One way to build community is to engage youth in exploring their town's past through oral history interviews and videotape. In the process, young people develop understanding and respect for the experiences of a different generation, a sense of history and place, and pride in their own accomplishment. Older members of the community learn that youth are not the callous, conscience-less "druggies" often portrayed by television and news media, but are simply individuals much like themselves trying to find their own way in a world that doesn't often seem supportive or caring. Such community-building efforts aimed at youth have been tried and tested for years in Rabun County, Georgia in the Foxfire project (see the Foxfire books and Sometimes a Shining Moment by Elliott Wiggenton), and continue to be explored by enterprising community groups such as The Community Alliance in greater Bellows Falls, Vermont.

[photo at left] Interviewing the late Ruth Atwood, then 95

The Community Alliance's coordinator, Adrienne Cohen has a background in oral history and gerontology. With support and grants from the Prevention Coalitions, Drug Free Schools and Communities, the Literacy Project of Bellows Falls, and the Vermont Commission on National and Community Service, she set to work. Her plan was to work with students from Bellows Falls Union High School (BFUHS) to instill a sense of pride in place and in themselves, and to overcome ageism by connecting two otherwise "under-connected" groups: high school students and community elders. With input from the teenagers, "Funky Fingers Productions" was born. The video documentary team comprised Adrienne herself, who served as a role model for the students, various adult volunteers, and a changing group of roughly twenty teenagers over the project's year-and-a-half-long history. Reina Anderson, a BFUHS senior, served as the narrator of the video and did interviews, and senior Lisa Jason was one of several interviewers as well. Other high school participants included Casey Langlois, Chris Breton, Billy Steele and Gene Coursey, who were all members of the film crew.

From the beginning of the project, the students knew that their video would be aired on the local access television station; having a real audience for their work helped everyone involved take the project seriously. Suzanne Groenwald, Director of Bellows Falls Community Television (BFCTV), loaned the video equipment, trained the students in its use, and provided invaluable technical support. Reina and Lisa explained that all the information in the film was taken from interviewees who experienced the years from 1935 to 1940. They contacted the BFUHS Alumni Association to find names of people who were alive in those years, and interviewed as many willing people as they could find who were still in the area.

Their quest took them to McGirr's Nursing Home, to friends, neighbors and relatives, and to Bob Ashcroft, the "town historian." "Everyone told us, 'Talk to Bob,'" smiled the girls. Mr. Ashcroft proved to be a treasure trove of stories about the area's past. Several catastrophic events occurred during this period of the area's history, including the flood of 1936 and a devastating hurricane in 1938. Adrienne Cohen and her group knew that in twenty years, no one would be around who could provide first-hand information about this period just before the Second World War. After the students had completed most of their research on the period (with the help of the Rockingham library and Historical Society), the interview process began. All the interviews were filmed during the first try. One successful event organized by the group was a "Reminisce Reception" held on BFUHS Alumni Weekend. After extensive public relations efforts, the video team got eight people to come to the gathering, fed them, and encouraged them to talk and reminisce about the past while the crew got it all down on tape. As people in groups will, they encouraged each other to remember, resulting in more recollection than might have happened in individual interviews. Throughout the length of the project, a total of twenty-three participants were interviewed.

Though not all participants made it to the final cut, still shots of all the participants with their names have been incorporated into the video, along with old photos from the library and from the seniors themselves. The video also includes time-lapse shots of Bellows Falls that were taken during a chilly expedition by some members of the film crew to the top of neighboring Fall Mountain. Learning how to cut and edit videotape was no small part of the total effort for the group! Reina and Lisa spoke about what they had learned from their experiences interviewing elders. "A lot of them were lonely, and they seemed to want to listen to us." Elders and teens have more in common than one might suppose, according to Adrienne Cohen. "Both groups are struggling for independence and respect," she said. In an earlier interview with Annette Larson of the Brattleboro Reformer, Reina Anderson explained, "It seems like it's easier to be in school now than it was then. They had to work a lot more and they had the hurricane, the flood and the Depression to worry about. We just have to worry about grades." Lisa Jason added, "They really learned life back then. They started work younger. We go through a lot of years to get through school but they had a tougher life. We have more technology to help." Funky Fingers recently premiered its 64-minute video at a celebration for all the participants. Supporting organizations and the elders that were interviewed received a copy of the videotape, and enjoyed munching on a camera-shaped cake. The film will be shown at intervals on the local cable access station. Copies of the video are currently available for $15.00 from Bellows Falls Community Television (contact Suzanne Groenwald at (802) 463-1613).

The Community Alliance describes itself as "a group of concerned people who live and/or work in the towns of Athens, Grafton, Rockingham and Westminster," who have been meeting for the past five years to "establish and maintain a coalition to improve the system of support and service for all people in the community." The coalition includes personnel from town management, police, local and state agencies, non-profit agencies, schools, health providers, faith communities and local businesses. Now through Parks Place Community Resource Center in Bellows Falls, which opened in 1995, they can offer integrated services to the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union School District towns that were previously available only in Brattleboro or Springfield.