Ghost of Midnight

The Burlington Free Press picked up the Vermont angle on the study recently released about volunteerism…
Vermont and the Burlington area rank high in a new national study of volunteering rates, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service.
The state ranks ninth in the percentage of the population that participates in volunteer efforts, according to [...]

From USAToday…

More Americans became engaged in their communities last year as the economy weakened, a federal agency reported Tuesday.
“There’s a compassion boom going on,” says Robert Grimm of the Corporation for National & Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps, Senior Corps and other service programs.

FIND A CHARITY: A comprehensive look at giving in the USA
“Instead of [...]

The urge to build community with those nearby is a strong impule for many people… and lots of folks seem to realize that neighbor connection has declined.  Friend Nik just shared this blog post from Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert.  He calls it Cheapatopia.

Local traditional media makes extensive use of Front Porch Forum.  In the past 24 hours the following three stories appeared, each based in-part on an FPF posting.
First, from Bianca Slota, WCAX (video clip)…
Residents in a north Colchester neighborhood are fed up with a recent rise in home burglaries and they are banding together to keep [...]

A national TV news show asked for a thumbnail sketch of FPF recently, so here’s what we sent…
Neighbors turn the Internet on its head to build vibrant community
Mention the internet, and most people think of the WORLD wide web… reaching out across the globe for news, long-lost friends, or low-price bargains.  But in Burlington, VT, [...]

Kevin Harris blogs today that Jon Fitzmaurice of Self-help-housing.org wrote on the Guardian’s Joe Public:
Self-help housing enables people to be active citizens, and it fights the culture of “someone should do something about that”. It was once more common, but over the last two decades community development and regeneration has fallen into the hands of professionals [...]

State Rep. Suzi Wizowaty pointed out a great program today via Front Porch Forum…
A recent car break-in reminded me that many of you might not know of the city’s Parallel Justice Program. (I didn’t till this spring.)  It’s run out of the Community Justice Center which in turn is a program of CEDO, the city’s [...]

Good for Patrick and Tracy…
The husband-and-wife team of Patrick Sand and Tracy Record run WestSeattleBlog.com. She is the site’s the primary reporter and editor, while he handles advertising sales and business development. Since January 2006, the pair have covered the bedroom community of West Seattle (over 65,000 residents) seven days a week, 365 days a [...]

The people of Richmond, VT, rallied to pull together through a very tough bridge closure right in the heart of Richmond Village.  Good news… the bridge is now fixed up and open.  Amy Klinger, one of the many people who jumped in over these past many months just posted the following on Front Porch Forum…
Hello, [...]

Congratulations to the eight winners of the Front Porch Forum raffle to celebrate Lake Champlain’s Quadracentennial.  Here are their entries and the event to which they won a pair of tickets…

If I had twenty pounds of “Willis” for every year since Samuel de Champlain saw Lake Champlain, I would have a “Willis-ton”.  -Kathy Rude, Williston [...]