ethnic-barriers, connect diverse groups,
eat potluck, plan, organize, talk some
more, watch new leaders emerge, attract
new volunteers, eat more potluck, talk
again, make decisions, and take positive
collective action one step at a time.
What can small-town residents accomplish
with Community Heart & Soul? The
success stories are almost too good to be
true.
The people of Biddeford, Maine, popula-
tion 21,000, revitalized their city center
after agreeing to end years of discussion
about tearing down a giant trash inciner-
ator; by listening to their own hearts and
souls, they finally did it.
In Laconia, New Hampshire, population
16,000, the residents looked to Heart &
Soul to discover a different way to coalesce
everyone around an exciting, new vision
for the city’s master plan. They worked
together on it with what the press called “a
barn-raising approach.”
Everyone in Thomaston, Georgia,
population 9,200, faced hard times when
a major textile mill shut down, until their
open-hearted Heart & Soul collaboration
with neighboring towns in Upson County
began to turn things around. This is their
second year in the initiative.
Then, there are the citizens of Cortez,
Colorado, population 9,000. Hardly
anyone had ever shown much interest in
their city’s affairs and planning issues, so,
just as Heart & Soul’s leaders suggested,
the administrators, planners, and
volunteers went out to every neighbor-
hood. Together, they hosted block parties
and community dinners, cooking up a
storm and holding 55 individual events,
just so people could talk to one another.
Actually, one of the tenets of Communi-
ty Heart & Soul makes so much sense it
ought to be engraved in all public spaces
everywhere: “Stop thinking you have to
bring more people to the table. Instead,
bring a really big table to the people.” They
mean all the people. Annie Cooper is one
of “all the people” living in Essex, and, not
long ago, she took a seat on the town’s se-
lect board. Seven days a week, she provides
swimming lessons for children at safe and
comfortable indoor heated pools. Through
her teaching, she has acquired a special
feel for families, as well as for the family
spirit of the entire town of Essex. She says,
“We found out what mattered most to the
residents of Essex. My three children, now
grown, are better people because they were
raised here in Essex, in this community
that embraced Heart & Soul. It also em-
braced each of my kids. I can honestly say
that I am here today because the heart and
soul of Essex saved us.”
Looking back at the Orton family’s
remarkable history, it was 1930 when
Vrest Orton, a World War I veteran and a
Harvard grad, left New York City (he was
a rising star at H.L. Mencken’s American
Mercury, Alfred Knopf publishers, the
Saturday Review of Literature, and Life
magazine) and moved to the excellent
country town of Weston, Vermont. A few
years later, he married Mildred Ellen
Wilcox, of Vermont’s ice cream Wilcoxes,
and together they started a business and a
family.
Typical of small towns, Weston was a place
where everyone knew everybody, and the
potbellied woodstove in the middle of
the Ortons’ store was the prime gathering
place to play checkers on top of a cracker
barrel while hashing over exactly what was
bothering people around town.
Something that Lyman Orton absorbed
from being born and raised in that vil-
lage—with its tall-steepled, white clap-
board church, broad town green, and a
well-stocked country store—about the
particular way Vermonters think, think
about themselves, about the way they
relate to each other, about their commu-
nities, may have a lot to do with what he
does today. By giving away Community
Heart & Soul, he makes it possible for ev-
eryone else to live in a place that has found
its heart and soul, too.
And, just so you know, when you visit
Weston’s Vermont Country Store, you will
find that Vrest and Mildred’s old potbellied
woodstove is still in the exact same place.
Along with the checkerboard, of course.
Community Heart & Soul
120 Graham Way, Suite 126
Shelburne, VT 05482
Call 802-495-0864, visit orton.org, or email
[email protected].
Towns and small cities
(with up to 50,000 resi-
dents) can easily look
into how to become a
Community Heart & Soul
participant. Start by
reviewing the guideline
materials, reading the
deeply inspirational
Community Heart & Soul
case histories of towns
and cities across America,
and watching the short
video interviews on the
website (orton.org).
The basic resources are
free to download or
available in print by
request, starting with
the guide titled “An
Introduction to
Community Heart & Soul.”
Once a town’s residents
are gathered, enthused,
and fully onboard with
the idea of what can
be described as a civic
self-awareness movement,
the town’s volunteer
coordinators are ready
for the next step. By
reaching out to
Community Heart & Soul,
the townspeople become
linked to a network of
communities, leaders,
volunteers, coaches, and
partners who can share
their experience and
can lend support.
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