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Cavendish Community Fund
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Cultivating a vibrant Cavendish Community by funding local enrichment programs, projects, and events
Sponsored Events
These are examples of how the Cavendish Community Fund has supported the
Cavendish, Vermont community with grant funding
The Cavendish Community Fund, along with many local businesses, has sponsored concerts to bring together a wide cross section of Cavendish residents, both full-time and part-time people, who mix and mingle and get to know each other. People bring picnics and make the concert a true social event, which is a big part of what the Cavendish Community Fund is all about.
The Cavendish Community Fund makes an immense effort to create opportunities that support the arts in our town, for all ages. One way we set out to fulfill this was to partake in the Raise the Roof series which presented many musicians and plays during the winter months. The series was held in the Gethsemane Episcopal church in Proctorsville with musical concerts such as the Dupont Brothers. The Fund provided money to stage the production, which became a great success and fulfilled our goal of bringing the community together through common interest.
The Cavendish Community Fund creates opportunities of all kinds, for all ages. We strongly support the arts, education, and social gatherings that will strengthen the bonds between the residents in our town, creating a stronger community as a whole from our youngest to oldest members. Stepping Stones Preschool is a strong partner of the Fund as they innovate many programs for their students, our town’s youth, with the Fund’s help. One of these opportunities was a collaboration with Endless Creations Art Studio in Chester for a five-part series of Natural Art Exploration and Creation. This program allowed the kids to work with clay, wood, painting on pottery, and other forms of mixed media art.
The Cavendish Community Fund supplies educational materials, resources, and opportunities for residents in our town. While we work closely with the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library and the Cavendish Historical Society, we also have a close connection with Stepping Stones Preschool as they educate our town’s youth. For one such project between the school and the Children’s Literacy Foundation, Stepping Stones created a book lending program for the students for which we provided the funds, thus meeting our foundational goal of supporting education in our town. The Fund gave money to the school for bags that held ten books each, which then were loaned out to preschool families. Once the children finished with all ten books they were swapped for another bag with new ones, renewing the excitement towards learning and making a very successful program!
The Cavendish Community Fund strives to create and support all different types of activities throughout our town and focuses on educational, recreational, and artistic opportunities that provides a way for residents of all sorts to join together and strengthen the bonds of our community. One way we have accomplished this is through a creative expression piece called the Cavendish Tapestry, using the many skillful hands of our community. The Fund paid for the equipment to make this happen, and now the tapestry belongs to the whole town of Cavendish, a piece of our community to be preserved.
The Cavendish Community Fund supports the community by creating socialization and educational opportunities for our residents. We’ve supported the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library by funding the construction of a preschool area by aiding in the construction of cozy seating used by everyday youth library visitors and elementary students alike.
The Cavendish Community Fund is a strong supporter of all events, ideas, and community connections that the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library has to offer. Several grants have gone to the library so they can create both educational and social opportunities for our town’s residents. One of these grants paid for the expenses of the program “Dinner and a Movie”, a tradition that was held several times each year before COVID-19 put a stop to social gatherings. The event targeted the older population, and offered a sit-down meal and movie; a perfect way for new bonds to be created and old relationships to get together. Providing our town with opportunities to be educated, make new friendships, and most importantly, have fun, is the main goal of the Fund.
One of the Cavendish Community Fund’s longest partnerships has been with the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library including a creation of a curriculum-based after school STEM program for students in the Cavendish Town Elementary school. The Fund strives to put focus on helping all areas of education, but especially for the youth of our town, and by helping the library in programs like these, we are progressing in our mission to cultivate our community through new relationships and learning.
The Cavendish Town Elementary School third grade class collaborated with the Weston Playhouse each year for the students to create and act in a play. The Cavendish Community Fund consistently assisted in funding this event so that it was affordable for the school and for the students to have fun while they learn!
The Cavendish Community Fund has helped Cavendish Streetscapes in creating beauty in the town by providing the funding for the window boxes on the Proctorsville bridge. Colorful flowers in the summer and seasonal décor in the winter brighten up our community!
The Cavendish Community Fund contributed to our towns patriotic nature by aiding in the display of large American flags along our town’s streets. By partnering with Cavendish Streetscapes and our local fire departments, the Fund covered a portion of the cost for American flags to be placed on the telephone poles lining our sidewalks to honor our country, our history and our local veterans.
Aleksander Solzhenitsyn was a famous resident of our small town in the 1980’s, and was involved in many events across the ocean in his home country of Russia. An author, Mr. Solzhenitsyn spent almost 18 years in Cavendish writing many now famous books about his life before he travelled to the United States. The Cavendish Community Fund is proud to have financially supported the editing of a biography of Mr. Solzhenitsyn, authored by the head of our very own Cavendish Historical Society, Margo Caulfield. Written for a broad variety of ages, the book contains a wealth of pictures that accompany the retelling of Mr. Solzhenitsyn’s life. The Fund finds it important to foster the history of our town, which we successfully did by donating to the editing of the biography of an important historical resident.
Who knew that our town could hide such historic secrets? Along the banks of Twenty Mile Stream and the famous Black River that we are structured around, many fields for archeological finds have been discovered, possibly belonging to Native American settlements. Back when these sites were first theorized, we paired with the Cavendish Historical Society and Charlie Paquin from UVM to dig deeper into what might be hidden within the soil of our town. The Cavendish Community Fund used our grant to pay for the equipment for these exploratory digs, and since then several sites and historic treasures have been located.
The Cavendish Community Fund has been operating in Cavendish and Proctorsville since 2007, when we introduced ourselves at a fundraising dinner at the Golden Stage Inn. Many local residents helped to launch the Fund with the main goal of sponsoring events that foster the community, build relationships, and create bonds that strengthen our town.
The Covid-19 pandemic put an end to many traditions, including the Dinner and Silent Auction event that was essential for raising money for the non-profit Cavendish Community Fund. This event supported our local artistic talents through donations, which then were auctioned off with healthy servings of dessert, and even though this event will no longer be hosted, it will be remembered as an enjoyable time in our organization’s history. All the money raised with these fundraisers was used to foster local artistic, cultural, and educational events to better serve our community. Now fundraising is primarily done by requesting donations via U.S. mail and offering raffle prizes donated by local residents.