WEST WINDSOR — The first thing people would notice about Ann Ackley was her smile.
She smiled at the children she worked with as a paraprofessional at Albert Bridge School and the people she taught to ski at slopes in the Upper Valley. She smiled while volunteering with her therapy dog, Bridgette, and with the Upper Valley Disaster Animal Response Team.
“She cared. Even if she didn’t know you, she cared,” said Betsy Donka, chairwoman of Upper Valley DART. “When you met her, you always had a warm feeling. She was open and caring.”
Ackley died at age 59 on April 11, 2020, after a battle with cancer. She was born on June 23, 1960, in Ipswich, Mass., and moved to West Windsor when she was around 8 years old. She grew up skiing at Mount Ascutney and joined nonprofit Ascutney Outdoors to help revitalize the recreation area. She spent 2½ years as the volunteer coordinator.
“She really was the rallying force for getting help from the volunteers,” said Shelley Seward, a member of the Ascutney Outdoors board who went to high school with Ackley. “Ann was hard to say no to because she had a beautiful smile and positive attitude.”
Ackley delighted in introducing people to the mountain that brought her so much joy throughout the years. The organization named a trail in her honor called “Ann’s Alley.”
“She had a very long history and love of the mountain,” Seward said. “She just had a real affinity to be able to connect with anyone regardless
Toni Luff met Ackley around 4½ years ago when they both worked at Albert Bridge Elementary School in Brownsville.
“Without even knowing me, she offered to help me through a difficult time,” Luff recalled. “In that moment, she exhibited her true self which is to always help someone in need.”
Ackley seemed to have the ability to gravitate toward whoever needed her the most, going above and beyond in her job as a paraprofessional to make sure the children she worked with had as many opportunities as possible. Betsy Medinger, an instructor at High Horses Therapeutic Riding, saw that firsthand. Ackley lobbied the school to include horseback riding as part of a child’s school day activities.
“She drove her the 45 minutes it took to get her to the program,” Medinger said. “She just knew what a special activity it was for her friend and she made it happen. That’s who she was. We miss her.”
That commitment never wavered.
“When she got sick it did not stop her from what was important to her to do,” Medinger said. “One of the most important things for her to do was to take care of and enjoy time with this young girl.”
It was just part of her nature, said Ackley’s mother, Barbara Ackley. Ann Ackley lived with her mother for about a decade in West Windsor.
“Besides collecting dogs and cats she would collect children (who) … just needed somebody. She helped a lot of these kids. She would bring them home with her and just be great,” Barbara Ackley said. “She truly loved them.”
Ackley was always surrounded by animals and invested in their care.
“She grew up on a horse farm, but her love was dogs. And if there was a stray animal it didn’t matter if it was a field mouse, she would take it in,” said Kelly Hull, who met Ackley when she moved to West Windsor as a child. “She was my oldest friend. Ann was a friend I could see once a month or every three years and we would just pick up where we left.”
That love of animals guided Ackley’s volunteer work through the Therapy Dogs of Vermont, the Vermont Disaster Animal Response Team and the Upper Valley Disaster Animal Response Team, of which she served as chairwoman for a time. Ackley received training on how to set up temporary animal shelters, which she put into practice in response to flooding in the Montpelier area.
“She was the person we looked up to in terms of what to do and when to do it,” Donka said. “She’s a person who got things done. She’d get it done with a smile. No matter how busy she was, no matter how stressed she was, she always did it with a smile.”
UV Dart has started an animal support fund named for Ackley to help people and their pets during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Skiing was also a consistent part of Ackley’s life. She and Hull often skied together throughout the years. She also worked as a ski instructor at Suicide Six in South Pomfret.
“A lot of our life was surrounded by skiing,” Hull, of Brownsville, said. “She was very much a telemark skier when younger, until she couldn’t do it anymore.”
Luff’s fondest memories of Ackley are when they would sit around talking and laughing late into the night, discussing everything and anything, simply being in each other’s company. Luff accompanied Ackley to chemotherapy, where those memories continued.
“We ended up actually almost enjoying our time together in the infusion room because it was uninterrupted time to just giggle and kibitz,” Luff said. “She just worked through it. She never complained about physical ailments. Fatigue, no. You would think someone going through stage 4 small cell lung cancer would have a lot of complaints about their physical well being. Not Ann. It was incredible.”
Ackley did not let her illness slow her down. She continued to work and volunteer through chemotherapy treatment.
“I can’t get over her determination in the last couple years, even though she was sick, of doing her job, doing her obligations. So many people would have just not done it,” Barbara Ackley said. “I just was amazed at how strong she was and just determined that she was going to keep on going and not cave in.”
But in a sense, those who knew Ackley best were not surprised that her dedication to her community and those she cared for continued despite the challenges she was facing.
“I think she genuinely cared more about others than herself,” Luff said. “Helping others was the fuel that kept her going, kept that smile on her face.”
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
