Local residents to be honored by Vital Communities

Vital Communities will honor 12 long-standing stewards of the greater Upper Valley region at the seventh annual Heroes & Leaders Celebration on Thursday, May 3, at the Quechee Club in Quechee, Vermont. The annual dinner, which benefits the Leadership Upper Valley program of Vital Communities, honors community members who have made significant positive impacts in the region.

Locals honored include Mike Satzow of North Country Smokehouse, Jill Lord, RN, Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center and Steve Taylor of Taylor Brothers Farm.

“We are so pleased to celebrate people and institutions who model the best in community engagement and stewardship,” said Rob Schultz, Leadership Upper Valley manager. “They’ve shown a deep, sustained, often multi-generational commitment to making their communities healthy, prosperous, engaged and vital.”

This year’s other Heroes & Leaders honorees are:

William Boyle, MD, Boyle Community Pediatrics Program, CHaD

Co-op Food Stores, Edward W. Fox, General Manager

Robin Dow Parker and John Dow, Canaan Hardware & Supply

The Family Place, Nancy Bloomfield, Executive Director and Posie Taylor, Board Chair

Dan Fraser, Dan & Whit’s General Store

Laurie Harding, RN, Upper Valley Community Nursing Project, Headrest

Rob Howe, Howvale Farm and Tunbridge Fair

Janet and Tim Taylor, Crossroad Farm

The Tuck School of Business, Matthew Slaughter, Dean

Kevin Peterson of the New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority will offer the evening’s keynote address. 

Tickets and more information are available at VitalCommunities.org/HeroesandLeaders.

Leadership Upper Valley is supported in part by program sponsor Mascoma Bank. The Heroes & Leaders celebration is sponsored by Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Additional table sponsors for the evening include Canaan Hardware & Supply, Claremont Chamber of Commerce, Claremont Savings Bank, Frazer Insurance Group, “Friends of The Family Place,” Ledyard National Bank, Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center, The Tuck School of Business, and Leadership Upper Valley alumni. 

Proceeds from the event benefit Vital Communities’ Leadership Upper Valley program, a 10-month professional and personal development program that inspires, educates, and engages community members to better serve the greater Upper Valley by building their networks and their knowledge of the region’s challenges, opportunities, and resources. Apply by April 30 for the 2018-19 session at VitalCommunities.org/LeadershipUpperValley.