BRATTLEBORO-The Vermont Community Foundation (VCF) recently announced that the Nelson E. Withington Fund has given more than $1 million to recreation and projects that benefit the public in Brattleboro, a milestone reached this year as the fund celebrates its 20th birthday.
A permanent resource managed by the VCF, the fund has distributed more than 30 grants to support the development and refurbishment of parks, trails, and public amenities ranging from basketball courts and playgrounds to a popular skate park and disc golf course.
Brattleboro business leader and recreation enthusiast Withington decided to create the fund at the VCF before his death at age 97 in 2002, so as to keep giving to the town he loved. The donor-advised fund, also known as a giving account, opened in 2004.
The Withington Fund has done enormous good in Brattleboro and helped push many recreation projects to the finish line, Carol Lolatte, director of the Brattleboro Recreation & Parks Department, said in a news release. "He would be very proud to know that his money is still making Brattleboro a better place."
The impact of the fund is visible all over town–when children jump in the public pool, ride the T-bar up the town ski hill, or when adults play pickleball, test their throws at the town disc golf course, or participate in plein-air painting sessions at Living Memorial Park.
Taxpayers and civic groups have generously supported public recreation in Brattleboro; grants from the Withington Fund have provided lead funding for land and facility creation, inspired matching grants, and served as a consistent, steady resource to the community. This includes expanding access to culturally significant land and the outdoors through recent support for land purchases by the Elnu Abenaki band Atowi project, and Out in the Open.
This collaborative approach has helped the town to maintain and grow an impressive array of public amenities that draw people from around the region.
The town's Nelson Withington Skating Facility is among popular destinations and was one of many projects Withington supported during his lifetime, with support continuing through his namesake fund. Withington, a college athlete who joined the Brattleboro Outing Club board of directors in 1946, believed strongly in public recreational facilities that improve health and build community at the same time.
"Nelson Withington was visionary in seeing that a fund focused on recreation and parks for the Brattleboro community could enhance the quality of life and physical health of children, youth, and adults. He believed in the value of organized sports and informal recreation to build community spirit and teamwork," said Elisabeth Marx, a senior philanthropic advisor at the VCF who staffs the Withington fund in partnership with a local advisory committee and the Brattleboro Recreation & Parks Department.
"This fund demonstrates how people who love Vermont and their communities can use place-based and issue-driven funds to contribute in lasting ways to every corner of the state by working with the Vermont Community Foundation," added Marx.
Visit vermontcf.org/Withington to learn more.
This Town and Village item was submitted to The Commons.