It was inspiring to see community members supporting those who in recovery from addiction and those who work to further the mission of the organization. The friendship and kindness were powerful and palpable throughout the evening. In addition, the newly adopted Town Proclamation declaring September 20^th as Celebrate Recovery Day in Bennington was read by Senator Richard Sears. 

This week, one of our central programs, the Photovoice project, has kicked off with the first of three groups of students! The middle school and high school students from Bennington had their first meeting and Nicole and I were able to help facilitate! The students are full of great ideas about community. Some questions we explored with the students were: What makes up a community? What communities are we a part of? What should communities give us? How do communities make us feel? Their answers and depictions of their community will help inform their work throughout the project.

Today, Nicole and I attended the AmeriCorps Launch day in Montpelier. We joined AmeriCorps members: VISTAs from SerVermont, our organization, and other AmeriCorps programs throughout the state of Vermont! We got to meet a new SerVermont AmeriCorps VISTA member and did an afternoon of service at Vermont Works for Women in Barre; it was a great experience!

I'm continually learning as a VISTA; today, I took away a quote that resonated with me from a presenter at the AmeriCorps launch: "No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship." - Dr. James Comer  I hope to develop the relationships I have created with community partners through the service days and events I have been able to participate in for collaborative opportunities in the future.