 Good evening. Good evening, everybody. Looks like we just switched up our view. Mike just must have done that. I don't know how else it would have happened. No, no, no, don't play me. I don't have the power on this call. Okay, good. Well, I have, I'm on twice, so I'm, you know, we can't vote with my extra vote here, but I have my phone going so I can see what most people are seeing that aren't in the panelists list. But at the moment, everybody except for my second person is, is a panelist. We're going to do that during this, this section, the public forum. So welcome, everybody, for having a good Thanksgiving month so far. Got one more week to go for that. So does anybody have anything that they wanted to bring up for a public forum? I do. Okay, Andy, I wanted to inaugurate, unveil the new ward five NPA logo, which you've seen on the introductory slide show and Ben is going to put up right now. Yay. We commissioned this and worked with Amy Radcliffe from word five business Gotham city graphics and I just wanted to give a plug for her because she's great and was great to work with is always wonderful to work with. And she kind of took our ideas and put them into this several different concepts, which we then battered around on the steering committee and this is what we've come up with and I think it's wonderful. So we'll be using it you know in various ways and hopefully we'll get it out really widely in the future. So one other wonderful ward five business Gotham city graphics Amy Radcliffe. Thanks. Yeah, that was great. Thanks for organizing that for us. We got to get very big versions of it to put up in on our lawns. Yeah, one of these days. All right. Any other any other topics for open forum? Hey, Spencer. Ben has used his COVID time wisely and grown a beard. This is version three. Okay. I've had a long time. I've done that and I've done that in a few last time I had much facial hair was last November and when I went to South Korea and I was just seeing some of the pictures that were one year old now and we haven't had haven't done that in a whole year now. It was it was cool to see that and you know that was one of the hotspots for this disease early on. Yeah, we got lucky there missed we missed that we're able to do it. Well, I'd like to say a word also about next month's NPA, which is on December 17th. Our theme or we'll have many elements to it. I'm sure about our theme for December is public health. And of course everybody's favorite public health emergency right now is COVID-19. So we'll have, among other things, David Grass, who's one of the in charge of contact tracing for the Department of Public Health and agreed to come and talk to us about their efforts with COVID and specifically about contact tracing. And I sounded out Pablo Bose, who's a neighbor of mine down the street and who is on the new committee to work on reparations for the city of Burlington reparations for people whose ancestors were enslaved in this country and in this state in this city. And so I'm hoping that he'll have the time to come just update us on on their deliberations and their discussions about that. For me, it fits into the public health theme in the sense of racism and historic systematic racism as a public health emergency. So those are two elements of our meeting on December 17th. I hope you'll all join us. What was the name of the person you mentioned, Andy? The person from Department of Public Health is David Grass and whose father lives in Ward 5 and Pablo Bose, who's a geography professor at UVM. Great, thanks, Andy. Any other topics for open forum? I saw a couple people joined. Welcome. I think for a moment I saw Carolyn. Yep, he's back. Yeah, I would just say I believe this is our first meeting since the election was held. So just wanting to give thanks to all the people who worked on the election, all the volunteers, you know, the candidates who ran and, you know, the candidates who won and lost. I think we have all stripes here and, you know, just great to see fair and secure election in our state and as much in our country as we can. And can you be committed to the peaceful transfer of power as our country has done for 200 years? We'll see if that keeps going. And then also, I just wanted to give a plug to the COVID testing that's been going on. My wife went, I believe, yesterday just to do one of the pop-up testings they're doing in the New North End. And it was super easy. They've now got the less intrusive, you know, just a little no swab, not the brain-stabbing one. So, you know, anybody, you know, it helps, you know, this is for people who don't have symptoms, asymptomatic, you know, just to get tests out there. But in these times, negative tests are helpful too, just to figure out what the infectious rate is right now. And so, you know, I think everybody, if it's not a fun thing, but it's a good thing to do, just to make sure we're all doing our part. Yeah, I'd plug that as well. I got one of those tests. It took definitely less than five minutes, maybe less than two minutes, the whole ordeal, getting there, getting checked in, getting the actual test. And they don't tickle your brain with these ones either. So, really not a bad thing. And it seems like they keep adding more and more days. So, I know the way it was for when I set it up is that you book a two-minute slot. So, I think they kind of make it so that people are... Where is this testing? You said it's in the New North End. Yeah, I think it was at the Hunt Middle School, I think, in a lot of it. Yeah, and I know the city has been putting out information on some infographics, but... Yeah, I feel like I saw that there were a couple days at the Miller Center. Yeah, my wife was at the Miller Center. Yeah. Okay. It could be. I'm so unfamiliar with the New North End that I was like, oh, I thought it was at the Miller Center and then I was at the middle school. I was like, okay. Yeah, thanks for sharing that. Right after our last meeting, I was getting some symptoms and I ended up getting a test. And it was the one you mentioned, and it wasn't that bad. It was over at Fannie Allen, but I think that's for symptomatic folks, which neither me or my daughter tested positive, but it was a little bit of a scare, but that's what things are. Glad we got confirmed. All right, we're getting close to 9.15 or sorry, 7.15 military time. Any other topics for open forum? So I see Juniper has joined, so we'll be moving on to them in a moment. Sorry for the delay and we apologize in advance for like the chaos in our home. We're sort of like renovating right now and in between this space and the studio. So Alexa had to run and be like, you know, you guys, we're getting ready to go on in the Zoom, so we came running in. So I'm Jennifer Adela Condre and I am the visionary and creative director for Juniper Creative Arts. And I'll turn it over to Alexa. I'm Alexa Herrera Condre. I'm the model, videographer, photographer, art documenter. I take all the pictures, document everything as well as Will's apprentice and assistant. So I also help paint with the murals as well. And I also facilitate all of the K through five art workshops. All right. I'm Will Kossel Condre, muralist, illustrator, painter. I don't, I'm not the greatest with these titles, but I am the artist who paints these murals and who gets inspired by Jennifer's vision and just Alexa overall being. So it's a group effort what we do. So and Jennifer knows how I'm not really the best at having these types of discussions when it's just becomes centered on anything outside of what we do. But we love what we do and we do it as a family, we do it together. So we all play our positions, our unique positions, but I'm more or less the person who wills to spray can. So Gabrielle, who one of your, your student painted with us. She would love to say hello. Hi, how are you? Good. So the reason why we're here is because of Khalees, right? Khalees seems to be the catalyst for so much community engagement. Not only for us, because we're not Burlington residents, we live in Brandon, and but we were living in Middlebury before moving to Brandon two years ago. And so being able to sort of be embraced and by the Burlington community, especially the South End, because of Khalees, and even working with the students at Champlain Elementary School has been the highlight of our entire year. So Khalees was the second mural that we got to paint in the public sector because, you know, from the pandemic. I mean, the last mural we, mural project we did was in January with Middlebury Middlebury High School. And after that, everything got locked down. We had a ton of projects canceled through the pandemic. And we just kind of went, Well, let's just reimagine who we are as human beings. And what the role we have to play in the world that is changing right now, right? Not only did we enter into a pandemic that was a, you know, a virus pandemic, but you know, what also came to the head was sort of like the racial pandemic, the racism that has been completely unearthed in a way that we've never really seen in a really, really long time. And all for good reasons. Because as we know, until truth surfaces, we can't deal with it, right? Like if we don't know, if we don't have the truth confronted in front of us, we can continue to like ignore it, right? But it got to a point where it's now front and center for everybody. And we have a decision to make around whether we're going to face it or continue to act like it doesn't exist. And I think in this moment, many people chose to like face it head on. And Kalise was one of those catalysts that helped folks like get into that conversation. And we saw what kinds of conversations were happening at the elementary school because of the partnership that we entered into by having Kalise be born there basically. So I don't know if y'all want to add to that. You know, the thing, the thing, you know, one thing we're grateful for is that we got to produce this mural because so much hate and resentment was being put out early in to try to stop it. And it was done so well that I think when we have these conversations that people tend to forget how much stress we were under and had to go through just to get it to that point, you know? And it's like, you know, combined, we have over 40 years of experience, you know, in doing these type of projects. So it's like, when things like this happen, it's always like you feel like you're starting from day one is like, wow, we still, after all this time, have to have this conversation center around our work, you know? And but the ripple effect that's happened because of it, you know, it's something that we didn't expect. And it's something that inspires us because we see the conversations that are now being had because of it, you know, the work, this is serious work. And we have to be imaginative in trying to, you know, find a solution to all all the stuff that's going on. So we work from a place of love. We work from a place where we let our imaginations go, wow, that's how police was created. You know, this was a series of conversations that we were having early in, before anything, just saying, hey, what if, you know, we create this character, and then we drafted the character, talked about concept, armor, all that was very intentional, you know? And once it was presented to the, you know, once it was rejected, Jennifer and I knew immediately when we got the phone call, what was the problem, you know, it's like, why every time it seems to be a problem in the center of blackness, especially from a place of joy. The only time it seems that we're valued within the sector of the arts is when we're, when it's coming from a place of trauma and pain, you know, we can sit here all night and tell you trauma stories, you know, from each of our perspectives. And the way we deal with that is by being creative. And it's become a lifestyle for us. So, you know, we like to consistently remind people that this was a project that we, you know, fought hard to get. But at the same time, even going through that, we still operated from a place of love, because we were also willing to move on if things didn't go in our direction. It's like, we had other opportunities lined up, because this is what we do for our livelihood. And we provide so many opportunities also, just by, you know, being who we are. So it's not a selfish thing at all. It's just that we fight for what we love. And we, you know, so, yeah. And I think that's the spirit that Kalise is also trying to impart with folks, you know, that she is a warrior, you know, and her armor was intended to protect her. But also, you know, she is so at calm and at peace because she remains in a state of joy in, regardless, you know, like, you know, Audre Lorde talks about, I don't know, does anyone know who Audre Lorde is? She's the Black feminist writer. And, you know, she talks about how our self-preservation and our self-care is our revolutionary act, you know. And so when systems of repression are set up to keep us down and to keep us not being well, you know, not living free, not living in joy, being able to take care of ourselves, to take care of our community, to be in community, to constantly, you know, to be loving ourselves, loving each other is, you know, an act of revolution in a system that is set up to be a barrier and an obstacle to having all those things in your lives, to finding pleasure. It's important to find pleasure in everything that gives you hope and gives you joy and allows you to feel free and liberated. And that's exactly the place from which Calise was born, especially during the middle of the pandemic, in the middle of, you know, the uprisings, you know, and all of the protests. So she literally represents all of that right now, you know. And also thinking about, you know, we're herbalists, we're spiritual herbalists, as you can see the entire, you know, part of the renovation in our living room here is setting up the apothecary, the home apothecary, because, you know, this is also part of where we find, you know, our love and our joy and our offerings in the world beyond the art is also medicine, and magical medicine. So, you know, her living and being represented in community with a natural environment. So if you look at the composition, like she's hanging out, like in conversation with a hummingbird, you know, and she literally has, you know, a sunflower in her hair. And when we were there, some of the flowers that happened in the mural weren't part of the original design. They came up because we spent time in the garden. Oh, there you go. Wow, that's awesome. Thank you, Joseph. That's the after-school directors there with my daughter. Yeah. So, you know, the sunflowers and the amaranths were some of the most prolific plants and flowers that are in their garden. And I was spent time in there and went through the touch, taste, smell garden. And I came running back to Will and said, we have to put these things in. He's like, okay, Jennifer. And so that's sort of what happens. You have to understand when we create together, we're very no-host bar with each other. Yeah. So it's consistently this dance. Sometimes we're stepping on each other's feet, but we did through it, you know. And because just they're physically, you know, their murals are very labor-intensive. You know, we were pulling like 10, 12 hours a day on average. Yeah. So to get it done in that 90 span. So, you know, we came back and he was like, okay. And a lot of that, for me, I felt, and I talked about this with some of the teachers, why I thought, you know, why we made this change in the moment on the spot, wintertime was coming. And that meant that every day that the students showed up to see Calise, they also would have a memory of their sunflowers and their amaranths from their garden that was wintering over. The poppy that she's holding is in reference to our dog, Poppy, who passed away last year, last summer. Her name was Poppy. She was a small white shih tzu. And she went with us everywhere. She was like our therapy dog. So she came with us everywhere, everywhere, everywhere. Every mural project, Poppy was always on site. If we were traveling, you know, the mural organizers, our writer says we need to be in a hotel that is dog friendly. And we, you know, we need to be able to bring the dog on site with us. So Poppy traveled with us everywhere. So now she continues to travel with us in spirit as rep, you know, with the poppy flower as her representation in every mural that we do now. There will be a Poppy shows up. And that's our, that's how we honor her presence on our projects with us still today. The clouds for us is represents that brightness, that, you know, that freedom, they free floating, they're still part of, you know, the elements. And, you know, the clouds are the first thing that we like to see break after a storm when the sun comes popping through like all of those things, the butterfly wings, you know, that's represents migration, you know, and it's in the butterfly, the hummingbird, they're all pollinators, you know, and we joke and we're pollinator activists. Yeah, you know, we all got a role to play, you know, and you can still be revolutionary and lighthearted, you know, and there's so many different battles we're fighting. And one is the battle to remain sane through all this. And what better way to do that than lose yourself in your imagination and dream of the world you want to see, you know. So it's healing, it's very therapeutic, not just for us, but for all the conversations we've had during the process after, you know, all the stories that come from it, because none of what, none of this work is ordinary in a sense where it's like, you know, people who, people from outside of what we do understand it. Most people don't see murals go up like this in this vast, and also the level of engagement, you know, a community engagement is essential on what we do. So we're never not present for someone's question, you know, or just they'd be a year, you hear all kinds of stories when you're on a site of murals, you know, it's all kind of people you run into, you know, so anything can happen. So you have to stay fluid, you know, even the way the wings came about, Alexa designed patterns of the original concept for the wings. But when, yeah, the card's right there. So when it came time to actually answer, to do the art and install the art, we quickly realized that trying to follow that pattern was going to be more work, more time than we, than we had, you know, it took probably a full day or two just to, you know, redesign it, which we just didn't have that time. So Alexa, along with a assistant that we hired for the project, by the name of Will Gephart, installed the students art throughout the wings. And then that's in towards the after, after everything was installed, that's when I went in and just kind of connected them all using a mosaic pattern, and which kind of like became like stained glass. So that wasn't planned, you know, so, but if we had been rigid, and like, no, we're going to do it this way, the energy may have shifted because then it would become, you know, we would have just had to exhaust ourselves even more to get it done and not, and meet our deadline. So you have to I'm sorry to interrupt, but can you, can you just make sure people understand what you mean by that student art and what's in the wings, what that is? Yeah. Oh, you want to talk about Alexa? Oh yeah. So basically, we had different shapes were cut out, like rudimentary shapes for students to just free paint on and you got to see a wide variety of art and it was so beautiful just the creation of it. So we facilitated a total of 20 painting workshops between during the day between the fourth and fifth graders in the after school program, we were able to work with K through K through three. And then on a Saturday with the King Street Center mentors and mentees mentor pairs. And so everyone got to paint their individual pieces of art, which got collaged and made up the wings. Yeah. So students got to pick the shapes that they wanted, so we had timings and arches. Yeah, all geometric shapes. And blue wasn't, well, it became intentionally left out of their paint choices because the background had so much blue. Yeah. And we were like, if we give the students blue, they're going to be tempted to, because they all kept asking for blue. He's like, no, you have these warm color palettes because we need more warm colors, you know, to balance out the cool. And once they start seeing it go up, that's when everything started to change because, you know, there was no precedent that they never seen anything like this. So most of them were just like, well, we don't know if it's going up or not. It's a few of the kids didn't even believe us. You know, they were like, you're not going to put our work up. And I'm like, yeah, we are. They produced over 300 individual pieces of art. It was wild. It was so wild. And amazing stuff, too. Like they, some of them like really, really focused. And I mean, during the workshops, we were able to work with the students and teach them about mixing colors because they wanted to learn how to mix colors. They wanted to learn techniques around splattering. So everybody got their Jackson Polygon. Oh, man. And then they were like, what else can they paint? But, you know, they were like, they started painting the rocks. Because we had to grab it. It was so windy that we used, we collected rocks from all around the property to be able to hold things down at weight. And the students just started painting the rocks, too. So then after that, we, when we were done with the project, we took all the rocks and created like a little rock garden installation of the painted rocks. I don't know. We, I don't, we have a picture of it somewhere. I don't even know. It should still be at the school. Because we went there several weeks ago, just to pop in. And it was still there. Yeah. So everything becomes art. Everything. Yeah. I just wanted to say, I happened to turn on the TV when you were having the launch or the festival of with the students drumming. And it was just wonderful. And I could see how happy they were and how involved they were. They were just totally. And that was, you know, that was the fourth, the fourth grade teachers, right? The fourth grade teachers. And I don't remember her other name, Aziza and the other student. She was the music teacher. Yeah. Right. Yeah. That's green. All they were. That's a green. Yes. Yes. And, you know, the students were so inspired. Like they, they did a lot of work in the classroom. Yeah. Center, you know, around who Khalees is, what she represents. And they made all those statements. They wrote the poem with the dance, the music, everything. They did all of that. And, and some of that was them just demonstrating the impact on themselves. But also, they did that as a gift to us. And I never, ever, ever, ever seen anything like that. That was so unexpected. And I mean, I think they've had just as much of a transformative, you know, once on us as we had on them, it was, it was beautiful. I've heard a lot of feedback from staff and from parents on the experience for both staff and the students. And I really believe that it's a seminal act and activity that they're going to remember. I mean, this is a crazy year anyway, but they're going to, they're going to remember this is going to be something that's part of their growing up. And then they can always return and come back to the school and see that and touch it and reconnect with that. So, so thank you guys for that. It's, it's, you know, Joe Rastagini, the principal of Champlain. Every time I talk to him about it, he's just, he's blown away by that whole event. He took some major, major risks. You know, a mural like this in a school and a public setting doesn't happen in the way that it did. Not by a long shot, you know? I mean, this, it was like five day turnaround time between us given the options of where to, they, we were offered like a few different places and the elementary school was one of the places and we just went, oh, that's a no-brainer. We're going to school. You know, that's, that's, that's in mind with our work is to be in the school, do this work with the students to have the students be active contributors in the creation of the art. You know, so for us, that was, was a done deal. You know, we didn't, we were like, say less, we're going to the school. And you know, sorry, but that was a driving force because at the end of the day, throughout all the, you know, peaks and valleys of it, all the kids went, like the kids, they, they are the true winners in all this because they get to carry that on for the rest of their life, that experience. You know, so, you know, they're working with children, working with people is a big part of this work for us. You know, the ice, the ice on the cake is the art, you know? That's the fun part. That's the part everybody wants to participate in, but there's so many layers to it. So about a time we get to that, like we're relieved in a way once we start working, you know, because we enjoy the process and what we don't enjoy, we work it out, you know? Because we, you know, no one does this alone. And everyone has a play and we're all, you know, rooting for each other to give us that second when, because it can be physically, mentally and spiritually exhausted. There's a lot of output throughout that week or two weeks or however long we're on a project. This is a lot of output. So, you know, we have the ripple effect that's happened. Keep that's the stuff that keeps us really going, you know, knowing that we're having that type of impact and influence on just future generations that this is how it should be. Hopefully, you know, as they come of age, these young students, you know, they keep that energy out, keep producing that energy, because this has turned into anti-racism work, you know? And it's a great way because racism is talk, you know? So the younger we get at these students and teaching them, you know, the proper way of maneuvering through the world from a place of love and compassion, you know, hopefully we'd be able to eradicate this within a generation. So, yeah, it's important work. I just want to jump in and thank you, Mike, so much for that introduction and sharing a little bit more about Principal Restigy's experience. And also just to point out there are so many parents of students at Champlain on the phone. My daughter, Angeline, loved working on this project with you all. And I think it's so funny that you just said layering, Will, because I think what's so striking about the project is just how much incredible joy it brings. And it was such a complex, layered experience. And you all just spoke so beautifully to that, but it's so apparent in the level of detail in the piece. And I think what's so exciting that you just kind of pointed out is the piece went up so quickly. It's dynamic. It brings incredible joy and excitement and beauty to the community. And yet it will live forever. And there are so many dimensions and layers that we will continue to explore with our children as adults, as a community for years to come. It's just, it's freaking awesome is what it is. We're so grateful that you've shared your passion with us. And the good thing too about this. And thank you for sharing that because, you know, they can continue to create curriculum around her narratives. And whatever curriculum that they started to develop in the moment to embrace her, they can carry that forward in future, like fourth and fifth graders, right? To be able to have those conversations, let's sit out front and let's reflect. What does she mean? What does she mean to you? What does she mean you know, what does this time mean to you? What commitment do you want to make? What are you willing to stand up for that connects to the message that she's trying to deliver? And I think that they got that. You know, I think Joe Rastagini saw that right away. I think actually, I think it was Aziza that picked up on this said, we have to have this, went to Joe and was like, and then Joe was like, okay, you right. Let's like, let's figure this out. You know, and the thing is, is that also Joe and will only like what a month before had a preliminary conversation about us coming into the school after like when they were able to have people in the school, like teaching artists come in to come in and do a project inside the school. Yeah, we were talking about doing something. And all this happened. Yeah, when he reached out with this with the wall at elementary school, it was a like Jennifer said, it was a no brainer. Like, yes, you know, this is this is right up, you know, along the alley of what we do. But yeah, it was, you know, it was transformative for all of us because, you know, unfortunately, this is not the first time we went through something that, you know, that led up to this. And in the past, you know, the response wasn't as calm as it was when we were because we were in a way we were prepared. You know, all the times that happened before it just seemed to come out of nowhere and then you start to realize the pattern, which is that, you know, blackness, regardless of how a center, especially coming from place of joy, created by a black family seems to be very controversial, you know, and, you know, unfortunately, you know, it's probably not the last time it's going to happen, you know, but we have the tools now, you know, we have our the voice is being heard now. And we take pride in our work. And the difference too is that we know what we do is quality. We know that we have integrity in everything that we produce and everything that we create. And we don't and so we recognize that it's not personal, you know, that there's still so much work that needs to be done outside of us, you know, for people to accept that we're going to keep doing what we do. Yeah, because we know that wherever our work lands, it was meant to be there. And so we're not we don't let those things hold us back. We're just like, well, that's work y'all need to do and figure out. Yeah. But we've got other work that we have to get done over here, you know, and we'll loop back, you know, and so but we we understand and we know that like Burlington is definitely sort of like the Mecca right now. It's like the art Mecca of the entire state. Basically, everyone looks to what Burlington is doing. And and this was pretty public. And the the community response to what happened led us to Champlain Elementary School. And and basically the south end of Burlington and just Burlington community at large basically saying, you know what, this mural absolutely represents so much of this community, not only in not only in representation of black women, but also in in in the message, you know, and so we were really happy that Burlington spoke up up against the one business owner who said, this doesn't represent this community. And they were like, wait a second, you don't speak for us. You know, and for Alexa, who had just graduated University of Vermont, like, how are you going to say that the colleges here and a black woman on a wall doesn't represent the college? She's like, I just graduated from UVM. I just spent the past four years living in Burlington. So I'm part of this community too. Like so, you know, there's just so much that that was unearthed, you know, and back to what I mentioned at the beginning, like truth will always show itself, you know, and people have a choice to make around whether they want to face the truth, accept it, or continue to ignore it and sweep it under the rug or truth is like oil and water, it always comes to the surface. Yeah. So, you know, they could they could try to, you know, sweep it under the rug or no, it's going to come to the surface. And we, you know, we do multiple things, you know, like Jennifer said, we're herbalist, you know, studio practice, Alexa is a friend of saying, and all things are she's learning everything now that you don't learn school, you know, and, but, you know, in applying it to not just becoming a better artist, but becoming a better person, and we're all holding each other accountable and consistently educating one another. So we keep our aids in multiple baskets, you know, and it's we establish ourselves and, you know, it's disciplines, we have multiple disciplines. So it's like, okay, if you try to shut us down with the murals, we're just going to come at you with something else that's dope, you know, we're very confident people and we, and we love to share what we do because it's always some place of love and healing and growth, you know. There's some questions. Thank you, Gabrielle again for being here. And Carolyn, hi, good to see you, even though we don't see you. Yes, we are in the middle of a project right now at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, which is going to take us through January. It is, I mean, no one's in the building, so it's just us. Yeah, it's a vaulted ceiling. It's a vaulted ceiling. We're literally painting the entire entry way in that third floor. It's where we, and it's actually continues to evolve, but it's 200 plus years of BIPOC revolutionaries and artists, activists, scholars who have been very instrumental in laying the groundwork and foundation for many of the social movements that we are at the forefront today. Many of them we consider ancestors and also, and so the way the composition is right now, it's just so beautiful because there's also this level of like almost like ancestors looking down on this future generation of living, breathing activists right now. Yeah. That takes us into the future, right? And there's also a part where there'll be like these unknown young generation of children that will be emerging that will still be rest on the shoulders of all of this legacy of activism and scholarship around anti-racism work and anti-everything, right? Like anti all the things that keep us from living whole, free lives and in community with one another. Yeah, we're getting our Michelangelo all. This is definitely first as far as the level of detail. No, we don't have any photos because we're in process right now. Yeah. I mean, if you go to our Instagram, there is. Yeah, so we're, so on our Instagram, we've been posting progress shots through our stories and then I create like a highlight so you can go to the highlight on the Instagram to see like where we're at. Yeah. But yeah, we're not going to be there until the 27th. Yeah, we don't return to the 27th. So in these next couple weeks, we're continuing to. So Carolyn, our Instagram is at Juniper Creative LLC. Yeah. That's our Instagram. But the mural site isn't open. So like don't come Yeah. No, we're not going to, we're not even going to allow for that until the mural is close to completion. But we've been doing our own independent document because we're very particular because it's still very raw. And we're very public with our process. But this is part of this since it's such an intimate setting now because at any given time, we're the only ones in the building and maybe aside from one of the person. So we're working out a lot because it's very important work to make sure that the narrative is consistent with all the figures that go up. So everybody is in a very strategic place on the wall. And some of those figures still have to be rendered. Because we just went out of town and then new executive orders came down when we were away and have come back and we're like, Oh, we're so we're self isolating quarantining for these 14 days. Yeah, it's fine. So yeah, so it's fine. So but once we go back is when, you know, now that we just received like the colors that just came in today. So, you know, once we go back to work, we can start like applying blocks of color and it really start taking shape. So yeah, we still continue to share on social media. So it's portrait heavy. There's about 40 about 40 images. Yeah. 40 images. All some some are just side profiles. Some are the full bust of people. Some are full figure. Yeah. But yes, it's beautiful. Yeah. And we decided to honor some of the early black from monsters that are just now getting visibility. So we've been really excited to do that research and partner with folks so that we could represent them in the composition. Yeah. Because obviously they are ancestors to the rest of us who are able to be here in Vermont. It's going to be pretty striking. Where would you say it's going to be? Where is it going to? The main street landing performing. Oh, okay. Any other questions? Alexa, you want to type in the answer? Yeah. Just so people can follow us. Yeah. So right now we're, you know, we've only been home for about 48 hours. So we've just been reorganizing and retooling and getting ready for the winter. Because the winter is when, you know, we call it canvas season. That's when you get more introspective. So put it on canvas, put it on paper, you know, because the public art, the public mural season is pretty much comes to a close. Everything goes indoors. So including our practice or individual practice being more introspective. So and then that work will be shown and hopefully depending on how we're looking at it later next year. And I just, I just ended a 22 year career in higher ed. So we're doing this as a family now, full time, which was always the plan, like waiting for Alexa to graduate. And so we had an opportunity, an opportunity presented itself this fall for us to just go all in with what we're doing. Thank you all so much for joining us this evening. This was really a tremendous opportunity to hear from you and learn from you. I'm just so grateful. I'm also a parent of a Champlain Elementary student who's a kindergartener this year. And it's a heck of a year to start formal schooling. And, you know, this just brought so much joy to his start of his school experience. And I think that's true for all of the Champlain students and us as community members, and can really feel it hearing from you all. So thank you for spending time with us here tonight. We really, really, really appreciate it. Caroline wanted us to tell you about a mural we just completed before going indoors. It came up literally within like so we painted a mural on the outside of 88 Oak Street, which is the new cooperative building that houses old, no, old soul, all souls tort tort tortillas. I think that's what they're called that the tortilla area. And cafe Mama Juana and Poppy cafe. So those were the two restaurants that just opened up in the building. I guess Poppy cafe operates during the day for lunch and Mama Juana is in the evenings on Wednesday through Saturdays. So we they asked us to grace the side of their building with a mural. So we got it done just in time before they did their big opening grand opening. So now people can find their building because what they see first is the mural. But a lot of people don't realize that like we're the artists of the mural, but it's now like the landmark Oh, find the mural on the corner of like Oak and interval. Yeah. And that was fun. With that one, it was a pretty loose and concept as far as the freedom we had. We didn't have, you know, they pretty much like, you know, do whatever, you know, spirit moves you to and we were like, well, this is the idea we have in mind, which is based off some concept work that we've done in the past. And then, you know, we've added, we added some elements to what they asked for as far as like the different vegetables and such in the bowl that the figure is holding. Many of it is essential foods from my country, which is Haiti, the island of Haiti and Dominican Republic. So, you know, it's always that back and forth dialogue because we also want to be we also want to make sure that we're, you know, putting elements of whatever it is. You know, for instance, like, you know, with that restaurant, there's elements of what they envision as well as, you know, what we create. But they gave us freedom, you know, those all you always get the best work when you just let the artists do what they want to do. And they, they let go for do whatever your heart feels. It was fun to paint. Thank you, everyone. Oh, someone found our Instagram. Yeah, awesome. I think that I see it in the chat. Sorry to jump in here. Looks like there's Facebook and Instagram on the chat and I've been following you all and there's another Champlain parent as well. Let me just add to the choir. I just think it's absolutely awesome what you guys have done there. I drive by Pine Street every day and it's just such a joy to go by the school. So thank you very much for bringing her to us. I also just want to check in on our fearless moderator here, Joe. I think I've seen you like talking a couple of times there. Do you have audio right now? Yeah, I don't think I do. No, I hear you now. I saw your mouth moving before, but I sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to check to make sure that we could still hear Joe there. So all right. But thank you, Juniper Creative, you guys are just fantastic. I know we are over time. I'm so excited. No, I just wanted to make sure that Joe was still there. I've been yelling at you. No, not really. Great. Thanks again. Yep. Thank you. Have a good night, y'all. Thank you. Can't wait to see that thing at Main Street Landing. Bye. All right, y'all. All right. So Tyra, we made you wait a little bit, Casey, from Pathways. No worries. That was awesome to hear about. I'm Casey Carpenter. Can you all hear me? Yeah. Okay, great. I'm Casey Carpenter. I'm the Outreach Associate for Pathways Vermont Support Line. And Abby Levinsman is also on the line, and she's the Employment and Outreach Team Leader at Pathways. And we're here just to spread the word about the support line. And I'll keep it pretty brief. I have a quick presentation. So I'm just going to share my screen. Okay. Can you all see that? Yes. Great. Yeah. So we're just here to spread the word to you all about the support line. And it's a resource that's available for anyone 18 and up statewide in Vermont. And our goal is for every Vermonter to know that the support line exists, especially this year and this time of hardship. So that's why we're here. The support line offers free and confidential support and connection via both phone as well as text. And we operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And we're what's called a warm line as opposed to a hotline. So what that means is that the operators are local peers who've been through challenging situations themselves. And they're available to offer a listening ear and non-judgmental support. And that's for just about any reason. So we focus on supporting callers who reach out for anger over a frustrating day, feeling alone, wanting support for substance use, or just wanting to chat. So I'm just going to briefly run through a little more info about the support line and how it differs from other services like crisis hotlines. And then we'll have a chance to answer any questions. The philosophy of the support line is based in the intentional peer support or IPS model, which all the operators are trained in. And that's rooted in connecting from a place of shared experience and without judgment or advice giving. And like I said, many of our operators have gone through extreme or challenging situations themselves. So they're really able to meet callers from a place of like experiential shared understanding. As well, one of the guiding principles of the support line is a belief in the healing power of connection, of simply having someone just to listen to and validate your experience. And our philosophy is also based in the belief that individuals have the capacity to grow and change, and that they are the experts on themselves. So people often wonder how the support line is different from crisis hotlines. And some of you may already be familiar with this, but Vermont has 10 designated mental health agencies, each with their own crisis hotline. So ours in Chittenden County is Howard Center, which operates first call. And the pathway support line aims to serve a complementary role to these crisis lines. So whereas the support line is staffed by peers with lived experience, crisis hotlines tend to be staffed by operators with formal educational experience, often licensed counselors. And a primary service that the crisis hotlines offer is to screen callers for the need for higher level services such as emergency services. Whereas this is not a primary service that the support line offers. That said, support line operators are trained to refer callers to crisis or emergency services, if necessary. And lastly, crisis hotlines do offer counseling when possible, but they may not always have the capacity to, you know, take calls on a daily basis from the same person about how their pet is doing that day. Whereas the support line, we can take calls for, like I said earlier, any identified needs. So whether that's a crisis or not. So in this way, we hope to both reduce the strain on crisis services, as well as offer an option to callers who might not feel like they need crisis level services. So while we're not a crisis hotline, many callers do report being in crisis when they call. And we do have protocols in place for callers who are at imminent risk to themselves or others. And our operators are also well versed in the different resources available to callers. But our operators are also trained and comfortable speaking with callers about suicidality, about substance use, and any other urgent needs, if the caller identifies this as helpful. We feel that when someone is in a dark place, simply forming that non-judgmental connection can really be a lifeline. So in the best cases, these calls can prevent a crisis from escalating to an emergency. So this is our phone number. It's pretty easy to remember 833-VT-TALKS and the numbers to that are right below it, 888-2557. And that's the same for calling and texting. And again, we're open 24-7 to any adults in Vermont. And we also have lots of resources available. So if you work or live somewhere where you'd like to hang up a flyer or display some pamphlets, we would love to share those with you. We also have some digital materials that can be shared on social media. So feel free to shoot me an email at kc at pathwaysvermont.org. And you can also find more information on our website, including some testimonials. And that's pathwaysvermont.org. And that's all I've got. So feel free to ask any questions and Abby and I can try to answer them for you. Thank you. Do we have any questions from our large group of panelists? All right. Thank you for being patient and speaking with us tonight. Yeah, thank you all so much for having us. Thank you. Thanks for what you do too. All right. So the next item on the agenda was Cindy from Parks. I think I saw Cindy earlier. Yep, I'm here. And then Emma Ellen. Yeah, thank you. And just so people know what that is, we just today put up a pop-up disc golf course at Chivaletti Park. It's a nine-hole course. I encourage you to come on out either by yourself or with your immediate family right now and check out our nine-hole disc golf play. Those are buckets, five-gill and buckets that my husband cleverly made to use as targets. So come on out and give it a try. You just park it Miller. And it's the first hole is right by a small trailer that's right in the baseball parking lot. But I also want to introduce Emma Ellen, Emma's event coordinator here for Parks. What we're here for today is to let you know that in 2021 it's the 50th anniversary of Oakledge Park. And so we were coming to the NPA to see if anybody was interested in joining, you know, small committee to look at what we might do for the 50th. It's, you know, pretty exciting to have a 50th anniversary of a park. And it's a very loved, beloved park as you could tell if you try to park there any evening in the summer. You think you might want to grab a sunset? I hope that you guys are all walking down because the likely the parking lot is full. But so really that's what we're here for is to see if there is interest in getting involved in the 50th. And you could just be sharing in the chat or out loud any ideas that you have that you think would be a great way to celebrate the 50th with that mindset that, you know, there's good chance when summer hits we're still we're still living within some restrictions. So I think a party of 2,000 people at Oakledge is probably not happening down there this summer. But seems like there's lots we could do with, you know, history pictures along that, you know, throughout the throughout the season year. I'm looking at the chat. Carolyn Bates says she's in. Thank you, Carolyn. Count on you for those. Thanks for coming. I'm definitely interested in joining the joining the team. Might as well get a little bit more parks and rec fun in my life and that sounds pretty fun. I think we should I think we should turn it back into a working farm again for like a couple days fill it with cows and they fill up the space and we just walk around and there you go. Well, there was definitely a great work done to least revert some of the area actually back to the natural wetlands. So what we did revert back to the far we did get so the natural wetlands reverted back. And if you go and you like the disc golf, the pop up at disc golf at Schiffeletti, if you go try it out, you say, well, that's kind of fun. That might be kind of need to do it. Oakland just went to let me, you know, let me know. We just would have to find nine more buckets, which seems like we can find nine more buckets and put something up at Oakledge. The ground is starting to freeze though. So it gets a little bit harder to get those stakes in the ground. Yeah. And if anybody while I'm here, so I think kind of Joe noted it by in the director for Park's Rec. So if anybody has any questions too on any of the projects that we have going on, we're obviously the bike path down at your end, the woods is wrapping up. I'm sure none of you have been out on it. I'm sure. But we've actually had we have noticed that there's a fair amount of traffic when the construction's not happening, folks that are checking it out. But we are hoping to open that up. It'll be early December that we'll be getting that back opening in. And if you haven't been down there to take a peek at what's going on, it's a phenomenal change. I think of any section of the path that's been renovated so far, that is by far the most extraordinary change. The section through the barge canal, we gained a good, I think it's about 60 approximately a width through there. So it's no longer a narrow quarter along the barge canal. And, and then the property by Hula, where you've, I mean, I know for myself, when I would travel home from Pine, I live in the New North End and I'd bike home on the bike path there. And, you know, it just always made me feel a little uncomfortable because it was narrow. There was a lot of overgrowth that felt kind of dark. And there's a new wooden fence along the whole Hula stretch that's, I think it's only about four feet high. So you'll be able to look out, see the water, it'll feel much more open. So hopefully you guys will enjoy those improvements. And I'm just looking in the chat to see. I guess you could share the, and if there's any kind of website that you had regarding the, you know, the Oakland anniversary or just the general. We haven't done, we haven't started anything. Cause I mean, the frankly, to be honest, is that really to pull something like this off to do something special? We'll need some support. I mean, we can have, I mean, Emma's great. She would do like a one day type thing that's down there, encouraging folks to come down. But if we want to do more with that, you know, doing history and doing photos and you really need folks to be interested in getting involved. And I figured to hit the NPA and where Oakledge is seems to be the best start for finding people who are interested in getting involved. Yeah. I don't know if is Callahan your guys in your ward? I'm not sure it's in your, is that your word? That's one that you'll be seeing fairly soon. We'll be putting out a, I think we already, no, I don't think we put it out yet, but we'll putting out soon a master plan and proposals for consultant for master plan for Callahan. We need to, we've got coming up over the next few years is the playground, getting a new playground there. We did just reseal the courts, but we do need to eventually replace the tennis courts. The basketball courts need to be replaced. So while we have those significant projects there, we figure it's a good time to look at that park overall and how it's being used and see if we want to make any other changes to the park. So when that, when we get to the point of the public comment time, we'll be sure to make sure that the, that we'll come to the NPA and let you know the status and how to get involved with providing input with Callahan. All right, great. Thanks a lot. You're welcome. Any other questions? I don't know if you, Emma, do you have anything at all that you want to add, anything that's, any of your pop-up winner ideas that you have for the different parks real quick? Using the voice changer. Peter doesn't like my headphones. Stay tuned this winter. We, we are working on expanding winter programming to have a bunch of fun COVID safe options for kids and adults. So we, the goal is a little weather dependent, but we've got past country skis. We've got snow shoes. We'll be getting sleds and whenever we get a nice big dumping of snow, we're going to pop around to different parks. Oakledge, Callahan, Battery, Ethan Allen, Star Farm. So those with kids on snow days or weekends, we will have some fun, fun safe opportunities this winter playing outside. Thanks, Emma. Thank you. Joe, could I say something real quick just briefly? Certainly. Okay, thanks. So Cindy and Emma, thanks very much for being here. You signed me up as well for the Oakledge 50th. I've mentioned to you before, Cindy, that I hate to call him out here. I hope he doesn't mind, but one of our fellow steering committee members, Scott Pavek, got married at the Forever Young Treehouse there a couple years ago. And I thought one of the cool things you could do on the 50th is highlight a bunch of couples that have gotten married there over the years because I see that happening all the time. That's just one idea. But while I'm here, both Nate and I also serve on the Parks Commission. So just a little pitch to people that if they want to get more involved or more information on the parks, we usually meet the first Tuesday of every month. Our agendas are posted online. And then Cindy, because you mentioned Callahan, I know that Max Madalinsky who works in your department, when he's wearing another hat is very involved with trying to save the, or keep going, I should say, the ice rink at Callahan Park. And Max on our front porch forum just recently posted a GoFundMe for people if they want to contribute to keeping that ice rink going. And so just thought I'd use this as an opportunity to put that out there. And I put the link to it in the chat if anyone's interested in contributing to the Callahan ice rink and keeping that up this winter. But thanks so much. I think this is going to be a great celebration next year. Great. Thanks, Ben. Thanks, everybody. All right. Great. Thanks, Cindy. The next item we had was the school board. Mike still on? Oh, I'm still here. All right. So thanks, everybody. Now that we've all had some good conversations now, some tough conversations. So I want to start with what's going on in the district. There's a lot going on in the district. And sometimes we, on the board, we forget this because we're focusing on the hard stuff. But elementary schools are four days a week. And it is, you know, it's challenging with a lot of the restrictions. And but from what I hear, especially at Champlain, it's going well. People are respectful. The kids are are are are understanding how to be cautious. Middle school is a little tougher. They're still in the hybrid mode. So it's two days a week. And I have heard it's a good experience when they're in the schools, but parents are concerned that it's not enough in person learning. But according to the medical experts that are advising the state agency of education, middle schoolers have a higher rate of infection than elementary schoolers. And so they're they are still concerned and they don't see any time soon moving middle schoolers to four days a week. And then we move on to the real tough subject, which is around the high school. So quick recap, there's a renovation project that the that we're working on and found a bunch of PCBs, which are some really bad chemicals from when they originally built the buildings. And the rates were very high, extremely high in one building and over a screening limit for Vermont's screening limits. So kids have been out of the building this whole school year. We have been trying to find them some short term alternatives. And so starting next week, the high schoolers will so they've been all remote, all remote since the start of school. And that's really tough. And I've heard some pretty heartbreaking stories from parents and from staff. And we also don't hear as much from families that are a little more vulnerable kids who are have a little more needs, and they are suffering even more. So we're trying to figure out in the district staff working really hard how to get some in person learning this school year. So in the short term, next starting next week, they're going to be utilizing the Edmonds campus, so both the elementary school and the middle school. And they're going to be going every Wednesday. So each high schoolers going to get a half a day of in person learning every week. We were hoping to send the kids to UVM during UVM's winter break for December and January. Very exciting move move forward with the negotiations. And then this recent spike of COVID infections, UVM got cold feet and went all the way up to the president. And they said, unfortunately, I don't feel comfortable having that many new people on campus. So the short term is Wednesdays at Edmonds. And then the long term solution, there's basically three long term solutions. One do nothing and continue with just Wednesdays. Two is lease the old Macy's building next to the pit. And three is lease trailers and put them on the baseball field on the high school campus or they were looking at other locations like the campgrounds near North Beach. I was originally leaning towards the trailers. I think that they would be a better educational experience. They're real classrooms and they're they would be on campus or close to campus so they could use parts of the campus when if we could reopen them. However, the trailers as we found out more, we were not confident we could get them up and running before the end of the school year. So earliest would be May. And that's, you know, many, many months. This is of not having in person learning. The other challenge is that the cost kept going up as they did more research and have to build these infrastructures and infrastructure and plumbing and electrical and all this stuff. And so Macy's would be or the trailers would be about three million dollars more than Macy's. We did hear concerns about Macy's especially that it's not the best learning environment and concerns about the owners of Macy's. So right now it's 50% Don Sinex and 50% three local. I know there's builders. There's an electric guy guys owns Omega, Farrington, and I forget the third one, the third owner. So there were concerns about that and tying Macy's to the issue around the pit. But in the end on Tuesday night the board voted to lease Macy's. And so we're going to lease has not been signed. There's still some things to work out. But we're going to move forward to lease Macy's retrofit it for classrooms and places to eat lunch and offices and and the goal the target is to have that that building open for school in February or early March. And we don't know what's going to happen to the BHS campus. They're still doing extensive testing working with the EPA and the Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Conservation and trying to figure out where these PCBs are coming from and whether they can address them. And that all has to happen before we figure out. Do we continue with the renovation project? Do we do we stop it? What do we do with the Burlington Tech Center, which has got crazy amounts of PCBs? And we've also heard, Hey, let's just the place is rotten. Let's just tear it down and build a new high school, which would be probably doubly more expensive than than we have bonding authority for. But all of that long term decision and planning is on hold until we figure out where are these PCBs coming from and can we address them? So a big decision this week of we're going to go move forward with Macy's and the high schoolers will be in there hopefully for the end of the school year and probably for the beginning of next school year, if not longer, but we just don't know at this point. All right, so I'm just going to pause. I also did a pretty big write up on Front Porch Forum. I put it out in some social media places as well that went out tonight. But at this point, I will open for questions. Caroline Bates said, Yes, SD Ireland is the third person. Thank you. And how far are we into the renovation? All design work. And so what happened was they're designed and then they start to test and they find things like, Oh, we thought there was bedrock over here, but it's, you know, sandy soil. And in that test part of that testing is how we found the PCBs. And so there is a little bit of more work still going on for planning and design work for the renovation. But it is slow to a crawl because we really need to figure out what's going on with the PCBs and how we're going to handle the Burlington Tech Center because we can't move forward with renovating the high school using our bond money. And then at the end of that project, have a nice renovated high school and having a tech center that still needs tens of millions of dollars of renovation and remediation. So other questions. I know it's a lot. Mike, oh, sorry, I'm just going to jump in. You might have said this already, but what are the next sort of decision points or timeline or when are some of the next decision points happening? Oh, that's a good question. I've been so focused on this one that this question, this decision point on Tuesday. I think the next decision point might be, are we going to sign a lease? There is there is some contamination at the pit right next to the Macy's building that they have from an old dry cleaner, which I don't know. It's been a pit for a couple of years. I don't know why I haven't addressed it, but figuring that out. And I don't know the next the next decision point is waiting for the test and remediation and retest to happen. And once at Burlington High School in some of the buildings, so to figure out where it is and whether we can remediate it quickly and easily or how hard it is going to be to remediate. So that's the next step the board is waiting for so that we can really come up with a long-term plan for the campus. Nice. Well, and thank you for your communication, which has been so helpful and thorough on many channels. Susan? Yeah, has Macy's been tested? Well, in terms of pollution of the site. So it's a general very broad question and we got questions about, well, how come how come they didn't test the high school before, right? There are many kinds of tests, right? And there are tests that have to be done that if you're doing construction, you have to do these tests. And some, if you get to a certain level, you test in a different way. But Macy's is ready for it has had certain tests. I don't think that it's had the PCB tests, but it was built after they stopped. The PCBs were used from was it the 30s to the early 70s. And the Macy's building was built after that. So we're not concerned that PCBs are in the building. We're concerned that there was a dry cleaner and there's a plume in the soil, which has apparently happened when you have these dry cleaners that just dumped their pollution in the soil. So that's the concern. And that's the big concern now. Thank you. Mike, what effect, if any, does the city's litigation against the these same developers have entering into another agreement with them? And how is the school board working with the city on that front? Well, thank you for that question, Billy Clark Esquire. Yes, the legal aspect to this is pretty tricky. And I know that the board definitely got some feedback like, don't don't put your toe in there. Don't get in the middle of this. And the owners did actually try and tie this Macy's into the I don't know what the right word is conflict, disagreement, whatever word you want to use between the city and the owners. And we decided to say, you know, we're working on what's best for the kids, and we're going to keep that separate. So there is a political danger, right, because we are dealing with the same entity, we're dealing with the same four owners. But we are structuring the lease in a way that should give us protections about what what we expect in terms of, I mean, down to like, they're going to test vibrations, and there's a certain level. So if they really start to build, and we're really trying to keep it separate, even though the, of course, the owners wanted to use us as leverage, because, you know, it's all the city to them. But we've structured, tried to structure to keep it separate. And we have been in communication with the mayor, and the city council about this, and, and they agree to keep keep those two things separate. Thank you. When can you move into Macy's question from Carolyn. Best case scenario that I heard was like mid February. I've also heard concerns from people who are not intimately involved with the project, there's no way that they could do it in that time. But Dave Farrington said he's going to get it done, and it's going to be part of the lease. So we're open to, you know, mid February, and then the winter break is at the end of February. So we're already talking about, Hey, maybe we move the high schoolers and do their break earlier, when they're doing remote only learning. And if we can open the Macy's at the end of February, that'd be great. Or beginning of March around town meeting day. So that's kind of the ballpark that we're looking at, but still a lot can happen, right. So one of the things that can happen is if we still have a spike in infections, and the governor starts shutting down certain things, and we can't get raw materials into the state. So there's all sorts of unknowns that could happen. And, you know, if you've had any experience with any kind of building or renovation or construction project, right, it never goes as planned. There's always stuff that happens. Unfortunately. Has anyone had a perfect renovation construction project where it went totally smooth and you came in under budget? Does that ever happen? All the ones I did myself. Not in Vermont, Mike. I don't think anywhere. Thank you, Mike. That was a really informative update. Thank you. Thank you, guys. All right. Thanks, Mike. Let's see. We have a few, a few different folks on to look at the, we're calling this the small business spotlight section. So I saw Steve Conan earlier. Hello. Here I am. Can you see me? Yes. Good. Welcome. Thank you. Did you want to present alongside the other two that we had? I'll make sure I get the names right. Okay. Well, I think we also have Christine Hill. Christine, where are you? There she is. And now we have Lucia to thank for pulling this together. Thank you, Lucia. Just I think calling attention to the south end and the opportunities for those who might be in the gift givers who might be in, into the idea of supporting our local creative economy. And so I think we're, Lucia's picked out three sort of nodes. We have generator. We have Siba that represents many of the businesses and artists in the whole south end. And then I on the, the soda plant, which has about 30 different tenants. And so I think we all believe that our local economy is dependent upon a thriving creative economy. And the south end really is the center of that activity in this city. So I'll just touch briefly on some of the opportunities that exist at the soda plant. Like I said, we have about 30 different tenants. Many of them aren't geared up for the holidays, but there's a variety, as you can see in Lucia's slide here of opportunities. We have food, pitchfork, farm and pickle, a very unusual gift idea, pretty extraordinary meeting with good success, taking products from the intervail and adding value, turning them into a finished good, met with great success. So most of these businesses at this point will be curbside pickup, just because they're all being extraordinarily cautious, thankfully. But in terms of the food, there's also Tom girl juice, which has a variety of food items. Don't forget that any of these businesses that you think of probably have gifting or gift certificate opportunities. So great opportunity to send someone down here when it's more vital and there's more opportunity to stop into places. But in terms of drink, there's Tom girl juice as well or Brio coffee. Brio coffee has a bunch of sort of homebrew gear for making your own coffee. They also are great producers, roasters of coffee. There are peril and sort of jewelry opportunities. Let's see, there's Rack and Ruin, my daughter running a sort of fine jewelry shop made here in the soda plant. Gen Con, making more sort of bohemian jewelry, very successful, also operating in the soda plant. Both of them do still have retail hours. Gifts, if you're looking just don't know what the heck to find somebody go to 30 odd. Mo O'Hara has been just amazing at curating just an array of Vermont makers and artists, wears and presented beautifully in the little store with the rhinoceros sticking out. So don't miss that for sure. And then there's also fine art, of course, and two examples of opportunities or sources for that in the soda plant. One would be soapbox gallery, which typically presents one particular artist currently Mary Lacey with some extraordinary work. And then space gallery that Christie Mitchell, executive director of the Southern Arts and Business Association has run for over a decade. And she's got several artists studios there as well. So I'm encouraging everybody to keep their money local, really support these small businesses that are hanging on by a shoestring and and share the share the love with with your friends by purchasing in the south end. And from there, I'll answer any questions. briefly, because you guys have been here for a long time. Any questions? Okay, Christine, take it away. Can you all hear me? Yep. Um, yeah, I'm Christine Hill. I'm the communications manager at generator. For anyone who's not familiar with generator, we're a nonprofit makerspace located off of Sears Lane. So right behind like Burlington furniture across from Arles photo, sort of behind the Miller Center on Lakeside. And yeah, for anyone who hasn't been, we have a bunch of different workshops where a combination of artists studios, manufacturing facility, educational hub, community hub, or sort of membership based so people can join to access our woodshop, metal shop, jewelry shop, electronic studio, machining equipment, rapid prototyping equipment, like lasers, 3d printers. So naturally, we're home to tons of people who make cool things. Lucia was kind enough to put together a little slide of just like some examples of things that people work on. And we usually have a holiday humbug, which I hope that you've all heard of this would have been our third annual year, our third year. And yeah, so we're not having it. And instead, what we're going to do is feature different makers who have some relationship to our space, whether they're members or volunteers or program participants. So that's going to be on our social media. We have support from Northfield savings bank, which is very nice of them to try to drive traffic. So like Steve was saying, we spoke to really need our business right now. So I wish I had time to show you all examples, but I'm actually just going to do a link dump in the chat so that people who aren't following us can follow us wherever they like to consume their digital content. And yeah, keep an eye out for some really cool behind the scenes videos of people making really, really cool stuff. And I'll leave it at that. Thanks, Christine. I don't think Christie's with us. I haven't seen her here. So I'm guessing check in with the website www.siva.com slash shop and see what you can find. Definitely spend a little time digging around in the south end because it's just extraordinary how many opportunities there are to support the local creative economy. And I'll just add, as I was putting this together, I was just so impressed with, I feel like I know all three organizations fairly well, and I was so impressed with just how many people are involved, how many artists work was featured and just kind of the breadth and scope of all of the activity in the south end is really exciting. I actually didn't realize that Siva had a shop link on their website. And so you can actually go purchase art right from their website now, which is really cool. And I'm sure you'll all recognize so many artists on that website as well. But really, really fun to even just see some familiar names and of course, discover so many new names across all of the sites. Thank you, Lucien. Yeah, I didn't realize that we didn't have all three folks on earlier. So thanks for jumping in, Steve, to point out Siva. I'll also like to take this opportunity to thank Lucia for joining the generator board. So in terms of growing the organization and being there for the south end and just driving this economy locally, thank you, Lucia, for making that choice. We are very excited to have her on board. That's very kind of you. I'm honored to be a part of the team. I think generator had begun to accept new members maybe a month ago. Is that still an ongoing saga? We reopened in July and yeah, started accepting new members August to September. And it's still going pretty well. We're definitely running like way below 50% capacity at any given time. We have full sanitizer out of our ears. Things are going really, really well. And it's great to be able to open safely for a lot of these makers who actually rely on our equipment to make their living. So it's working out well. And if anyone's interested, I do virtual info sessions. At this point, maybe once a month, maybe I'll start doing more. So if you're someone who might benefit from access to generator, if you're just curious about this like strange warehouse on Sears Lane, feel free to hit the link. I dropped it in the chat to our website and click tours and sign up. Great. Thank you. All right. That brings us to the end of the agenda for the evening. I guess we're, we went a little bit over. Thanks for sticking with us. Any other, any other comments for the, for the evening before we sign off? Thanks for coming everybody. That was great. Thanks for hosting. Thank you. Thanks for being here. I also want to thanks folks for adding the usually, at least in the time that I've been involved with the MPA, we haven't really had an agenda item that's dedicated to the local business community. So I think it's pretty cool that we were able to put this together. So Christine and Steve, thank you so much for joining us. And and Steve, I just want to say that the soda plant, I think it's awesome what you've done with the place. It's really great. We've been frequent visitors to Tom girl over the course of this pandemic, my wife. I don't know why you choose to do a juice cleanse during a global pandemic, but she did it. So it's really great. And it just adds a whole new vibrant corner to our neighborhood. So thank you. Thank you for that voter confidence. I've never had so much fun in the South end. I was going to speak up. It is a construction project that came in on budget on time. And and it was my project. So I got to, you know, drive it, I'm sure, but feel very happy with it. The tenant, it's full. The tenants are amazing. We have just extraordinary young entrepreneurial businesses. They're working together in a way that I hope for the last 20 years, but never never really came to be. And so, yeah, it's I appreciate your vote of confidence. It's been a fun project. Hey, Steve. Happy list. Thanks, Carol. All right, we don't need to talk about that anymore. Nice to see everybody. And thank you so much for for for adding us to your agenda. It's been a really joyful conversation. You all lots of positives here. It's a nice way to spend the third day evening. Thank you so much. All right. All of the presenters were fantastic today. Everybody was the great, great spread of information tonight. So so thanks everybody for putting it together and being here. Say thanks to everybody. All right. Thank you. Good night. Thank you. Thanks