Now that foliage season has come and gone, and without a billboard in sight, sometimes life on the highway can get a little bit boring when you’re driving down interstate 89 on your way to run some errands in good old West Leb. But not so anymore, now that there’s a new pop of color to greet you off of Exit 20 – West Lebanon’s very own mural.

The “West Lebanon, NH” mural, painted across the back of PetSmart in the shopping plaza on Route 12A, is an ode to some of the things that make our City the wonderful place that it is to live, work, and play.

“You’ll find nods to local flora and fauna throughout the piece, and with outdoor adventures being a constant for many folks here, we’ve played with the idea of split seasons and have incorporated two beloved local activities: hiking and ski touring,” said Tyler Blinderman, senior art director for WS Development, the Boston-based real estate company that owns the plaza. “The mural is really a tribute to the year-round joy of exploring this beautiful state.”

The mural, visible from the interstate for southbound traffic, took several years of sustained interest and planning to come to fruition, though the installation only took about a week.

“It involved prepping and priming the wall, projecting the design to sketch it accurately, and painting,” said Andrea Constantine, senior manager of creative operations for WS Development.

Blinderman, who designed the mural, is part of a larger team of designers within WS Development, but works remotely in Vermont just across the border, so she was able to “draw inspiration right from [my] backyard,” she said. “It’s always about creating something beautiful for the communities that we’re a part of, and we hope this mural brings a moment of joy to everyone who comes across it.”

Taking a risk and having the courage to share a talent in front of others is one valuable decision that 11-year-old Carter Moote made when she decided to start singing the responsorial psalms at Sacred Heart Church during Sunday services. Carter, a Lebanon resident and Lebanon Middle School student, took the leap when Sacred Heart’s music director, Alice Maleski, asked her if she’d be willing to sing for the congregation.

“I’d never been presented with an opportunity to share one of my talents,” Carter says. “I don’t really understand why I said ‘yes,’ I just said it. I just felt like I was meant to do it.” This leap of faith became a way for Carter to share her faith and love for her church community, and it’s helped grow her confidence over the past two years.

In her spare time, Carter Moote loves to bake!

“When I’m up on the altar [singing], it makes me feel like I’m close to God and it feels important that I get to be up there using my gift to praise God,” Carter explains. This role within the church is typically reserved for adults, and Carter is one of the first children that her mother, Courtney Baker, can remember singing psalms since she herself started attending services as a child growing up in Lebanon.

“It makes me really proud that she has chosen to use her voice and her singing gifts to celebrate her faith in this way,” says Baker. “I’m taken aback by her poise. She’s constantly surprising me with what she’s able to do.”

In the Catholic tradition, psalms, from the Book of Psalms in the Old Testament, each carry a specific meaning within their verses, and “you’re not just singing a psalm, you’re praising the Creator,” Carter explains. In worship, psalms serve as prayers that reflect a wide array of human circumstance and emotion.

Courtney Baker, Carter Moote, and Deborah Carney (Courtney’s
mom and Carter’s grandmother) on Easter Sunday at Sacred
Heart Church.

Since Carter has started singing at Sacred Heart Church, she’s been inspired to share her vocal talents elsewhere, as well. Carter was nominated by her music teacher at Lebanon Middle School to participate in a musical performance in Providence, Rhode Island, which was held in January by the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). “I don’t think that would have happened had it not started with the church,” Baker says. “I think it’s really built her confidence in regard to singing and every other aspect [of her life].”

Outside of the church, Carter also exercises her voice in her school chorus and at the Upper Valley Music Center as part of their “Singing for the Stage” program, and this summer, Carter plans to join the Musical Theatre Lab at Northern Stage. She’s also a member of the local Girl Scout troop, and in her spare time, she enjoys playing sports and baking with her grandmother, Deborah Carney.

For Carter, singing for the Sacred Heart Church community has been an opportunity to share her faith and offer her gift of song in worship. “It makes me feel special in a way…It’s not just like normal singing,” she says. “I’m doing it for an important cause.”

Once a year, Girl Scouts from across the country unite to fulfill a shared tradition and mission – in the well-known form of selling cookies. Whether you’ve sold Girl Scout cookies at some point in your life or eagerly await stocking up your pantry with these nostalgic treats, there’s something to look forward to for everyone when Girl Scout Cookie season rolls around. For the local Girl Scouts in and around Lebanon, there’s a lot of preparation that leads up to this beloved – and busy – time of year. Lebanon local Erin Buck is a troop leader to 18 Girl Scouts in the Upper Valley, including her two daughters, Acadia and Azalea Buck. This year, they have some big goals for cookie season. Acadia, 14, plans to sell at least 1,000 boxes of cookies, while Azalea, 8, has made a goal to sell 2,024 boxes between January up until March.

Selling cookies is more than just a fundraiser or an activity to pass the time; for Girl Scouts, it’s an opportunity to learn and realize their ability to succeed when they put their minds to something.

“I like doing cookie booths because I get a chance to manage the money or do credit-card transactions,” Acadia says. “And, I like eating cookies.”

Certain incentives also help motivate Girl Scouts to reach their cookie-selling goals. This year, if a Girl Scout sells 1,000 boxes of cookies, she gets a pair of custom Converse sneakers, and another pair will be given to a child in need. If she sells 2,024 boxes, she wins a two-week day or resident camp program or an iPad, and if she sells 5,000, she wins a travel trip.

At age 10, Acadia was the top cookie seller of the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains and was awarded a trip to Athens , Greece. Unfortunately, the trip was canceled due to the pandemic.

But, it’s not just the incentives that inspire Girl Scouts to sell cookies, Acadia and Azalea both report. “The most important thing about the shoes [prize] is that you also give a kid [in need] shoes,” Azalea says.

“The Girl Scout Cookie program is the world’s largest girl-led entrepreneurial program,” says Carrie Loszewski, VP of engagement for Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains. “[It teaches] five incredibly valuable lessons in life skills: decision-making, goal-setting, financial literacy, business ethics, and people skills.”

Girl Scouts learn about and practice these skills throughout the year leading up pivotal moments like Cookie Season where they get to witness the culmination of their efforts in action. Along with these five important skills, Girl Scouts also focus on the importance of building and belonging to a community throughout the year.

Buck became a Girl Scout troop leader shortly after Acadia became a Girl Scout when she was in kindergarten. Since then, their troop has grown and had many memorable experiences together.

Acadia’s troop is a multi-level troop (Girl Scouts of all different grade-levels and ages) that caters to each girl’s interests and needs. “My role is to support all of those kids and create a bigger sisterhood than just ourselves,” Buck says. “I’m blessed that I get to do this with both of my children at the same time, and be able to offer a second family for a lot of children in our community.”

Buck also supports her daughters as a “Cookie Mom”. Cookie moms are a crucial part of their daughters’ experiences as they help with delivering cookies and restocking inventory, and they travel all across the Upper Valley to do so. “That’s what we do as Cookie Moms; we help [our Girl Scouts] get there,” Buck says. “I think one word to describe Cookie Moms is ‘organized’,” Buck says. “I put a lot of energy into understanding what both of my kiddos goals are for the season ahead…it means being realistic about our
goal-setting and managing expectations.” There are various steps throughout the season that start with initial ordering, which involves asking local businesses and community members to support their local Girl Scouts. This encourages Girl Scouts to get to know members of their community and create new relationships, while also teaching business and entrepreneurial skills. Next steps include booth sales at local businesses, like Joann Fabrics or the Lebanon Coop.

Acadia and Azalea’s troop meets every Monday. Weekly troop meetings begin with a snack, followed by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and the Girl Scout Promise and Law. The rest of the meeting might consist of crafts or an activity that explores the traits involved in earning a particular badge.

During cookie season last year, Girl Scouts in Buck’s troop created their own version of The Day the Crayons Quit – an imaginative picture book written by Drew Daywalt about the interpersonal conflicts between different colors in a box of crayons.

The Girl Scout version of the story followed a similar plot, but instead of crayons, each of the girls were assigned different Girl Scout cookies – both current and discontinued varieties. By looking at life through the perspective of each cookie type, they created dialogue between each of their characters. The re-imagined story, “The Day the Cookies Snapped”, was a way for the Girl Scouts in Buck’s troop to use their imagination to find a creative solution to a make-believe problem, and to familiarize themselves with all the different types of Girl Scout cookies. The Girl Scouts program is built around trust and nurturing relationships through unique shared experiences. Through activities, badge opportunities, and community service, Girl Scouts have a chance to work together as a team and express themselves creatively, while also offering their unique talents to help solve problems.

“Encouraging girls to explore, reach for their dreams, and thrive in our complicated world while being their authentic selves is core to the mission of Girl Scouts,” Loszewski says.

“While many Girl Scouts earn these prestigious honors, earning badges and participating in our activities fulfills our mission to make the world a better place,” she adds. “You see it when a young girl comes out of her shell to speak up for herself, when a child conquers her fear and reaches the top of our climbing wall or jumps into the water at summer camp, or simply makes a new friend.”

Girl Scouts interact with their local communities in a number of ways. Some of Acadia’s favorite ways to give back to her community as a Girl Scout are by volunteering to help serve dinners at the LISTEN Center, helping out at local humane societies, and participating in local food drives. “I get to help my community and learn business skills,” she says. “I also feel like a leader in my community.”

Through the Girl Scout program, girls complete a variety of tasks that challenge them to employ their knowledge and skills to earn badges. Each badge represents a different trait or skill earned when a Girl Scout completes a particular project among a variety of categories.

“Since 1912, girls have learned to turn their passions into action through Girl Scouting. Whether they’re using science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills to solve problems; starting their own nonprofits; finding more ways to protect the environment; or discovering the power of spreading kindness, all their actions add up to a better world,” Loszewski says.

Earning badges in areas like these encourages Girl Scouts to not only better themselves, but also make a difference to others around them by giving back to their community.

“Girl Scouts of all ages take action in their communities,” Loszewski adds. “The pinnacle of the Girl Scout Experience is the Gold Award, which Girl Scouts in grades 9-12 may earn. This past membership year, 18 Girl Scouts in our council achieved this remarkable honor. They took on issues like fighting the negative impact of fast fashion, helping grieving children, helping children deal with stress and anxiety, honoring veterans, encouraging reading, feeding the hungry, and more.”

Younger Girl Scouts – like Azalea – also give back to their communities and learn leadership skills by earning awards and badges for their grade levels.

“We try to plan a variety of activities so it hits every kid’s interest,” Buck says. Everyone is able to share their interests and can expect their ideas to be heard. The older girls of the group including Acadia will help the younger troops like Azalea, voice their opinions. Older kids give ideas that will benefit the wants and needs of the younger girls and they have a strong connection with them.

“Often, our youngest look up to our biggest,” Buck says. “Emotionally, [the older girls] are very important, they help stabilize the younger side of the group. They find a lot of comfort in each other and that’s an integral part of what we do.”

“Really, it’s just about how much fun we get to have with the Girls and we get to go on fun trips,” Azalea says. “And it’s amazing that we get to help the community and other people.”

Fun trips that align with learning goals – like visits to a trampoline park or amusement park, camping adventures, and even international travels – are some of the experiences that Girl Scouts look forward to as they advance through the program and celebrate their accomplishments. An annual boat race is one of Azalea’s favorite Girl Scout memories, where her troop works together to craft boats out of cardboard and duct tape and race them across the pool at Six Flags.

The quality time that the Girl Scouts get to spend with each other allows for relationships to develop and flourish within the troop. For Azalea, it’s this quality time and friendships that she loves most about being a Girl Scout. “I love spending time with everyone and I know I’m with safe people,” she says.

“When other parts of life aren’t going well, Girl Scouts is a big outlet,” Buck adds. “It’s a different group of people that you can be yourself with.”

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.

Since he was 12 years old, serving God and others has been Roger Tatro’s mission in life.

Tatro, who now lives in Quail Hollow with his wife, Dale, learned the value of hard work and selflessness early in life, and it’s carried with him throughout his life and career as a farmhand, a milkman, an insurance agent, and a musician.

Tatro grew up in Morrisville, and he met Dale “just by accident” after graduating from the Peoples Academy in 1958. “I just saw her sitting on a stone wall with another girl; I just pulled over [in the car] and introduced myself,” he says.

Straight out of high school, Tatro kept working for Greaves Farms in Morrisville, where he had started living and working at age 14. After his parents’ divorce when he was 12, Tatro decided to step up for his family in a time of need. “I knew Mom [needed] some help, so I went to work,” he says. For many years, Tatro’s daily routine consisted of waking up before 3:30am, milking cows from 4am to 6am, and then going to school for the day. At age 18, Tatro started delivering milk to a few area towns, which later led to his immense success selling insurance for nearly thirty years. “I knew everybody, because of delivering milk,” Tatro explains. “I had no problem getting into homes and sitting down with people [to talk].”

At age 29, Tatro went to work for MetLife Insurance, and after incredible success during his first year, he was offered multiple promotions in bigger districts, but wanting to stay loyal to his local communities, he refused. After 13 years, Tatro moved on to work for A.D. Davis (Bankworth Insurance Group), where he continued his mission of “serving the people” at a job he enjoyed, prioritizing his faith over selfish sales tactics. “I loved getting up in the morning and going to work,” Tatro says. “Attitude is number one.”

Tatro retired as a vice president of the company in 1998, after suffering a massive heart attack in ‘96 with no explanation. The Tatros – now married for over 60 years – then moved to Quechee, and Tatro joined St. Anthony’s Church in White River Junction. Since then, Tatro has served as a greeter, elector (scripture reader), and eucharist minister (who brings holy communion to others).

After faith and family, “music is the third thing in my life,” Tatro says, who’s been playing the guitar and singing for about 65 years. In the community, Tatro provides vocals and music at area senior centers and assisted living facilities, in churches, and at memorials. Any genre from old-time music to rock n’ roll is fair game for Tatro, but hymns are his favorite, which he plays and signs by memory.

Now a grandfather and great-grandfather, Tatro has many loved ones to pass his wisdom on to, and he still lives by the purpose of service – in faith and community. “That’s been my mission,” he says. “And I have done that.”