“Empower yourself through understanding and knowledge.”
We speak with Amy LePage of Emerge Yoga. She specializes in therapeutic movement and has been working a lot with families who are expecting to give birth during the COVID-19 crisis.
You can find helpful videos from Amy on her Instagram page – @lepageamy.
“We have an incredibly special downtown … It’s really a bustling center of life and activity and it makes Montpelier what it is.”
We speak with Dan Groberg, executive director of Montpelier Alive about how this organization that supports local downtown businesses in Montpelier, Vermont has been doing during the COVID-19 crisis.
HOW CAN YOU HELP (from Montpelier Alive’s website)
Please contact our federal representatives and your local legislator and demand real support to save our downtown. Congress must act immediately to stabilize our small and mid-sized employers in impacted industries by providing direct payroll and healthcare subsidies so that we can maintain our workforces and have a hope of recovering from this pandemic.
Senator Bernie Sanders:
(202) 224-5141
Contact: www.sanders.senate.gov/contact/
Twitter: @SenSanders
Senator Patrick Leahy:
(202) 224-4242
Contact: www.leahy.senate.gov/contact/
Twitter: @SenatorLeahy
Congressman Peter Welch:
(202) 225-4115
Contact: https://welch.house.gov/contact
Twitter: @PeterWelch
“I think being creative and making things, even if it’s not masks, is something that is healing for a lot people right now.”
We talk with Mary Margaret Groberg, owner of Notion Fabric & Craft, about how the COVID-19 crisis has affected her small business in Montpelier, Vermont.
Notion Fabric & Craft currently supplies materials for making face masks, including face mask kits.
You can still purchase fabric and crafting supplies online in addition to gift cards.
Participate in Notion’s weekly Thursday craft nights!
Are you a small business owner or do you run a nonprofit? We want to talk to you. Contact us so we can talk about your story.
We speak with Rick DeAngelis, executive director of Good Samaritan Haven, about how the COVID-19 crisis has affected this nonprofit.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Are you a small business owner or do you run a nonprofit? We want to talk to you. Contact us so we can talk about your story.
We speak with Jenny Sebold, owner of Rebel Heart. She tells us how her small business in Montpelier, Vermont has been affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
Ways you can support Rebel Heart:
Are you a small business owner or do you run a nonprofit? We want to talk to you. Contact us so we can talk about your story.
We spoke with Gretchen Elias, executive director of Good Beginnings of Central Vermont, about how this nonprofit has had to adjust the way it serves its community during the COVID-19 crisis.
WHAT IS GOOD BEGINNINGS?
Good Beginnings is a grassroots organization whose mission it is to bring community to babies. Its core programming brings trained volunteers into homes with new babies for the fourth trimester. Other programs include parent/child support groups and parent education.
HOW HAS THEIR WORK CHANGED SINCE COVID-19?
Good Beginnings has a dedicated page for COVID-19 Resources. Resources included are for:
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Spread the word about Good Beginnings. Social distancing can sometimes feel like social isolation, especially when you are home with a new baby. Good Beginnings has resources for ALL FAMILIES.
Are you a small business owner or do you run a nonprofit? We want to talk to you. Contact us so we can talk about your story.
The following is part of our COVID-19 series.
We spoke with Jaime Hill, a Planned Parenthood nurse practitioner, about how Planned Parenthood has had to adapt during the COVID-19 crisis.
How is COVID-19 changing the way Planned Parenthood operates?
Helpful Tip: Maven Clinic offers ways for women to get birth control prescriptions without going into a doctor’s office.
Planned Parenthood also offers a sliding scale fee with transparent payment options. If you are struggling financially right now, you can still receive quality medical care.
HOW TO HELP
Are you a small business owner or do you run a nonprofit? We want to talk to you. Contact us so we can talk about your story.
The following is part of our COVID-19 series.
We recently interviewed Sky Barsch, owner of Alpenglow Fitness, a small business based in Montpelier, Vermont. In the first of our video series, Sky talks to us about the challenges facing her small business during the COVID-19 crisis.
Ways you can help Alpenglow Fitness:
Are you a small business owner or do you run a nonprofit? We want to talk to you. Contact us so we can talk about your story.
The nice folks at All Together Now were looking for some footage of their All Species Day parade and we had a bunch so we put together a little promo video for them.
Excited to announce the world premiere of “Tutwiler” at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. It was so fun to collaborate with one of my favorite directors, Elaine McMillion Sheldon, on this intimate look inside one of America’s most notorious prisons to examine the challenges of housing the growing population of incarcerated pregnant women.
It was a busy Spring and Summer here in Montpelier. Finally catching our breath long enough to do an update.
When we moved here last Fall we got in touch with Montpelier Alive to thank them for the great events that they organize and all of the helpful information that they share, which played a role in our researching communities when deciding where to relocate in Vermont. We also wanted to say hello as new neighbors as well as a new small business in the area and were eager to do our part to help celebrate and promote our new home town.
It turns out they had been hoping to make a video for the city, promoting the downtown, local businesses, and culture to prospective visitors and people who might like to move to the area. This seemed like a great chance to help out and also provide a way to meet a lot of our new neighbors, so we jumped at the chance.
Our concept was centered around the focus of telling the story of the wonderful natural beauty, the vibrant downtown, art, culture, commitment to fresh cuisine, etc. through personal stories and perspectives of the people who live here, because ultimately it is the people who make a community, and make a community unique. Montpelier Alive and the Montpelier Development Corporation loved the idea.
Because we were looking to make a piece that captures the people of Montpelier, we tried to take a moment in the video with each person to actually get a sense of who they are and what it is about the city that they personally love about their town. Because of this we filmed it with a different feel from many of the city promotion pieces that we’ve seen, opting for a documentary style in order to try to capture more relaxed and un-scripted moments. It was our feeling that a ‘typical’ tourism piece with snappy visuals over talking point sound bites would not be as memorable as getting a chance to connect and empathize with real people in genuine, organic moments.
Read MoreHere is a sample clip from the episode of America’s Hidden Stories that I edited and created document animations for, “Pearl Harbor Spies” created for the Smithsonian Channel by Lone Wolf Media.
