To The Editor:
The Waitsfield Cemetery Commission has a long-needed replacement for its failing tool shed in the back of the Irasville Cemetery. Now that the new shed is done, we're amazed and grateful at how an apparently small job became a generous community event.
To tear down the old decrepit shed, seven enthusiastic student volunteers from Green Mountain Valley School made quick work of it and demonstrated the energy of the well-known GMVS community service culture. Our own Jim Hildebrand joined in.
We had the good fortune to engage Yestermorrow Design/Build School for the replacement. Anastasia Laurenzi created a unique design and Mac Rood led a class of about a dozen students through the process of bringing that design to reality on-site as part of their student semester program.
Mac and members of the Rotary Club, including Dave Ellison, Dave Koepele (of the Fayston Cemetery Commission!), and Karl Klein, along with Bert Lindsey, Doug Reed and Duncan Brines, did the finish work that remained after the Yestermorrow students' semester was over.
We were pleased to be able to rely on local suppliers, too. Jared Rouleau at A&J Recycling coordinated seamlessly with our schedule and provided a dumpster in time for the GMVS students, and the debris was gone as the Yestermorrow team was ready to work. The building materials for the new shed came entirely from local sources, including rk Miles in Waitsfield, Sticks & Stuff in Middlesex, and Clifford Lumber in Hinesburg.
We on the cemetery commission are deeply grateful for the community effort that happened on a breathtaking scale to get our tool shed replaced. We now have a structure that complements the dignity and beauty of our town's burial grounds. Thanks, everybody!
Laura Brines, Nancy Coombs, George Gabaree Jr., Mark Peal, Janice Vogini
