Are Vermonters hungry for neighborhood connection?

Ben Doyle knows block parties. This time, though, he was in over his head.

Last summer, Doyle decided to roast a whole pig for his Montpelier neighborhood’s annual block party. Panicked, he left a voicemail for Richard Amore, a fellow Montpelier resident who happened to know his way around a brine.

“Richard, I’m in trouble, man. I got this pig, I don’t know what to do,” Doyle recalled saying.

Amore showed up with an injector and brine, and the two turned the roast into a 24-hour project. Now they’re part of something bigger: a coalition of nonprofits betting that Vermonters want more of exactly this kind of gathering.

Doyle, head of the Preservation Trust of Vermont, and Amore, program director for the pro-bike nonprofit Local Motion, helped launch a program offering $10,000 in microgrants to communities looking to throw their own block parties this summer. The demand surprised them. In its first year, the “Streets as Places” grant drew 210 applicants competing for just 21 awards ranging from $200 to $500.

Vermonters are “hungry for connection,” Amore said.

The 21 recipients of the grant range in size from big cities such as Burlington to tiny towns, including Peacham, Vt., according to an announcement earlier this month. AARP Vermont and Front Porch Forum joined Local Motion and the Preservation Trust to help support the grant, according to the announcement.

Interest in the block parties concept was so high that some communities decided to move forward with organizing one despite not receiving funding, Amore said.

“We had a little bit of money to spark it, but just the program in and of itself is sparking neighborhood-led connections, and that’s just remarkable,” he said.

Amore said the thirst for connection may be tied to Vermonters’ struggles with social isolation, particularly in the wake of the COVID pandemic.

“We all went internal for so long, it’s time to re-engage with each other as humans and neighbors,” Amore said. “Given what’s happening in our democracy and in D.C., people are really thirsty for connecting with each other as humans, neighbors, one on one.”

Jon Kaplan, an organizer of the upcoming Randolph party, which received one of the grants, said COVID changed the dynamic of his neighborhood on Hospital Hill. Kaplan and his wife have lived on the street for 31 years.

“When our kids were growing up, there was kind of a whole other cohort of kids and families in that same stage of life, and our kids had friends to do things with,” he said.

But during the COVID pandemic’s isolation, new families moved into the area, and they didn’t have a great opportunity to get to know each other, Kaplan said. Although he’s gradually introduced himself to many of them, he’s hoping this party will give everyone the chance to truly get acquainted.

Their party is scheduled for June 27. They have planned for burgers and a “human bingo,” where participants look for people who meet certain categories, Kaplan said.

In White River Junction, a recent grant-funded block party was amphibian-themed to celebrate the work of the Hartford Salamander Team, a group of volunteers who venture out each spring to protect small amphibians as they cross roads. Party organizer Janet Potter said 30 people attended, a mix of adults and children.

“We finished off the evening listening to the peepers, frogs and toads,” Potter said via email. “It was lovely & we hope to make it a yearly event.”

Sally Leahey is leading the party planning for Loomis Street in Montpelier, which plans to host its party on August 29. She sees it as tied to another initiative she’s volunteered for called Montpelier Neighbor Net, an organization trying to create neighborhood-based systems for sharing information and resources.

Leahey plans to go out in the next few weeks and knock on every door in the neighborhood to gather the contact information that Neighbor Net needs to get started.

“I will get to meet all these people, or at least the ones who are home, which will be fun,” she said.

The idea of local connection feels particularly urgent in one of Vermont’s most flood-prone cities.

“It’d be nice to have a way to be in touch with people to make sure they’re OK, or see what they might need, or for others to call on people for help,” she said.

The Streets as Places grant provides money for permits, activities and equipment, but Marcie Gallagher, an expert in creating walkable neighborhoods for Local Motion, wants Vermonters to know that a scaled-back version of their block parties is feasible with a lower budget. The organization has a guide to hosting a block party.

“There’s so many ways to have a low or no cost block party,” she said. You can “borrow tables and chairs and tents from community organizations, and just play music out of a speaker, and have a potluck.”

This story was republished with permission from VtDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To learn more, visit vtdigger.org/community-news-sharing-project.