Bennington Rotary Club – Monday 3rd May till Wednesday 5th May

The continuation of us running late continued on Monday morning but we arrived in Bennington at about 11am and we were greeted by Gabe who was our driver for the stay in Bennington!
Gabe took us for a tour of a local organic farm where we were introduced to the owner and given a full tour. We then headed back to Downtown Bennington where we had some lunch before a meeting at the Sunrise Family Resource Centre where the team explained the workings of the centre and services that they offer local families. After the meeting we were greeted at the Bennington Museum by Stephen Perkins who showed us around.
The evening saw everyone get together at Jen Holley’s house for a Pot Luck Dinner; they had a brilliant bar and even a Darts Board!!
We presented at the Bennington Rotary Club Morning meeting before a day of educational visits. We were given full of Southern Vermont Career Development Centre and Month Anthony Union High School before we were whisked away to our vocational visits.
We met back at Bennington Project Independent for a tour of the new facilities that they have offering day care for individuals. After the tour we headed for the nearest Coffee Shop before meeting without host families at 5.30pm.
An early start on Wednesday saw us saying goodbye to our hosts at 6.30am for a presentation at the West Dover Club in Wilmington. Thank you for a jam-packed experience during our short stay.

Hayley
I met with Karen Trubitt the Dean of Advancement at Southern Vermont College; the grounds were breath taking a far cry from the colleges back home. Karen explained the history behind the college and the funding that they require.
Karen explained that they rely a large amount on Grants and Donations. They do have a focus on marketing to past pupils of the college to make up the funds that are required. The pupils do not hold fundraising activities for the college but occasionally do fundraising activity.
It was great to see the facilities and hear about the history and future plans for the college; thank you for taking some time to explain it to me.

Abi
This vocational visit was with Gail O’Brien who has her own practice in Bennington. She specialises in musculoskeletal outpatients and lymphoedma but also sees some neurological outpatients. I had the opportunity to observe her treating some patients and saw equipment used for upper limb passive mobilisations that patients can take home to use (following mastectomies, fractured humerus...). We also discussed current techniques used for manual therapy and found that it was very similar to techniques that are used in the UK. Despite a short visit it proved to be very useful. Thank you for giving up your time.

Charlotte
I visited the Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union which oversees the schools in the district. We talked about some of the differences, but also some similar issues that we share such as higher rates of teenage pregnancy in certain areas. I also met with the person responsible for co-ordinating the after school and holiday programmes in some of the schools. He works a lot with local organisations. This role is probably the most similar to my job that I have found! We had a discussion on whether children should be charged for after school activities. It is interesting to find someone in a different part of the world with similar view to me on many issues.

Ruth
We visited the Sunrise Centre as a group. The centre is a NPO devoted to the 'early years'. A team of dedicated staff gave us the background to the development of the services via a 'river of life' format.
Tuesday afternoon I was with Betsy Browning, a Certified Nurse Midwife, who is also a member of RC Catamount. Betsy had contacted me through Facebook a few weeks ago so we had already corresponded but it was great to finally meet her in person. Betsy runs Green Mountain Midwifery and Women’s Health, working as a independent practitioner. She also introduced me to Linda Brown who works with her and is a Doula, a term I had never heard before which means ‘woman’s slave’. The Doula is there to help with the woman’s needs during childbirth. Betsy and Linda seemed to have their fingers on the pulse of women’s health needs in the town and surrounding areas. Another good vocational session. After that the whole team visited Bennington Project Independence (BPI) an Adult Day Care and Day Health Rehabilitation service in their very new and splendid premises in a converted barn. The facilities certainly were state of the art in this field and the levels of respite care they were able to offer on a day care basis were the most comprehensive that I have ever come across.
At the end of the afternoon I met my host Judith who had invited Mary Hagarty to join us for dinner. Mary is the Executive Director of the Visiting Nurses Association and Hospice. Mary was a fountain of knowledge on the Health Reform Bill, the implications for Vermont and many other issues impacting on health and economics in the State of Vermont and the USA. Mary gave me some interesting information and has since e-mailed me several further articles. Thanks for arranging a very worthwhile ‘vocational’ dinner for me Judith.

Richard
I visited a company called Mace who manufacture and distribute pepper spray. They are a well-established business and sell around 12,000 pepper sprays every week. I had a tour of their production line and learnt how their business is structured and their marketing strategy. It was interesting because their business also helps people deal with conflict, like Maybo, although is at the ‘harder’ end of scale and for personal not professional use. Maybo doesn’t condone use of pepper spray and it is illegal in the UK. However there is clearly a large market in the US. It was useful to discuss the differences in approaches to personal safety between the UK and US.