Dave’s Notes: Jan. 2025
Happy New Year!
It seems that at the beginning of every January, the world reflects on the year that has passed and begins to look forward to the year ahead and beyond. So this seems like a great time for us here at Our Place to do the same.
Gratitude
I will start off with humble gratitude. If you are reading this note, you are more likely than not a person who deserves my appreciation as well as the appreciation of all the staff and directors here at Our Place. I say this because if you are reading this note, you are likely a supporter of our mission here, and without you, we could not do the necessary work we all wish we didn't have to do but still love doing. Because of you, Our Place is able to make a positive impact in our community and change the lives—for the better—of those who live within it. Thank you!
Last Year’s Work
In 2024, Our Place served over 30,000 meals and provided supplemental groceries to hundreds of local families in need. To quantify it differently, those meals and groceries represent well over 100,000 lbs. of food that Our Place received and handed out over this last year. Those are staggering numbers for a small community like ours here in rural Vermont. Unfortunately, that large number shows no sign of abating—instead, it's been steadily increasing year over year. It’s a part of our mission here at Our Place to ensure that we continue to be here and that we are able to scale up to meet the increasing needs of our community. I can tell you we are determined to fulfill that mission and ensure there is no one going hungry here in our community. We cannot do it alone—this is a community mission, and we need the continued support of the community to fulfill it.
A Focus on Dignity for 2025
I want to share what I see for Our Place going forward. For me, the main focus going forward will be driven by one word: dignity. Dignity is the state or quality of being worthy, a sense of pride. All people are worthy and the work we do is also worthy. We are doing worthy work for worthy people and as we go forward, I want Our Place to be the best that it can be so we can demonstrate to the people we are here to serve that their dignity and worthiness is at the forefront of our mission’s work. Additionally, I want to continue to demonstrate to those who support this work that we do that the work we are doing is indeed worthy of their support and promotes the dignity of our community.
Our Building
The building that Our Place occupies on Island Street in Bellows Falls has served us well for over 30 years. Unfortunately, those years are now beginning to show. I have decided to make updating our space a priority in the coming months and years. While the space we occupy allows for us to get the job done, it falls short in many areas, and most importantly, it doesn't promote the dignity of the clients, the staff, or the organization as a whole. We will clearly need help from the community and beyond to do this work, but we are committed to seeing it through. We have already begun working behind the scenes on this endeavor and look forward to sharing some exciting news in the near future.
Good News and the Path Forward
I will wrap up this month’s note by sharing some good news for Our Place and for many of you, which is that we are fully committed to hosting the Empty Bowl Dinner this year. I received many comments from the community expressing disappointment and concern that the event was canceled last year. We heard you, and we will be taking action. To that end, we are going to form a committee to ensure a more successful event and will be asking members of the community to get involved in helping make the event even better than it’s ever been. We will also be doing the Overflow the Opera House Event again this year, although we plan to do it a little earlier in the year, in August, because the weather in September can be volatile. There has also been some discussion about hosting another large event earlier in the summer. There has been some talk about the possibility of an off-road bicycle event. If there is anyone in our community who has an interest in any of these events and wants to help make them a success, please reach out to me via email and let’s talk. Also, if you have an idea for an event, we would love to hear it. Let’s together make this year the best one yet for our community.
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