Meeting community members and listening to concerns
My favorite parts of campaigning have been door knocking and meet & greets. I’m so impressed with how engaged so many of our neighbors are and very grateful when folks take time out of their busy days to share their ideas and concerns with me. Something I’ve heard a lot about from people in our district (aside from much alignment on the major pieces of my platform - housing, education, healthcare and taxes) are concerns around pollution of Lake Champlain. The lake has been special to me since I was a young child and our waterways in Addison County are crucial to our health, recreation and tourism here. I would love the opportunity to fight for the enforcement of clean water regulations in our district to protect our waterways and drinking water—I believe this is an attainable goal for us!
Visiting with Addison County’s Social Service providers
It’s been wonderful to meet with folks from so many of Addison County’s robust social service orgs as part of my campaign, from Addison Housing Works to CSAC and Peer Recovery Center. Something that’s impressed me is how much these orgs coordinate with each other in order to prioritize the needs of the people they serve. So many people in our community are working tirelessly to support folks in need as federal funding becomes more uncertain and needs around housing, mental healthcare and recovery support are as urgent as ever.
Celebrating Pride in Vergennes!
I had a great time with my family at Vergennes Pride and was honored to get to speak and share about how meaningful this community is to me and why I'll always show up and fight for equal rights! There was a big turnout and it was inspiring to see folks of all ages show up.
A major highlight was being introduced to a couple legendary Vermonters - Holly Puterbaugh and Lois Farnham - who were part of the lawsuit that led to VT's civil unions law. They were surprised to hear they are in a book that I recently finished (Equal is Equal, Fair is Fair by Allen Gilbert)! What an honor to meet them.
Here is an excerpt from my speech:
I came of age during the time of civil union debates in Vermont. I had a “Take Vermont Forward” sticker on my first car - some people might remember those stickers - it was to combat the anti-civil union “Take Back Vermont” signs in peoples’ yards. I’ve been aware for a long time that although Vermont is a wonderful, welcoming place for so many people and it’s been at the forefront of equity and inclusion for so long, that doesn’t mean everyone here welcomes everybody, or that we don’t still have to continually fight for basic rights and equality. While the topics may have shifted from marriage rights to trans rights and bodily autonomy, it’s still critically important that we all speak up and show up.
As a woman, as a mom, as a friend, as a prospective legislator - my values guide me in everything I do, and I would bet they align pretty closely with the values all of you hold, too. I believe in inclusion. Everyone belongs here. Everyone deserves dignity and respect. Everyone deserves to be heard and to feel seen. I believe in accountability. For all of us, but especially for people in power, including elected officials, Democrat or Republican. If you say or do something that undermines a person’s rights and humanity - there must be accountability, and believe me, I’ve sought it for folks in both parties. I believe in solidarity. We have to work together. We can’t be punching down at easy targets. We must use our voices and our privilege to speak up for our neighbors who are most at risk, whether they’re migrants living at farms just down the road, whether they’re our disabled family members whose protections and benefits are constantly at risk of being taken away, whether it’s our trans neighbors being singled out with harmful, hateful rhetoric.
Lives are at stake. I know that I’m preaching to the choir but it doesn’t hurt to remind folks - according to the Trevor Project, 90% of LGBTQ+ young people said recent anti-LGBTQ+ laws, policies and debates caused them stress or anxiety. And we know where that leads, especially when it’s so hard in this country to access mental health care. Words and rhetoric matter. I will remember the smiling face name Lia Smith forever and I know a lot of you will too.
Connecting with local agriculture
Todd Hardie of Champlain Valley Grain Center Vermont gave me a tour of his new facility by the Ferrisburgh-Vergennes Depot. Todd shared his history with this piece of land (going back 30 years!), the ups and downs of the permitting and planning processes, and his forward-thinking vision for supporting grain farmers and bakers right here in our district with much-needed grain storage and milling capacity that growers currently drive hours to access. This will hopefully encourage more local farmers to grow grain here!
In addition to the world-class mill, he'll be baking bread and making whisky on site. This kind of investment in our local agricultural systems is so inspiring and important.
I was touched to find out that Todd knew my dad and remembered me as a child from the church where my dad preached. I've had many of these kinds of full-circle moments in this campaign and it's a constant reminder of how small and connected our little corner of Vermont really is, and I'm always happy to remember my dad and hear about the impact he made on so many people in his time as the radical preacher in Charlotte.
