New Year, New Work

You may have heard Govenor Phil Scott’s address about the state of the state recently. He mentioned that Vermont has 30,000 more residents over the age of 65 than it did in 2000. That’s a lot of folks, given that only 600,000 people live in our state. And in Bennington County, where we work, the population of residents over age 65 is nearly 30%.

As those of us in the Baby Boomer generation continue to age and retire, that number will only increase. We know that young people are moving OUT of the state, not into it. Less than 1,000 people moved to Vermont in 2019. Those are the numbers, and they are not encouraging.

I’m happy to report that along with the growing number of elderly residents in the Northshire, the number of volunteers working for Neighbor to Neighbor is also increasing. That is a trend we hope to see continue. People have walked into the office and volunteered to volunteer on the spot. I attribute that to our efforts in the past two years to get our name and our work out into the community as much as possible. One function of the pie auction–besides raising money and eating a lot of pie!–is public awareness. We are the pie auction people, and while that sounds cute, it gets people talking about us, and that’s what we want.

The more people who know about Neighbor to Neighbor, the better. In your daily intereactions, you may come across people who could either use our help or who might be able to help as volunteers. Please continue to spread the word. You are the best advertising we could ask for.