Jim Vanier was the first person I met when I arrived in Lebanon in 1983 for a job interview at the newly formed Lebanon Recreation & Parks Department. At the time, the office was located upstairs at the Carter Community Building where Jim worked coaching and mentoring the youth of the City. Jim greeted me the same way he greeted nearly everyone who entered the building over his 51-year tenure by smiling and saying, “Hello. Please take off your shoes before you come into the building.” Over the years this rule never changed, and “the building” was a shining example of how one person’s care and attention can create a place that is welcoming and respected by all. Over the ensuing decades as we worked together, it became evident that I had met not only the unofficial “Mayor of Lebanon,” but a living legend whose life’s work revolved around caring for young people day in and day out.

Jim Vanier

Years later, in 2024, Jim’s friends and supporters organized a retirement celebration in Colburn Park, attended by hundreds of people, many traveling from a great distance to pay tribute and tell stories. According to Lebanon attorney and long-time friend Pat Hayes, “The park event was great and it was so good to have Jim on stage listening to the tributes. He was an inspiration to so many people.”

Sadly, Jim passed away suddenly in December of 2025 of a heart attack at age 73. Among the hundreds of tributes online and in print, news has emerged of a group of Lebanon residents working to establish a non-profit to honor Jim’s memory and to carry on his legacy of serving as a beloved role model for young people from Lebanon and throughout the Upper Valley. The Jim Vanier Youth Fund (JVYF) is just getting off the ground, and is expected to be formally up and running by August 22, when a Celebration of Life event will be held in Colburn Park.

“Everybody loved Jim — we hope the Jim Vanier Youth Fund will continue his legacy of helping the youth of the area with whatever they need to succeed,” said Hayes. The Celebration of Life event will include several guest speakers who will reflect on Jim’s enduring legacy. Friends, family, and LHS alumni are all invited to gather in remembrance and connection, and to participate in creating a lasting impact in his honor.

Shelby Day, who served as the executive director of the Carter Community Building Association during part of Jim’s tenure, was raised within the community Jim helped to shape, learning directly from his mentorship and example. Day will administer the fund in collaboration with JVYF Board members Pat Hayes, Rich Tobin, Nate Camp, Larry Vanier, and Kristen Brenner.

Jim Vanier and friend Nate Camp.

“The Board was looking for someone who had a history with Jim and understood what his legacy was about,” said Day. “Being able to give back to the community that gave so much to me as a child and gave so much to my family is truly humbling.” Day fondly remembers the many lessons Jim delivered over the years. “Jim taught us to be kind, respectful, and to give back, and believed that kids shouldn’t have to pay to be kids. I love everything about how he helped kids grow and thrive. We want to be sure children can continue to have recreational opportunities without money being a barrier. This is exactly what Jim would have wanted.”

Day has decades of experience working with young adults and children, and is currently a high school special education teacher and a part time mental health technician in the Dartmouth Hitchcock Emergency Department. “Every day we work to advance the JVYF, I feel Jim smiling down on us. I am thrilled to be part of the Board and its vision.”

The group is in the process of drafting a mission statement, which aims to focus on Jim’s philosophy to “Practice Random Acts of Kindness,” and to honor the memory and influence of Jim’s predecessor and mentor, CCB Director Pat Walsh. During his career, Jim administered the “Pat Walsh Sneaker Fund,” quietly providing children with needed items like a baseball glove, new sneakers, or a suit for an interview, often just from his observations or through random conversations with fellow youth coaches, teachers, and parents.

An early basketball team.

The draft mission states, “The mission is in remembrance of two of Lebanon’s treasures that did so much for the kids and families in Lebanon. This new endowment fund will be set up to provide the essentials like food, clothes, sneakers, cost of childcare or to set up a version of Jim’s “Drop-in Center” and other opportunities for the needy children in Lebanon; sports/recreation fees, sporting equipment, school supplies and to enhance their potential in the form of education scholarships in Jim’s name. This would ensure the children thrive, grow, and reach their full potential, emphasizing empowerment, compassion, and community support, ensuring safety, promoting well-being, and offering both immediate relief and long-term solutions for a better future honoring Jim’s and Pat’s work for all these years to the children and the Lebanon Community.”

The plaque in the James G. Vanier Gymnasium.

The JVYF is also a fitting tribute to the original mission of the Carter Community Building. According to Larry Vanier, Jim’s older brother, Jim always maintained that his primary focus was about the kids. “Jim had one mission — to carry on the CCB tradition of caring for the children and the community of Lebanon. He was one of a long line of concerned citizens that realized the importance of the CCB in supporting young people. It wasn’t that long ago that the CCB was all the community had.”

Jim at the gym dedication.

So the next time you have occasion to visit the “old CCB,” consider taking off your shoes before going into the building in honor of Jim Vanier, one of Lebanon’s true community heroes. ■

The Jim Vanier Youth Fund is currently accepting donations, and the Board welcomes suggestions for how to use the funds to honor his legacy. For more information, contact Pat Hayes at 603-448-2720 or send contributions to Jim Vanier Youth Fund, PO Box 1155, Lebanon, NH 03766. The Jim Vanier Celebration of Life will take place on Saturday, August 22, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. in Colburn Park.

Did you know that Dartmouth Health prioritizes art as a part of its facilities and care? And not just a beautiful mural here or there, either, but programs and initiatives that bring the community together. In addition to permanent and rotating exhibitions, the hospital has creative arts specialists such as writers, visual artists, and harpists, as well as public art projects, and even offers live performances. Working with organizations like the Upper Valley Music Center, the AVA Gallery and Arts Center, and the Hopkinton Center of the Arts, Dartmouth Health’s focus on utilizing art for healing is philanthropically funded for a good cause.

The Dartmouth Health Center’s Creative Arts program employs arts-focused contracted staff, including a creative writer, a visual artist, and two therapeutic harpists.

Integrating Arts and the Humanities was one of Dartmouth Health’s projects even back when the hospital was known as the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital. In the late ‘80s, Gertrude Mertens’ support, along with Mary and Laurance Rockefeller’s 107 Audubon Bird prints, kicked off the program that soon included various other forms of art within the hospital’s walls. One of these is the rotating gallery program, where eight galleries rotate four times a year, said Gillian Cook, the program coordinator for care experience. Artists can find the hospital and apply, or Cook will find artists that she thinks will be a good fit.

In addition to these galleries — which include art in mediums such as oil paintings and pastels — Dartmouth Health also began a Creative Arts program in 2005 for the Dartmouth Cancer Center. Here, an arts-focused contracted staff, including a creative writer, two therapeutic harpists, and a visual artist, all work within the cancer center, said Heather Allin, the program manager of the Complementary Care program for the Dartmouth Cancer Center.

“Patients can request one-on-one services,” Allin continued, if they, for example, need the creative writer to help them write their memoirs. The success of this program, Cook expressed, has allowed it to move into an inpatient center setting, as well, with the same artists. Providers often give referrals to patients if they believe the services would be good for their patients’ well-being. Cook and Allin both said that all supplies that patients work with are donor-funded.

Still, these only scratch the surface of how Dartmouth Health embraces the arts within its care. Cook explained that there are also several live performances, with “at least one person playing every day of the week” in two public areas in the hospital. Featured musicians include pianists, a cellist, a violinist, and a few guitar players. The hospital also hosts a “winter holiday concert series where community choirs and other ensembles will come and play in our main rotunda,” Cook said.

A stained glass window by artist Sabra Field.

Allin said they’ve tried something new this year in the cancer center hematology oncology waiting room. “People are there waiting for long periods of time,” she said, so a visual artist set up a new collaborative art project, where she “laid down tarps and a canvas, and over the day, people can come and she gives instruction.”

“By the end of the day,” Allin said, “You have this beautiful picture that has just come together with multiple people participating.” This program has been conducted weekly for the past six or so months.

Among the many arts- and humanities-focused services the hospital offers, another worth mentioning is how Dartmouth Health collaborates with local organizations. There’s the AVA Gallery and Art Center, which aids the hospital with public art, as well a partnership with the Upper Valley Music Center to offer an aphasia choir for patients “who are experiencing speech deficits from either stroke or traumatic brain injury,” Cook explained. She recounted that one of the caregivers of a patient with aphasia said, “her son hadn’t been singing in church until he started going to aphasia choir, and now he sings again.”

Left Gillian Cook, program coordinator for care experience at Dartmouth Health. Right Heather Allin, program manager of the Complementary Care program for the Dartmouth Cancer Center.

This is just one of many uplifting patient accounts. Cook expressed that “one person said during those days when [her] husband fought for his life, the art at the hospital became more than beautiful decorations. With each stop, she found a momentary hiding place from all things medical.”

Allin recounted a few testimonials from those working with the artists, such as “creating art helps me forget my cancer for a while,” and “I was not having a good week of chemo. I was not sure if I’d be able to do the activity, but I found getting involved helped lift my spirits.”

Overall, it’s clear that Dartmouth Health’s Arts and Humanities programs have had, and continue to have, an impact on the patients they serve and the community they collaborate with. A unique aspect of Dartmouth Health, the programs show how nontraditional methods of healing are worth exploring, especially considering how much help they can provide.

Are you upset by current events in our country? Does consuming the news evoke anger and make you want to shut it off? Have your relationships with friends or family been negatively affected by politics? Do you feel helpless to do anything about it?

While many are fearful about our nation’s future, our book, Beyond the Politics of Contempt: Practical Steps to build Positive Relationships in Divided Times, offers hopeful ways to better our lives, our relationships, and our country.

Bringing our book to the State House.

We both volunteer with Braver Angels (braverangels.org), the national citizens movement founded in 2016 to bring Americans together to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic republic. We envision an America with respectful embrace of political disagreements, where civic friendship flourishes and competing perspectives strengthen our nation. Embracing values of respect, humility, honesty, and courageous citizenship, the goal is not to change people’s views of issues, but to change their views of each other.

Doug volunteers as Braver Angels New England Regional Leader and led the Braver Angels initiative to create a bipartisan caucus in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. His background includes serving as a GOP state legislator, leading the Peace Corps in Ukraine, and helping to end the Ebola epidemic in Guinea. He recently was a panelist on the NPR show “The Middle.”

Beth moderates Braver Angels in person and in online workshops and debates for community members and elected officials. A neurologist and science communicator focused on public health, sleep, and climate change, she has been a TEDx speaker and has appeared on NPR 1A, PBS Newshour, and other news outlets.

Since our book launch, it’s been an incredible adventure meeting people at events in Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Tennessee, Arizona, and more. We have discussed many themes affecting our country right now. We’ve heard comments including the following:

• “I haven’t talked with my sister since the last election. I miss seeing her, and my nephews and nieces. What can I do to repair our relationship?” We suggested she start by letting her sister know how much she cares about her before venturing into politics.
• “I can’t sleep after watching the evening news.” As a neurology sleep specialist, counseling people to stop “doomscrolling” before bed has become a routine recommendation that Beth gives patients.
• “I’m a proud activist speaking up for the injustice I see in our country. How can I talk to ‘those people’ when the world is on fire?” Courageous Citizenship is how we put the fire out.

Participants from the Sharon VT Braver Angels workshop and book discussion in January 2026, held at Sharon Elementary School.

There are simple solutions we can do to fix this issue:

• Recognize the “conflict entrepreneurs” that stir up anger among us for power or profit (think about those incendiary cable talk show hosts and social media algorithms that play on our fears). Learn how to be more media savvy and stop the cycle of sharing divisive news.
• Get in touch with your values and try to figure out whether you are living them when you encounter people who voted differently from you. Are you kind, treating your friends, family, and neighbors with dignity and respect, even if you don’t agree with them?
• Get Braver Angels Training in Courageous Citizenship — that includes listening with curiosity and humility to people who differ politically than us, and speaking out about what we believe. When you listen first, your viewpoint will be more likely to fall on receptive ears, and you might also learn something useful. You can be BOTH an activist and a bridge-builder at the same time.
• Join a community organization, a sports team, a musical group, church, or any other collection of people who are diverse (including politically, if possible). Or work on a local project to help your community. This civic engagement, built into the DNA of New Englanders, fosters trust and makes it easier to talk with anyone about politically charged issues when they arise.
• We also offer book-related articles on our free “Together Across Differences” Substack newsletter. See for example our post “Overcoming Political Violence — We can be a beacon of light in a darkened world.”

Through these solutions, we can find hope in divided times and be a light for others.

Resources:

• Braver Angels: braverangels.org
• Beyond the Politics of Contempt website and links to Amazon and local book sellers: beyondthepoliticsofcontempt.com
• Free Substack Newsletter, Together Across Differences (book-related articles): togethernow.substack.com

Robert Plante is the honorary chair of the Lebanon Great Strides Walk to cure cystic fibrosis (CF). He has been volunteering for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for 38 years. In that time, he’s raised more than $350,000 dollars to support research to find a cure for CF.

Robert Plante and Bill D’Amico, who met through the Special Olympics/Best Buddies program.

According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, more than 40,000 people in the U.S. are living with CF. Plante became involved with the organization after his childhood friend Doug Jones, who was diagnosed with CF at the age of 13, passed away at the age of 43. Plante spoke at his funeral.

Bill D’Amico traveled to the Upper Valley from Golden, Colorado, for the event. He met Plante, who is a former Special Olympics athlete, 26 years ago through the Special Olympics and Best Buddies International partnership, which pairs volunteers with Special Olympics athletes who have aged out of or are no longer involved with the program. They first only corresponded by email, but received permission from the organization to meet in person in 2006. Since then, D’Amico has traveled to the Upper Valley each year for the Great Strides Walk.

What has been the most rewarding part of the Walk for D’Amico? “I just think that Robert’s consistency in doing this for 38 years and raising $10,000 a year, every year, all through the Upper Valley” he said. “It’s an amazing testament to the community here, and people that support this type of event. And Robert, specifically. He’s been the ambassador.”

More than 50 people participated in this year’s event, which took place on May 3 at the CCBA Pavillion in Lebanon. The 2026 Great Strides Walk raised $13,685, surpassing its $11,750 goal.

Robert Plante with volunteers and participants at the CCBA Pavillion.

Robert recruits neighbors and friends to join the walk every year, and he reaches out to local businesses to donate lunch for participants.

Paula Garvey of Amherst, New Hampshire, met Robert at a walk 15 or 20 years ago. She got involved because her daughter has cystic fibrosis. She said she and Robert talk every day on the phone. “Robert is the best part,” she said, adding that he brings people together. “He is why this walk happens. We’re all here to support Robert.”