Vermont Community Foundation grant to support Volunteers in Action

WINDSOR, Vt. — Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center was recently awarded a $1,000 grant from the Vermont Community Foundation’s Small and Inspiring grant program to provide funding for general operations of the Volunteers in Action program, which supports local seniors with an array of volunteer services.

Volunteers in Action, sponsored by Mt. Ascutney and based in Windsor,  serves people in seven towns — including Windsor, West Windsor, Reading, Hartland, and Weathersfield, Vermont, as well as Cornish and Plainfield. 

With more than 170 volunteers, the organization logs more than 34,000 hours a year in service to the health center and drives 15,000 miles a year delivering nearly 20,000 Meals on Wheels to five towns. 

It helps to serve community meals in conjunction with Senior Solutions and Mt. Ascutney, and connects volunteers with the Vermont FoodBank’s VeggieVanGo produce delivery program. Volunteers in Action also helps with local food drives, runs a knitting group giving away knitted items to people in need,and provides referrals to other community organizations.

According to the Vermont Community Foundation, the Small and Inspiring grants program, which ran through 2017, “helps foster the spark and hope that keeps Vermonters healthy and happy by finding and supporting projects where a small grant can make a big difference.”

Volunteers in Action Executive Director Martha Zoerheide says that the grant represents both welcome recognition and practical assistance. 

“Since 1997,” says Zoerheide, “the people of Volunteers in Action have been taking many small steps that add up to a huge positive impact for seniors in our communities. Someone giving an afternoon to deliver meals or knit mittens seems like a small thing, but it’s enormously important. It inspires me to continue this work for our neighbors who need us. We’re so grateful to the Vermont Community Foundation for their grant, which will be put to use directly improving people’s lives.”

Founded in 1933, Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center is a not-for-profit community hospital network in Vermont that includes the critical access-designated Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Historic Homes of Runnemede, a senior residential care campus in Windsor, as well as the Ottauquechee Health Center in Woodstock. Affiliated with the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health System, Mt. Ascutney provides primary care and a comprehensive suite of specialty services, along with 25 inpatient beds, a therapeutic pool and a fully modernized 10-bed Acute Rehabilitation Center. 

The Vermont Community Foundation is a family of hundreds of funds and foundations established by Vermonters to serve charitable goals. It provides the advice, investment vehicles and back-office expertise to make giving easier and effective. The foundation also provides leadership in giving by responding to community needs, mobilizing and connecting philanthropists to multiply their impact, and by keeping Vermont’s nonprofit sector vital with grants and other investments in the community. Visit vermontcf.org or call (802) 388-3355 for more information.