This year, Whaleback Mountain is celebrating 10 years as a non-profit organization. Over the past decade, Whaleback Mountain has continued to provide the Upper Valley with an affordable and accessible winter sports experience for all members of the community.

While many ski resorts have become overcrowded and expensive, Whaleback has remained dedicated to sustaining the soul of snow sports. The mountain offers opportunities for all age groups and all backgrounds to not only develop and hone skills but also to instill a lifetime appreciation for winter sports surrounded by members of our community who share the same passion.

Throughout the winter season, Whaleback offers a variety of opportunities for the community to get involved. Upper Valley elementary and middle school students can participate in an after-school program that is tailored to their experience level. Currently, over 600 students from the Upper Valley participate in the program with participation rates continuing to grow. On Thursday nights, adults can join a ski race league, competing for weekly prizes. In addition, the mountain just recently launched a new uphill program for racers or casual groups to skin up the mountain and then ski down.

Whaleback has also expanded its experiences beyond the snowy season. During the summer, the mountain offers a summer camp for kids ages 5-12. “We saw an opportunity to step in and provide an affordable summer daycare option for our community,” said Whaleback’s executive director, Jonathan Hunt. “We are excited to see this program grow and get more kids outside!”

Camp counselors and staff guide the kids through daily summer camp adventures such as nature walks, beach volleyball, arts and crafts, and more. Here, kids can escape into nature on the very same slopes that they navigated in the snow just a few months earlier.

During the fall, Whaleback hosts a “Flannel Fest”, which consists of live music, delicious food and drinks, and a silent auction in support of the Upper Valley Snowsports Foundation at Whaleback Mountain.

Thanks to the generosity of local donors and several philanthropic organizations, Whaleback offers scholarships for both the summer children’s camp and winter ski lessons. To date, Whaleback has awarded nearly 100 percent of requests from children and families seeking financial aid, regardless of their ability to pay.

Whether you are learning how to ski, racing down the slopes under the lights, or throwing on a flannel, Whaleback not only offers an escape into nature but also a place grounded in community. Nurturing a sense of connection and belonging has become increasingly important in our society as technology advances and we face a faster-paced life. Whaleback is the ultimate breath of fresh air. It is more than just a mountain –it is a positive force that brings people together to connect on a deeper level through unique experiences.

The past 10 years at Whaleback Mountain would not have been possible without the continuous support of the community. This support is a key component to the sustainability of the mountain and its mission. “On behalf of the Board of Directors and the staff at Whaleback Mountain thank you, we are so excited about the future and it doesn’t happen without our community,” Hunt said.

Learn more, join the Whaleback family, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter, Tales From the Whale, at www.whaleback.com.

The childcare shortage in the Upper Valley has become an increasingly pressing and widely felt issue over the past several years, affecting not just families with children, but whole communities. In Lebanon, the Early Learning Center of the Upper Valley Project (ELCUV) – a 22-milliondollar childcare facility projected to be in business by 2027 – aims to help address this issue.

A pre-Covid Vital Communities study estimated that there was a shortage of around 2,000 childcare openings in the Upper Valley. Now, with staffing shortages and childcare facility closures increasing, this number presumably continues to rise, putting more and more Upper Valley families in a tough spot.

Certain economic and equity problems within the community are a direct result of the lack of quality childcare in the area, says City Manager Shaun Mulholland, who is leading the team for this project.

“We have a lot of highly qualified people who cannot return to work because they don’t have adequate childcare, or they can’t find child care, or they can’t afford childcare,” he says. “This is a critical need in the Upper Valley – it directly impacts the workforce.”

“That’s one issue,” Mulholland continues. “There’s also an equity issue here. Not always, but more often than not, it’s women who are left unable to return to the workplace… while their peers are advancing in their careers and the ability to gain funds for retirement in the future, that woman is falling behind, and that is incredibly unfair.”

The Early Learning Center – which will be located on City-owned land at the new Airport Tech Park on Airpark Road – is a collaboration between the City of Lebanon and the Boys & Girls Club of Central New Hampshire, who will run the facility and provide on-site training for Upper Valley childcare professionals.

“It’s a good partnership – public, private/non-profit – to try to address this problem,” says Mulholland.

The facility is predicted to meet about 10% of the childcare needs in the Upper Valley, by providing care for 140 children ages 0-5 and 60 school-age children through an after-school program, with 51% of spots dedicated to families with low-to-moderate income (at or below an annual income of $73,000 for a family of four). Financial aid packages will also be available.

The center will serve families throughout the Upper Valley region, and conveniently located near route 12A, it will be a useful resource for employees who work in and around West Lebanon.

Funding for the project will consist of grants, state tax credits, and fundraising. Proposals have already been submitted for a congressionally directed spending grant and a community development block grant. The project team will work with corporate partners and set fundraising goals to meet the rest of the projected budget.

While the primary goal of the project is to address the local childcare shortage, it will also embrace the early childhood education model, which is becoming increasingly popular in the U.S., and has already gained traction in the Upper Valley.

“It’s no longer ‘childcare’ (that’s what it’s commonly referred to as); it’s actually early childhood education,” Mulholland explains. “Because we’re teaching kids at young ages, we’re starting to educate them… that’s what we’re focusing on here to allow these students when they do get to grade school that they will have some of the skills that are necessary to help them accelerate through that and allow them to be more productive and effective in the world that we live in.”

“The world is really changing,” Mulholland adds. “When my kids went to daycare, it was daycare – it wasn’t to educate students, it wasn’t to help them socialize… now there are formal programs and curriculums [for early childhood education].”

With this in mind, the project will take advantage of the natural landscape around the building site, including conservation land that will be easily accessible to the ELCUV and the public. Plans for a public park and nature-based learning will be incorporated into the design for the facility.

“There’s a lot of opportunity here… to help our kids get ahead,” Mulholland says.

As an Enfield native, Nicole Ford Burley has a special connection to the Upper Valley and its history. With a background in medieval art history and research administration, Nicole is well-positioned to serve as the Lebanon city historian, chair of the City’s Heritage Commission, and curator for the Lebanon Historical Society. Nicole’s volunteer and professional roles converged recently to inform the writing of her first book, Images of America: Lebanon (Arcadia Publishing, 2023), now available online through the Lebanon Historical Society website, at the Lebanon libraries, and at local bookstores.

William Bliss (1815–1853; standing at left) moved to Lebanon at the age of 7 and enrolled at West Point at 14. He was chief of
staff to Maj. Gen. Zachary Taylor (seated) and became Taylor’s private secretary after the general became president of the United States in 1849. William Bliss was a talented linguist able to read 13 languages, and he taught mathematics at West Point. He fought in the Mexican-American War and participated in the forced displacement of the Cherokee people. Bliss died of yellow fever at the age of 37, and the US Army named the El Paso military post Fort Bliss in his honor.

Surrounded by iconic cultural and academic institutions such as Dartmouth College, the Enfield Shaker Museum, the Cornish Colony, and St. Gaudens National Historic Park, Lebanon’s history and relevance in the Upper Valley might be easy to overlook. However, Lebanon’s location along the Mascoma River was significant for the Western Abenaki Indians, who lived close to the land for farming, fishing, and traveling the land and waterways in all seasons. The arrival of European settlers eventually served to position Lebanon and West Lebanon as centers for agriculture, commerce, and industry. This pattern continues today with Lebanon steadily earning livability, recreation, and business-friendly accolades since 2008 when Forbes magazine ranked the City as the #1 least vulnerable town in America, and Bizjournals named Lebanon a Top ‘Dreamtown’.

Writing a book about Lebanon’s history wasn’t exactly on Nicole’s agenda when she and her family returned to Lebanon after a decade of living and working in the Boston area. Getting involved in the Lebanon community was a priority for Nicole, and the book opportunity naturally arose in alignment with her appointment as the City Historian. With a young child, the time commitment required over the year of writing the book was a challenge, but not the biggest one.

“The hardest part of writing the book was paring down which images to include,” says Nicole. “Nearly all the images came from the Historical Society’s vast collection.”

Working within strict guidelines set by the publisher, it was a little tricky to pull the correct images to tell Lebanon’s story spanning more than 10,000 years. “I really wanted a narrative shape to the book,” she adds. “Picking the right images to tell that story was challenging. There were many images I wanted to include, but they didn’t fit into the final structure of the book.”

In researching images housed in other collections, Nicole was surprised by the quality of the available images and the generosity and enthusiasm of the organizations she contacted. “I worked with the Vermont Historical Society and they provided a wonderful portrait of Ammi Burnham Young.” Young was a Lebanon-born architect who designed the First Congregational Church in Lebanon and went on to design custom houses and courthouses around the country, as well as many Dartmouth buildings and the Second Vermont State House. Nicole continues, “I received a fantastic image of Phineas Gage from Dominic Hall, the curator at the Warren Anatomical Museum at Harvard.” Gage is still considered a medical marvel for having an iron rod driven through his skull and surviving for many years.

The time period covered in the book was Nicole’s decision. “It was really important for me to capture Lebanon’s history even before the Western Abenaki people settled here. I leaned on images of the natural features of Lebanon, as well as maps, for that component.”

The book’s timeline begins around 11,000 BC when the first humans came to the area. “Images of Lebanon’s pre-history are more like place settings, and they build a foundation for 10,000 years of history.” For the first Abenaki settlement, Nicole obtained an impressive image from the Archives de la Ville de Montréal of an early Abenaki couple. There are a total of 204 different photographs in the book, each with a well-researched caption contributing to Lebanon’s story. “I am at the point now where I can look at the book from an evaluation perspective. I’m quite happy with how it turned out, but it could have been twice as long. I could easily do another book with an entirely different set of topics.”

Writing the book deepened Nicole’s understanding of Lebanon’s history. “It required me to think about all the different facets of Lebanon’s history, and in particular the architectural and building history, and it also reinforced my understanding of how neighborhood-focused Lebanon has historically been. I also had to expand my thinking about the City’s recreation and athletic history.” Historically, like many Upper Valley towns, Lebanon was made up of village centers (Lebanon and West Lebanon) and surrounding regions like Hardy Hill and Poverty Lane. “An entire history could be done about each neighborhood,” says Nicole.

It was important to make sure West Lebanon was well represented, according to Nicole. “It’s natural to focus on Colburn Park and the center of the city. In the Mascoma and the Mills chapter, I included references to the Connecticut River, and I tried to include as many of the geographic areas as possible. West Lebanon could still have its own book!”

In her day job, Nicole manages research grants as the senior manager of research administration for the Institute of Human Development and Social Change at New York University. She has also worked with biomedical engineers and in cancer research, and is currently focused on education and working with students in inner-city schools. “One of the most exciting projects we’re working on is supporting a version of Sesame Street in Arabic,” says Nicole.

Writing the book fit well with Nicole’s professional training. “I knew I wanted to do it right away, but it was incredibly ambitious. I discussed the idea with the Historical Society because the majority of the photos were coming from our collection. The group felt that we had such a great collection, so why not share it.”

Nicole credits her predecessors at the Historical Society with setting up and maintaining strong organizational systems for the papers and artifacts in the society’s collection. “Previous curators and custodians have done a great job,” says Nicole. “Robert Leavitt (a previous long-time City Historian) was before my time being involved in Lebanon’s history, but he wrote extensive reports on houses and scribbled notes on tiny slips of paper to remind himself to come back and expand on different aspects.” Nicole first came across Robert Leavitt as a college student. “The most inspirational thing about him was that his commitment to Lebanon’s history was transcendent. You can’t touch anything in Lebanon’s history without encountering him. I try to have that same level of commitment.”

One of Nicole’s primary interests is the history of individual buildings. “I love looking at the photos of buildings throughout different eras – when a building was built, how it has changed. The most common request we get is from people who have just purchased a house and want to know more about it.” Nicole and her Historical Society colleagues look through the Society’s document collections and deeds, researching previous owners and other information related to the house to share.

Community support for the book has been gratifying following a successful launch party in September. “I’ve been blown away by how many people have expressed interest and enthusiasm for the book. We sold 115 copies at the launch and the Historical Society inventory was completely sold out.” The publisher takes care of supplying the major vendors and author appearances at local bookstores.

Nicole hopes the book will have a positive impact. “My major hope is that people will develop a better understanding about Lebanon’s history. I wanted it to be readable for people with as many interests and perspectives as possible.”

For more information or to get involved in volunteering with the Lebanon Historical Society, contact Nicole Ford Burley nicole.ford.burley@gmail.com.

By the time the ink had dried on the 501(c)3 paperwork declaring “Lebanon in Service to Each Neighbor (LISTEN)” an official nonprofit in 1973, the start-up activist collaborative had already racked up some significant accomplishments.

In the early 1970s, the conversation around town might have sounded familiar to modern ears: it centered on the shortage of quality, affordable housing for the people who lived and worked in the city. The city’s residents were in favor of the idea of public housing, but then – as now – the question had been about exactly where to put it. In late 1971, the City Council had rezoned South Main Street in West Lebanon to rule out anything other than single-family homes. But by the end of the following year, not only had a tight-knit band of parents and activists helped to overturn that decision – leading to the Lebanon Housing Authority’s construction of Romano Circle –they had also started a food co-op, a community garden, and a thrift store, and had begun to focus their efforts on a proposal for expanded tenants’ rights. Fifty years later, LISTEN Community Services is still working hard every day to serve those in need, in Lebanon and beyond.

It would be impossible to explain the early days of LISTEN without mentioning Marcia Boutin – its founder, first chairperson, and (as everyone will tell you) the driving force behind its early achievements. By all reports, Boutin was an activist in every sense of the word. In 1972, she showed up to City Council meetings to complain that the City’s “substandard housing board” rarely, if ever, met, and that there were dozens of “wrecks” it should be addressing – complaining that she had personally been working on three of them, but that it was a losing battle without City help. The fact that she had been doing so while both founding a community garden on Heater Road and opening a thrift store in the side of former Olympian Ernie Dion’s ski shop on Hanover Street only serves as further testament to her commitment to the cause.

According to Roscoe Putnam, LISTEN’s Communications Coordinator, the thrift shop began as a way to fund the organization’s community aid efforts. “[Marcia] went to the community and said, you know, you donate [the clothes], we’ll put them all on hangers. We’ll sell them for fifty cents and we’ll give the money away to anybody who needs heat or food or whatever else.” By 1973, the shop had moved to 92 Hanover Street, the site of the drive-through for the present-day Jiffy Mart and Dunkin’ Donuts. But even that home proved too small for the quickly-growing organization, and in 1976 they purchased 60 Hanover Street, at the time known as “Scotty’s Boarding House,” and made it LISTEN’s central office. “We had a thrift store downstairs, a food pantry in the back, and [offices upstairs].”

Over the years the thrifting operation expanded further. They opened a second location in White River Junction in 1980 and expanded into Canaan in 1985. In 2013, LISTEN opened their River Point Plaza in White River Junction – renamed the Bourne Center in 2016 after former executive director Merilynn Bourne –which houses not only a thrift store and a used furniture store but also the kitchen and dining hall for their Community Dinners program. In 2018, they purchased the old Bridgman’s furniture showroom on the Miracle Mile and moved their Lebanon thrift store to where it is today. While the stores aren’t solely to fund the other work the charity does – they don’t sell everything they take in, offering vouchers for clothes, shoes, kitchenware, linens, and even furniture to those in need –according to the organization’s 2023 Annual Impact Report, last year the stores generated 22% of LISTEN’s roughly $1.5 million operating budget.

That budget goes towards fulfilling LISTEN’s core mission, “to provide services and support to meet the critical needs of Upper Valley individuals and families,” and few needs are as critical as food. The community garden, first planted in June 1972, was meant as a part of the “Food Co-op” LISTEN had started in March of the same year. The Co-op was intended as a way to shrink families’ grocery bills and provided roughly 75 families a week with nonperishables, bread, and around 25 varieties of fresh vegetables from the garden. There was even a canning operation, both to provide preserved vegetables for the winter and to teach families how to preserve produce for themselves. The Co-op also worked with local businesses like Cabot Creamery to provide access to cheese and milk at wholesale prices, a model that persists to this day, with McNamara Dairy providing milk to the Food Pantry at a deep discount. The community garden and Co-op programs eventually evolved into the modern-day Food Pantry, which had over 11,000 visits last year. Also, in 1986, LISTEN took on the responsibility for the “Soups On” program, which was a weekly free dinner program run through local churches. It was quickly renamed to the Community Dinners program, and in 1994 it found a more permanent home in Canaan. Today, the dinners are served Monday to Friday from 4:30 to 5:30 at the Bourne Center in White River Junction, last year serving almost 33,000 meals.

LISTEN also serves the community in other important ways. In 1982, when the Winter Home Emergency Network (WHEN) dissolved, LISTEN took on the home heating assistance program itself. In 1998 it became their Heating Helpers program when it became internally funded. In 2002, the organization began its Housing Helpers program, providing one-time grants and legal assistance to help community members stay in their homes when they are at risk of losing them. Last year alone, those programs helped over 1500 people stay warm and prevented over 350 evictions.

Although they have stepped back from aid specifically for children and teens in recent years – in 2020, they transferred ownership of the Junction Youth Center in White River Junction to Second Growth, an organization more tailored to youth aid and outreach – LISTEN still does a great deal to support children in the area, running an annual Holiday Basket program and giving out scholarships for students to attend summer camps when they otherwise might not be able to. The Holiday Baskets program began in 1980, and today provides groceries and winter clothing for under-18s and seniors, and the Summer Camp Scholarship program began in 1990 and last year made it possible for 186 students to attend summer camps.

The Holiday Baskets and Summer Camp Scholarship programs were also two things Roscoe Putnam mentioned when asked about the benefits of being an independent charity rather than a government agency. “It may be hard for the government to see the need for summer camp scholarships and holiday baskets. Why do you need a holiday basket?” It could be hard, he argued, to sell the need

for summer camps to a government-run program that’s beholden to voting taxpayers, but “[it’s] an opportunity for kids to have some good memories of summer, not [just] sitting at home, sitting on the steps, bouncing a ball.”

The wide diversity of programs offered by LISTEN is at the core of the way the organization operates today, and that flexibility is important for LISTEN’s future, as well. In March, Rob Roy McGregor was appointed as the new executive director of the nonprofit, after almost twenty years as President and CEO of the Southern District YMCA in Exeter, New Hampshire. When asked about the future of LISTEN, he said he sees it as “a social enterprise, where you have a core part of your organization that generates revenue to support other elements of your organization that can’t support itself.” He said it was important for the charity to continue “to be able to generate the revenue through our thrift stores and [to] be able to use that as a revenue driver” to fund their fuel assistance and food insecurity work. He also wants it to be a “community driver for sustainability and environmental impact,” describing a kind of virtuous cycle, diverting clothing and goods from landfill and into reuse, all the while using the proceeds to help those in need.

McGregor seems to feel as though, at LISTEN, he’s standing on the shoulders of giants. He refers to himself and others privileged enough to do the work as “stewards,” of “fifty years of history.” “That’s all we can do, is to try to build on the pillars of what each of us has done.” As a final thought before rushing off to another meeting, he added a final, pragmatic thought about the future: “I’d love to see us out of the food industry and food insecurity business because that doesn’t exist in this world [anymore]. I don’t see that happening. And I’d love to see us out of the housing insecurity world because that doesn’t make sense, but I don’t think that will happen [either]. Until then, we just have to keep moving forward.” With fifty years under its belt, LISTEN has proven that it can do just that.

Shelf stable food and personal care items can be dropped off at LISTEN’s main office at 60 Hanover Street from 10 am-4 pm, Monday-Friday, and monetary donations can be made by going to listencs. org/make-a-donation-now.