Kelly was honored by the Underhill United Church’s Old Fashioned Harvest Market as Citizen of the Year. When they contacted her to tell her she had been nominated, her first reaction was “who, me?”, but she didn’t want to make a big deal about it.
Many of you made a point of going to the parade to wave at Kelly riding in her cousins Jenny & Tim Chamberlain’s restored VW buggy.
So many of you know Kelly for exactly the reasons that she is being honored. She grew up here in Jericho, on Lafayette Drive. So all you Connors and Lehouillier and all from the old neighborhood have known her longer than I have. When she was old enough for kindergarten, Kelly’s parents, along with Dee Dee Jamison and a number of other parents started a co-operative kindergarten. It was called Saxon Hill School, and it is still going strong today.
Kelly’s mom, Lucy Wilcox, still lives in Jericho, and you might see her at the Old Mill craft shop, and selling her photos at craft fairs, including the one at the Harvest Market.
As a teenager, Kelly was active in 4-H, and got a first taste of Jericho politics and community service when she and other youth joined in the effort to preserve the Old Mill. Blair Williams is gone now, but you Historical Society folks remember that time I am sure.
Kelly has always worked in service to other people. Her broad education is another long story in itself, but while we were living in Richmond, she got her teaching degree from UVM, and student taught with Delia Clark at Founders School in Essex.
Elizabeth was born that December, and Sarah was born about two years later. As a mom of young ones, her kids came first. But Kelly always has gotten involved to help others. She helped other new moms as a trained leader and counselor in La Leche League. When Ben was on the way in 1993, we needed more room. Of course we wanted to return to our home town, so we moved from the wonderful Richmond community back to Skunk Hollow Road in Jericho. Ben and Noah were both born at home here in Jericho.
As a mom of 4 homeschooled kids, she helped teach and helped organize the numerous homeschool co-ops we were in. As a mom of 4 kids coming up through Mount Mansfield high school, she has been a band parent and a chorus parent. She served lasagna and ice cream on behalf of Academic Boosters, and has cooked immense amounts of food for cross-country runners and Nordic skiers.
Growing up Kelly attended St Pius church, then Jericho United Methodist Church; but her whole adult life, she has been active in the Jericho Congregational Church. When the kids were young, she taught Sunday school and helped in the Nursery. As the kids got older, we chaperoned Youth Group. She served on the Fellowship committee and has always helped with Chicken Pie supper. And she has been a member of the church choir. When our revered pastor Peter Anderson retired, Kelly was honored to serve on the church transition team to make sure that the church was even stronger than before as we made the transition to a new Senior Pastor, and was on the hiring committee that eventually brought David Coons here to pastor at Jericho.
When her youngest was preparing to go to college, she realized that she had worked her way out of her job as homeschool teacher. She and Elizabeth had been selling bread at the Underhill / Jericho Farmers’ Market. When the Market needed a market manager, Kelly put her extensive training and experience in gardening, permaculture, wild edibles, and local food systems to work, and stepped up to that job. She also worked as the manager of the Richmond Farmers Market, keeping both Markets humming for one very busy Summer. Now she is managing just the Jericho Farmers’ market.
I hope you’ll join me in honoring Kelly by “not making a big deal” about the way that she has consistently integrated public service into her life and work.
