Jeannie Lynch helps women succeed in business

Sept. 29, 2011

By Steven Frank

Observer staff

NBT Bank Williston branch manager Jeannie Lynch, 48, is a local advocate for female business owners. She is co-founder of the Williston chapter of the Women Business Owners Network, a nationwide organization that helps its members develop business management skills and professional contacts. (Observer photos by Steven Frank)

Jeannie Lynch has been in the banking industry for more than two decades, devoting much of that time to helping prospective female business owners get their companies off the ground.

The backbone of that effort comes from above, in the spirit of another female who — if alive today — would have been just a teenager. Lynch managed KeyBank’s Williston branch when her 8-year-old daughter, Ila, was killed in a car accident in 2005. At the time, Lynch was about to help launch the bank’s Key 4 Women program, which helps women start or expand their businesses with tools including education and networking.

“I was home grieving but I went into work one day and at the time I only planned to stop in to let my team know I was coming back,” said Lynch, 48. “I really only saw one e-mail and it had to do with this (Key 4 Women) program. They were going to try to find someone else to do it. I felt my daughter’s presence and felt my hands (move towards the keyboard). I responded: ‘Stop the insanity. There is no one else who is better suited for this job than me. This gives me a sense of hope.’”

Today, Lynch is the manager of NBT Bank’s Williston branch on U.S. 2 and spreads hope to others — particularly women. She is co-founder and coordinator of the Williston chapter of the Women’s Business Owners Network. The organization, which exists nationwide, allows members to develop business management skills and professional contacts. It meets the first Wednesday morning of each month at the Williston firehouse.

One of the businesses Lynch helped establish is none other than Girlington Garage in South Burlington, a female-owned auto repair shop with female mechanics that opened two years ago.

“(Lynch) was my cheerleader from the beginning to the end,” said Demeny Pollitt, Girlington Garage Owner. “She helped put me in contact with other business people, gave me homework. One of them was contacting SCORE (a small business counseling service). Another one was to call a business broker and ask what I need to start a business … Every time I felt discouraged, she stood behind me and gave me advice.”

Lynch believes she and female business owners like Pollitt represent a shattering of the so-called “glass ceiling” that has limited business growth by women in traditionally male-dominated industries.

But she thinks women haven’t reached equal status.

“Demeny is a woman tech working on cars. In banking, managers were typically not women. They were men. So we have come so far in that,” Lynch said, “but where we still see the glass ceiling is in the pay scales … There is a statistic out there that women will get the job and get the promotion based on what they’ve done and that men get the job and the promotion based on potential. So when you say ‘the glass ceiling,’ I say, ‘until employers start looking at those two things equally … we won’t even it up.’ I think we’re still 20, 30, 40, 50 years away.”

In Lynch’s case, her contacts — there are six boxes of business cards underneath her office desk at NBT — have helped her get ahead.

“I’m known in the community as the connector,” Lynch said.

That reputation attracted the interest of NBT last year when the upstate New York-based bank looked to open its second Vermont branch in Williston.

“It’s the skills Jeannie brings to the marketplace in terms of small business, especially with women. And her enthusiasm,” NBT Bank vice president and regional manager Dan Johnson said of why he hired Lynch.

Johnson, whose bank is set to open its third Vermont branch in Essex next week, added that Lynch and the bank have been “proactive for all business owners, including men.”

“Things have been working out well and (Lynch) has done a good job,” Johnson said.

When asked what advice she can give to a young woman who wants to own a business someday, Lynch stressed the importance of hard work, believing in themselves and education — especially finance classes. She also thinks young women need to find mentors and conduct informational interviews with current business owners.

And speaking of young women, the one that first inspired Lynch to travel down this path remains a vital part of the journey.

“I think (my daughter) is still with me. I think she is very proud of my work,” Lynch said. “And I honor her every day with my work.”

At NBT Bank’s Williston branch, which opened in January, manager Jeannie Lynch (center) refers to herself as the ‘past’ with assistant manager Jessica Gooden (right) representing the ‘present’ and teller Linda Goodell (left) being the ‘future.’

The Young@Heart Chorus comes to CVU

Sept. 29, 2011

By Luke Baynes

Observer correspondent

Young@Heart chorus director Bob Cilman (center) performs The Jackson 5’s ‘I Want You Back’ with his group and Champlain Valley Union High School choral students. Young@Heart, a group of singers aged 73 or older, visited CVU on Sept. 23 as part of its first visit to Vermont. (Observer photo by Luke Baynes)

Their bones may be brittle and their hair gray, but in their hearts they’re as fresh and spry as spring chickens.

The Young@Heart Chorus, a group of rock ‘n’ rollers with a minimum age of 73, performed at Champlain Valley Union High School on Sept. 23. Although they have toured everywhere from Japan to New Zealand, the CVU concert marked their Green Mountain State debut.

“This is our first ever concert in Vermont,” said Young@Heart director Bob Cilman. “It’s strange, because we’re only about 45 minutes from Brattleboro.”

To be precise, Cilman’s well-seasoned choir hails from Northampton, Mass. Cilman and Judith Sharpe began the project in 1982 as a fun activity for seniors living at the Walter Salvo House in Northampton. The group has since expanded to include seniors living within a 40-mile radius of the city. Although none of the original members are still alive, the current crop of venerable vocalists has maintained the wildly eclectic musical tastes of their predecessors.

“I listen to all kinds of music, because understand, I have 15 children,” said 89-year-old Dora Morrow. “I had seven daughters and eight sons, and you know those sons listen to everything that come through. They had all kind of rock ‘n’ roll. They had blues. They had jazz. So I just listen to everything.”

Pretty much everything was just what the Young@Heart Chorus performed and ate lunch with CVU choral students. Highlights included a “Dancing in the Dark” medley — containing both the 1984 Bruce Springsteen rock composition and the 1931 Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz pop standard — and two Phish songs: “Free” and “Chalk Dust Torture.” The latter Phish tune featured guest lead vocals by a different kind of senior — CVU upperclassman Garrett Brown.

But the biggest response was for 82-year-old Louise Canady’s moving solo version of “Love Has No Pride,” which was a hit for both Bonnie Raitt and Linda Ronstadt.

“I’m just enjoying myself as an old great-great-grandma,” Canady said. “You’d never know it from my singing today, but I was trained strictly as a soprano. When I came to Bob, he tricked me. I lowered my voice for him because they were doing the drug music, you know.”

The CVU concert was made possible by the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington. It served as a warm-up for the Young@Heart Chorus’ gala show at the Flynn the following night.

“We have a long and wonderful relationship with the Flynn,” said CVU choral director Carl Recchia. “Mary, my wife, made me aware that the Young@Heart were coming. We made contact with our friends at the Flynn and that’s how this came about.”

Recchia screened the 2007 documentary “Young@Heart” — which chronicles preparations for a 2006 concert at the Academy of Music Theatre in Northampton — for his students prior to the visit by the film’s stars.

“I was bawling,” said CVU senior Alicia Phelps, referring to the fact that two of the chorus members passed away during the making of the movie.

But the film’s message is that life goes on and the show must go on, because singing is what keeps these elder musical statesmen forever young.

“I feel good,” said 81-year-old Helen Boston, quoting the James Brown classic that her friend Dora Morrow memorably covered at the Academy Theatre concert, “because God has been good to me, and I am so grateful for that.”

Fittingly, the Young@Heart Chorus ended the CVU show with a version of the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back.”

For more information on Young@Heart Chorus, visit www.YoungAtHeartChorus.com

Vote delayed as committee examines central issues

Sept. 29, 2011

By Adam White

Observer staff

A vote on the proposed merger of all Chittenden South Supervisory Union school districts, such as Williston, into one Regional Educational District was delayed on Sept. 22. (File photo)

Merging is best accomplished at a safe speed — especially when this many moving parts are involved.

The Chittenden South Supervisory Union’s Consolidation Study Committee was scheduled to vote on the proposed Regional Educational District merger on Sept. 22, but chose to delay its decision until the issue can be more closely examined.

A motion was made by committee member and Champlain Valley Union High School Board chair Jeanne Jensen that “the committee acknowledges the support of the formation of a RED and has further decided to investigate several elements of a RED prior to taking final action as a committee.” The motion passed unanimously.

“We just weren’t ready,” said committee member Colleen MacKinnon. “It wasn’t political or divisive — we just needed more time.”

The committee will hold further discussions about the merger at its next meeting on Oct. 12, but is not expected to vote at that time, according to Jensen.

“We put that meeting in place in order to have more discussions about it,” Jensen said in a subsequent telephone interview. “It’s still very fuzzy. It’s hard for us to come up with hard facts, and say whether (the merger) is good or bad.”

The primary issues delaying a vote are uncertainty over the structure of local governance councils following the merger, and the degree of improvement that would result in the area of student outcomes.

“If you don’t have compelling reasons to make changes to improve our educational system, why do it?” MacKinnon asked.

Jensen said the potential makeup of local councils has not been defined in any concrete manner, and that using other consolidated districts as examples is difficult due to variations in the number and sizes of towns involved.

“Our research has been a little murky, because most of the places that have multiple districts are single towns,” Jensen said. “Comparing (CSSU) to other districts in Vermont that have multiple schools in them doesn’t really help.”

Previous committee discussions about the RED merger highlighted potential student outcome benefits, including “opportunity for strategic K-12 plans for solving problems” with issues like school climate and substance abuse. The merger might also assist with creating a stronger K-12 focus for the district as a whole, and make the assessment process easier.

But committee members aren’t comfortable enough with the certainty of those benefits to give thumbs-up or down to the RED yet, according to Jensen.

“Probably the biggest question we have is whether the consolidation is going to result in better student outcomes,” Jensen said. “At this point, we need to be able to crisply answer that question before we can come to a decision.”

Attendance also played at least some role in the delayed vote. Committee members Charlie Magill, Russ Caffry and Rich Lowrey were absent from the meeting, while Lisa Falcone and Sue Thibault departed early.

“We had a significant number of committee members missing from the conversation,” MacKinnon said.

Minutes from the meeting indicate that the committee deemed the potential of the RED to be “phenomenal,” with “great possibilities by taking a leap of faith.” It was also suggested that a public vote on the merger could produce a definitive split, in which “people with no kids in school will vote their pocketbooks.”

Jensen said committee members would spend the next few weeks studying research materials and case studies of previous educational mergers, including a report formulated from a study at Ohio University that was released by the National Education Policy Center in February.

Gleaning the garden

Sept. 29, 2011

By Kim Dannies

I push back the ache of summer’s end by rooting around the garden. Seeds are scattered for next year’s blossoms and remaining herbs are snipped to create compound butters. My green-thumbed neighbor delivers a rocket-sized zucchini — a bittersweet gift I am grateful for because nothing goes to waste. Like summer memories, the precious dregs of Vermont’s abbreviated harvest are bound for the freezer to be savored in deep winter.

Giant vegetables mandate that the soup season begin in earnest. I’m lucky to have grown up with the soup goddess. My mom, Pat Myette, is more than a little celebrated for her heavenly concoctions served up each Monday at Williston’s Vermont Respite House. Although she never works from a recipe, mom has graciously documented her zucchini soup. She’ll tell you that instinct, love, and lots of practice are the essentials for a great soup. I’d say that goes double for gardening and motherhood.

PAT MYETTE’S ZUCCHINI TOMATO SOUP

In a large pot combine 2 overgrown unpeeled zucchini, cut and seeded into medium chunks, with 1 quart of chicken stock. Simmer until the zucchini softens, approximately 20 minutes. Reserve.

In a large soup pot heat 1 T canola oil and 1 T butter. Add 2 cups of diced onion,

1 cup diced celery, and 2 cups diced carrots. Cover and simmer 10 minutes over medium heat until tender. Add 3 T of tomato paste, stir well, and cook 2 additional minutes.

Add reserved zucchini and stock to the pot. Simmer 25 minutes on medium heat. Cool slightly. To puree mixture, use a stick blender right in the pot. If you don’t have one, transfer soup to a food blender and puree to desired texture. To taste, season with salt and pepper. To serve, top with freshly chopped chives (optional). Serves 8.

Compound butters: Mix best quality butter with any combination of chopped herbs, garlic, lemon and orange zest, olives, capers, or Parmesan cheese. Roll butter into golf ball-sized rounds and wrap tightly in plastic. Freeze individually. Then store the like-flavored balls in labeled quart sized ziplock bags. Use the butter to flavor soups, stews, and crostini.

Kim Dannies is a graduate of La Varenne Cooking School in France. She lives in Williston with her husband, Jeff; they have three 20-something daughters who come and go. For archived Everyday Gourmet columns go to kimdannies.com.

Harvest time

Sept. 29, 2011

By Bill Skiff

September and October are my favorite Vermont months. The bugs are gone, the air is crisp and harvest time is just around the corner.

I enjoyed fall on the farm. It was a time of harvesting and preparing for winter. Even now I look forward to gathering apples and helping with the honey harvest. I like putting up my kayak and bringing down my skis. My leather jacket is beginning to look good again. There is something comforting about preparing for winter.

For my Aunt Lucy, fall meant canning. She fed her family and two hired men, so she needed a lot of food ”put by.” I remember helping Aunt Lucy shuck peas. She would be sitting in her rocking chair — surrounded by five bushels of peas. That’s a lot of shucking!

Going down into Aunt Lucy’s cellar and seeing the row upon row of canned goods was a sight to behold. All the colors of the rainbow adorned those shelves: red beets, yellow corn, green peas, blueberries and more kinds of pickles than you could imagine. I miss her pickled pears, and bread and butter pickles.

The dirtiest job at harvest time was thrashing oats. The trashing machine would be set up and powered by my dad’s tractor. A belt ran from the tractor’s flywheel to the trashing machine. The belt was once twisted to help keep it from flying off.

The men would throw the oats into the thrasher; my job was tending the basket where the oats came out. When the basket filled, I would pull it out, place another under the flowing oats, empty the full basket into a grain bag and do it all over again. All this time the air was blue with dust, chafe, and pieces of oat stocks. At the end of the day it was hard to tell me from a bundle of oats. Sometimes I would pray the thrasher would break down so I could get a rest. To make matters worse, the noise from the machinery was deafening. We never wore hearing protectors, so at the end of the day I was lucky if I could hear my mother’s call to dinner.

One fall, I attended a corn “husking bee,” which was when a pile of corn ears needed to have all its husks stripped off. Everyone participated and at the end of the evening most of the corn was husked. A prize was awarded to anyone who found a red ear. The prize was you got to kiss the girl of your choice. In my youngest years, I always thought trying for the prize was a waste of time because … who would want to kiss a girl?  That changed in junior high.

Another exciting fall day was when the men with the traveling “drag saw” arrived. They set up their temporary sawmill and cut up dad’s logs into chunks. The men rolled the logs on to a carrier that moved them up toward the large saw blade; it “dragged” back and forth over the log cutting it into “chunks.” The chunks were as long as dad requested, usually between 12 and 14 inches.

My job was to help split the chunks into slabs, then split the slabs into pieces that would fit into mother’s cook stove. Maple and beech were fun to split — oak was not. Sometimes I would get a chunk with a knot that was impossible for me to split. I would yell, “furnace.” This meant it would be burned in the furnace. Dad made a box that was the size of the furnace door’s opening. For these larger, tougher chunks, all I had to do was chop enough wood around the edge until the box fit over it.

After finishing, we threw the chunks into the cellar and stacked mother’s kitchen wood in the shed. They say wood warms you four times: once when you cut it, once when you split it, again when you stack it, and finally when you burn it.

Harvesting is always dangerous. One day, I almost injured my friend. When the chopper cut up a bundle of corn and blew it up into the silo, I was the one who aimed the pipe to spread the corn around the silo so it piled evenly. For fun, I would sometimes try to bury my friend in the spray of chopped corn.

One day, when a bundle of corn went into the chopper, a steel knife fell in with it. When it all arrived at the end of my pipe, the corn and knife were in small pieces. I decided to spray the side of the silo — it left a row of steel pieces embedded in the silo wall. We never played the burying game again.

An old timer told me he loved living in Vermont because three times a year he changed what he wore, what he ate, and how he “recreated.” I think I’ll check to see if my leather jacket needs a little oil, cook up some new potatoes with salt pork gravy, and look for partridge. Fall has arrived.

Bill Skiff grew up on a farm between Cambridge and Jeffersonville. After a career in education, he now lives in Williston, where he is a justice of the peace and Fourth of July frog-jumping official. In “Places I’ve Played,” he shares his experiences of growing up in Vermont. Comments are welcome at [email protected]