From his vantage point behind the check-out counter of his family’s pharmacy in Holyoke, Massachusetts, sixteen year-old Christopher Schmidt observed the way customers came in seeking his father’s counsel. He saw the trust those customers, mostly poor people without family physicians, had in his father’s advice. Doctors would also come into the pharmacy and engage [...]

The term “sense of place” can denote one’s space in an environment, culture, or community, among other usages. None of those registered with Mara Williams when she was first asked to be the director of the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center almost 20 years ago, however. For her, it only meant time. “I came up [...]

Pam Crispe has volunteered her time and energy to nearly every one of BMH’s Annual Clambake and Auctions, so it is bittersweet for her to acknowledge that this year’s will be the final of a 25-year run. She defines herself as a “project person,” and the clambake was a project to which she could readily [...]

Toni Franke sits in her formal dining room and sips coffee from ornately-patterned china. Under five feet tall, her purple sweater clasped with a sparkling silver brooch in the classic fashion, one wouldn’t necessarily anticipate the lifetime of adventures this 92 year old woman could relate with a still-discernible Bronx accent and sharp New York [...]

Max Huestis  was a rugged, healthy-looking young man, just 44 years old, when he unexpectedly died from a severe heart attack on August 13, 2009. The impact of his death affected many. He was a husband, father, son, brother, nephew, cousin, uncle and good friend. His wife, Stephanie, can readily recite the details of that [...]

Paul Shield scans a print-out of an email listing his fellow committee members who helped plan the first Brattleboro Memorial Hospital Clambake and Auction back in 1986. It was Susan Fenn who came up with the idea of a clambake, he recalls. She had just been hired as the hospital’s Foundation director. He continues down [...]

Perched at the top of the hill overlooking Canal Street, the brick façade of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital seems to sit at a physical distance from the rest of the town. But for those who have accessed care here, the hospital embodies the emotional heart of the community. When donors talk about their reasons for giving [...]

On a table in Andy Miller’s living room is a picture of himself and one of his clients when he was the pharmacist at Brooks’ in the Canal Street plaza. The elderly woman was fond of him, sometimes asking for a kiss on the cheek when she came in the store, and frequently talking about [...]