Voluntown Peace Trust, VOLUNTOWN, CONNECTICUT

News from the Board

Dear Friends,

Let me introduce myself. I'm Father Emmett Jarrett, TSSF, and I currently serve as the Chair of the Board of the newly reconstituted Voluntown Peace Trust. I've known the Voluntown community since Chuck Matthei helped Anne Scheibner and me start St. Francis House in New London in 1999. Chris and Jackie of the Hartford Catholic Worker helped us get started way back then, and the Catholic Worker, along with St. Francis, is the model for our work of resistance and contemplation in New London.

I was elected to serve as Chair of the Interim Board of VPT, and in that capacity wrote to you in the last newsletter. This one is a bit late, because so much has been happening at VPT -- so much that is good and exciting and creative. I want to share that with you, because I am going to appeal for your support -- financial and otherwise --
to make an even greater success of VPT. Here's some of the history.

On Sunday, May 31, the Interim Board and about 20 of the folks who have worked over the past year to reorganize and re-energize VPT -- the "working group" -- met for the first annual meeting of VPT as a newly constituted "membership organization." Our outstanding friend and lawyer, Barbara McGrath, outlined the revised Certificate of
Incorporation and By-Laws, reflecting the hard work of many people over the previous seven months, which were adopted unanimously. Many, many thanks to Barbara for her constant and careful support!

Briefly, our new structure grows out of our work together and our vision of VPT as a whole. Each of the three "core programs" of VPT -- the Hartford Catholic Worker's summer urban youth program, the land use and stewardship program (the Garden), and the new Cooperative for Non-Violent Action (CNVA) -- choose a Board member. The VPT membership as a whole elected three members, one of whom must be a Voluntown resident, and the Board is authorized to appoint up to three more members at large, to obtain needed skills and experience, and to enhance diversity.

The following Board members were chosen:

Chris Doucot, Hartford Catholic Worker (Camp Ahimsa),
James MacBride, Land use and stewardship (the Garden),
Jane Johnson, Cooperative for Non-Violent Action (CNVA),
Rick Gaumer, for a 1-year term,
Emmett Jarrett, for a 2-year term,
David Opperman (Voluntown resident) for a 3-year term.

At the Board meeting which followed the Annual Meeting, Jim Hubert, our current Treasurer, and Marisol Reyes-Hernandez, from Hartford, were elected at large. (At the August 30 Board meeting, Nora Curioso was elected as the third member at large. Nora works with the homeless in New London and does the finances and administration for the Covenant Shelter. She has the financial experience and skills to succeed Jim Hubert when he retires as Treasurer in December 2009.)

The Board also elected the following officers:

Emmett Jarrett, Chair
Marisol Reyes-Hernandez, Vice Chair
James Macbride, Secretary
Jim Hubert, Treasurer

This may sound business-like and boring, but an enormous amount of energy and passion went into the creation of this new structure, and a great deal of hope for the future of VPT rests in the hands of these people. We all need your cooperation and support. In the months since June, the Board has organized various committees to do its work, including members of the VPT community as well as Board members. All of them have been working hard, and the Operations and Personnel Committee, chaired by Anne Scheibner, and including Rick Gaumer and Marisol
Reye-Hernandez, has won the prize by organizing the search for and hiring of the Facilities Manager for VPT. (Jim MacBride, representing the Facilities Committee, and I also served on the interviewing team.) We had an outstanding group of applicants, from which we chose Michelle and Robert Rothbard, who will be moving from Missouri to Voluntown this month to begin their work. While Robert will be technically the employee, both he and Michelle have extensive experience in building maintenance and construction. Michelle in addition has experience in marketing, and Robert is an inventor as well as an artist. Their last position was as owners and operators of
Rothbard Gallery in Clarksville, MO.

The Rothbards have two children, Sydney and Quinn, who look forward to living on the Farm -- they hope in the Rachel Corrie house! -- with their parents. This is a very exciting development in the life of the Voluntown Peace Trust. We look forward to welcoming these four new friends and colleagues to the Voluntown community and the movement for nonviolence, peace and social justice in New England, our country, and the world.

All of this takes money, so this is my appeal to you: Give generously! The Board is working hard to raise money to keep VPT going, pay off our mortgage debt, and set a living example that "another way is possible" to live in the world. One of the beauties of VPT is the land itself. If we have such a rich and delightful creation in which to live and relate to one another, we should be able to model an equally creative and beautiful way of human relationships. The world does not have to live in a world distorted and destroyed by greed and war. We can live nonviolently and in harmony with one another. If VPt can model this for Voluntown, Southeastern Connecticut, and New England, we can be part of the movement that helps to bring about a new and more human way of living for our country and the world.

So we need to raise money. As a Franciscan, this is easy for me.Francis begged. Franciscans beg. We need $250,000 in capital funds to pay our mortgages. We need $100,000 a year to operate the Voluntown Peace Trust and its programs without anxiety. Please give what you can. Give money. Give your prayers and reflections. Give your time and energy. Give yourselves to the cause you believe in as much as I do. This is my personal appeal to you.

Thank you and God bless you!
Fr. Emmett Jarrett, TSSF
Chair of the VPT Boards