My family roots in the Northeast Kingdom run deep, going back six generations in the town of Lowell. Though I grew up in Pennsylvania and spent 20 years in Arizona followed by 12 years in the Lower Hudson Valley, I’ve been a two-to-three time per year visitor to the NEK all my life. My earliest childhood memories are of going “downstreet” with my grandfather to buy milk and cigarettes and pick up the mail at the Naramore General Store in Lowell. 

When Covid hit, my wife Kitty and I were managing a 90-guest room conference center in Stony Point, NY. Over the summer of 2020, we were forced to lay off fifty staff people and temporarily close the facility. Since our kids were grown and able to live on their own, we decided to move into “the cabin that Craigslist built”, a small vacation cabin we had built almost entirely with used materials with help from a close friend and local builder  just a short walk through the woods from my parents’ and my sister’s homes on the land where my mom grew up.

In 2021, shortly after arriving in the Northeast Kingdom, I was asked by the board of Directors of Newport City Downtown Development (NCDD, but also known as Newport City Renaissance Corporation), to take a 10 hour per week position as the “Community Engagement Specialist.” This role works to connect with the businesses in downtown Newport and inspire volunteers to be an active part of revitalizing Newport’s Designated downtown. 

Two years later, as we build on the efforts of many others over the last decade, more than fifty active volunteers and collaborators are involved in more than a dozen projects, including: Winter Saturday Dances at the Gateway, Street Festivals and more

• On-the-Job Workforce Development training, remodeling the farmhouse NCDD purchased on the corner of E Main and Union in partnership with the Building Trades Students at North Country Career Center

• An Economic Development Task Force that is educating itself to help the community create a strategic plan to revitalize Newport’s downtown

• Volunteer committees working on creating sculptures and murals that will build on the beauty of Lake Memphremagog and the City of Newport’s botanical gardens and flowers and many assets that make Newport so attractive for all of us

• Cross-border collaboration to help visitors to the region to understand Lake Memphremagog as an international destination.

My special skill set (I sometimes laughingly refer to it as my superpower) is to inspire passion and a spirit of collaboration in others. I am happiest when I am empowering those around me to take on leadership roles to make a real difference. Every job I have ever held was values-driven – a commitment to improve the community and create opportunity for others. Nothing I have ever done was accomplished without a group of inspired volunteers and partners who shared the vision and dedicated themselves to the work, often at great personal cost. Our work together should be fun, build others up and create opportunities for more people to get involved in improving our community.