Nearly three years into this community building work, positive momentum is building in our communities, and it’s all from working together. It starts with being observant, knowing the landscape, meeting people where they are at and identifying the gaps. It grows...
Hub Happenings in the Canaan / Colebrook / Stratford Region
Previous Events
Summer 2025, July-August: Big things are happening!
Some big things happened for community building this summer in the North Country, with the progress at the North Country Community Recreation Center and the success of the Firefighter Appreciation Day we helped to plan. But the small things matter too, sometimes more...
Community Building Recap – Building Relationships & Aligning Goals
Community building activities and events from this past fall and winter in northern Coos and northeastern Essex County have truly served to strengthen community ties and align goals. Energy is building around common issues of importance, and community members are...
Summer Event Highlights up North
This summer was very busy, but a couple of events I was heavily involved in stood out as truly embodying the work we are doing in community building. After several months of planning with local partners, we pulled together a very successful Splash Pad Social at the...
Strengthening Our Communities – Stratford Rising
Stratford is definitely on a positive up-swing, and the community is making that happen together. As a Community Steward I meet a lot of people and hear about a wide range of needs and goals in the area I serve. The challenge is to find and prioritize common threads...
Summer Picnic & Play Series!
We are teaming up with the Family Resource Center to host a series of three “Picnic & Play” meet-ups on Fridays at parks in the North Country this summer. After listening to what families we were looking for, we came up with fun offerings at three different...
Stewartstown Student Showcase
The classroom showcase will be from 5:00 to 5:30 pm. Pizza will be available from 5 to 5:45 pm The concert will begin at 6:00 pm We are excited to be partnering with the Stewartstown Community School on an event on May 30th, starting at 5 p.m. at the school. As a way...
Stratford Community Pre-Town Meeting Social
On the morning of March 16th, residents of the Stratford area are invited to the Fuller Town Hall, located at 1956 US Route 3 to visit prior to the town meeting. The Community Builders Hub is providing free coffee, and the Stratford Grange 238 will be offering...
Sunday Funday at “The Tilly”
Families are invited to come play board games at the Tillotson Center for the Arts in Colebrook, from 3-5 p.m. on January 21 and 28. We will have tables set up for families to sit down and choose a board game to play together for the afternoon, as well as...
CBH December Happenings – up North!
In Canaan, VT we have been working closely with the organization, Canaan Naturally Connected, as their activities align well with our community building efforts. We were glad to help empower and connect a new member of the group to lead the planning of a new series...
Spring 2025- Unleashing Community Power!
Looking back at what took place from late March to the end of June in the Stratford/Colebrook/Canaan area, here are some highlights in community building work that come to mind:
The 2nd Ann. Coffee & Muffins before Stratford’s Annual Town Meeting was a positive experience, drawing in people that don’t usually attend, who also stayed to take part in the meeting after the social. Neighbors visited and introduced themselves to each other, even those that were on opposite sides of issues. This is the magic of an easy-going, simple community social, with neighbors gathering over food, piggy-backing on the momentum of an event they may be apt to go to anyways (town meeting). The Stratford Grange that provided the muffins was glad to do that part, and their involvement is strengthening their connections. A valuable social event all towns should consider holding!
Also in Stratford we organized a Community Week, where community service projects were accomplished by volunteers throughout town. The town office helped offer supplies and leaders took on coordinating projects. The Stratford Public School was involved this year, with students taking part in improvement projects like painting a dugout (see above photo), fixing up a garden bed and picking up litter. Other volunteers gathered to clean up the pavilion on the Town Common, stain picnic tables in the park, paint dugout benches and more. DeBanville’s in Bloomfield offered live music and pizza, creating an opportunity for neighbors to meet each other and celebrate together. It is when we all work together that real community progress is made, and these positive visible projects make a huge impact in instilling community pride.
The Wellness Center/Rec Center– We are providing interim support for this redevelopment process, to bring community members together to work on co-designing the future of the North Country Community Recreation Center. We’ve done this by hosting well attended gatherings, where facilitation around topics was offered for small group discussions, and also through use of online surveys. Through this, new board members have been established, partners are contributing in-kind services to spruce up outdoor spaces, committees are forming and the sorely missed playground has been re-opened, much to the delight of community members. The energy around this project is so rich, and everyone wants to help bring this positive gathering place back to life!
Regional Event Calendar– By going to meet one on one with leaders of the North Country Chamber of Commerce, I was able to help move along the concept of a regional event calendar being housed on their website, and now an enhanced calendar is ready for people to start submitting event! This is a big plus for the communication challenges of the area, and was one of the top things people identified as a need at our Connecting the North Country events. I am excited to help spread the word and get people on board with this new asset for our region!
Great North Woods Music Day held on June 21 at the Great North Woods Center for the Arts was a great success! We partnered on this new, free event, shaped after the “Make Music Day” concept, where music is celebrated around the world on the summer solstice. Nine performances by local musicians took place in a new outdoor space that we helped them to spruce up for this event. The weather was perfect, and the atmosphere provided a comfortable place for everyone to enjoy the music and picnic dinners that were sold on site. A light-hearted community social to kick off summer!
Busy Bees Gardening Group is a fledgling social club that we have helped to launch with community members. There was a common interest to get together to work on gardening projects in downtown Colebrook and for participants to gather at fun social events. A former garden club had done this, but had disbanded several years ago due to aging members and declining membership. What started as an online discussion on a town forum page, led to a small meeting of interested individuals, then a larger community meeting where project lists and leaders were identified, then boom– it took off like wildfire! In one month’s time after that community meeting, the group members accomplished getting 20 flower baskets up on Main Street in Colebrook, beautifying two highly visible garden beds in Colebrook, revitalizing garden beds at the Rec Center, creating a Facebook group with 80 members and counting, and organizing/holding a garden social that drew about 50 attendees for a wonderful community building evening. The social featured a potluck, plant swap and a serene setting.
As Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” When we pull others into those efforts and let people know that they can each play a part in making our communities the best they can be, we unleash community power!