By Troy Kingsbury
As we ready ourselves for the Waitsfield Resiliency Party on Bridge Street this coming Saturday, September 8, as a celebration of our community and recovery, I would like to remind our neighbors that our work from that storm is not yet done. The setting will be a perfect opportunity to give a financial shot of support to the local struggling businesses on Bridge Street and to the new start-ups that have sprouted in a very devastated area of our valley. Money raised from a beer tent will help to provide funds to be used in the future to market several businesses there.
We will be sharing the stories of those who have suffered and congratulating the efforts of the many who have lent a hand in helping not only their neighbors but strangers as well. All of this will take place with singing and dancing and a festival-like atmosphere to give us a sense of a job well done. For a lot of folks this will be sense of closure; for a few, however, there is much more to do. Every day I see a neighbor use our bathroom at our store as he and his wife do not yet have their house back. Winter is coming and there is much to do with little money or enough help to complete the tasks ahead. Grants have been written, other fundraisers have passed; still, however, the need is there and the need is real. People living in unheated campers, in poor conditions do not know what the future holds in store for them.
At the block party this Saturday there will be a table set up for the Long Term Flood Recovery Fund. Please go to this event and enjoy yourself and as you wander into the beer tent for refreshment, won’t you please pass by this table and donate the money that you would have spent for just one drink to help a neighbor that you may or may not know? As far as I know, this is the last major fundraiser for this year before the winter sets in and a great opportunity again to help a neighbor.
Kingsbury is the owner of The Village Grocery in Waitsfield. He and his family live in Waitsfield.
