Strength in numbers

All along Route 30 - from Brattleboro through Newfane, Townshend, and Jamaica to Bondville, Rawsonville, and Winhall - one sees white banners imprinted in green with "Vermont 30 Collective" hanging in front of local businesses, restaurants, and galleries.

Launched in 2023, the Vermont 30 Collective is the brainchild of Gibbs Rehlan, a multi-generational Vermonter, and Matthew Banks, who has spearheaded 24 different campaigns in his career. According to a description on vt30.org, the collective is a group of local merchants, artists, farmers, and nonprofits sharing an ultimate goal to drive economic development and well-being in the area.

So far, more than 50 businesses and organizations in eight towns along the 30 miles from Brattleboro to Winhall have joined the collective.

Having zeroed in on climate change amelioration, Banks said he knows the power of collective action and of communication. "I know the tools that can be used to get the word out. So we applied a lot of those lessons and we're communicating with print, with event sponsorship, online, even radio ads."

Having relocated to the area a few years ago, Gibbs and Banks soon "started chatting with merchants up and down the Route 30 corridor." Banks recalled that it was a tough time because Route 30 was under construction and businesses had been hit hard by the pandemic.

A recurring observation shared was that out-of-staters' buying habits had changed.

"Prior to the pandemic, visitors would stop at a lot of local places [to stock up on provisions], but they've since been purchasing before they come to Vermont," said Banks.

They hope that travelers coming from Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or New York will "make it a regular thing to stop at some of these places [along the way]. The issue I think we're trying to overcome is people just don't know what's there: If they do know, then maybe they'll become more loyal to those places."

On a peak day now, Banks said, several thousand out-of-state cars travel Route 30.

"So in talking with David Hull at the Newfane Store and Raphael Rosner at Fire Arts Café [...] we said if we were able to communicate more about what's here and use this as an opportunity to build a healthier, more vital economic corridor, we think we could make a lot of progress. And we did."

They created a map that includes collective members and non-members alike from Brattleboro to Stratton Mountain Resort.

Collective membership is $300 annually which covers a Vermont 30 Collective "open" flag, brochures with maps, and stickers.

"And we hold a quarterly meeting where we bring [members] together and look for opportunities to build new partnerships," Banks said.

The effort, he said, is already drawing attention to some of the offerings in the West River Valley that even "longtime residents and locals" aren't aware of.

One example: "We didn't know there was a pizza night at the West Townsend Community Project!" Banks said.

The Vermont 30 Collective team is utilizing sophisticated apps to track specifically where people are coming from so they can create and deliver more targeted marketing messages in those areas.

In addition, the collective will be producing a short film about Route 30.

"It'll go into all these little places and show what that experience looks like," Banks said.

Rethinking strategies with ski area's help

Also in 2025, the collective is working with Stratton Mountain Resort, a new member.

A Jan. 28 meeting at Stratton offered an opportunity to talk about Vermont 30 Collective "across all their marketing channels," Banks said. "We'd had a call with them in November which generated a lot of really cool ideas."

The in-person meeting solidified a lot of those ideas and set short-term and longer-range objectives, including partnering on social media. Vermont 30 Collective will provide merchant contacts and Stratton's ski reporter will "meet with them and film a little vignette with each member merchant. We'll reciprocate by putting [Stratton] maps and some merchandise in the stores," Banks said.

"Stratton's doing something different from the way that we've been thinking about promoting the corridor. They're trying to reach guests before they come to Vermont," Banks added.

After the January meeting, Banks said, Rosner reflected that he had been putting signs on the side of Route 30 to try to attract people passing by.

"But what I learned from this meeting at Stratton is we need to get them 24 hours before they do that or when they are making the reservation."

Banks acknowledged Vermont 30 Collective may have been counting too much on spontaneous, impulsive responses and predicts some marketing and event collaboration with Stratton.

There's talk, too, of an annual arts festival to loop in area arts entities and about getting an official corridor designation from the state, which "would give people a sense that they have arrived […] that this corridor is something special."

Banks has also been in conversation with the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance, noting that "Brattleboro has to be vibrant for the rest of the corridor to be vibrant."

"If [visitors] don't have a positive experience, they may not come back," Banks cautioned.

Keeping the dollars local

A bare-bones operation, Banks added, Vermont 30 Collective has been able to cover costs thus far.

"Honestly, though, we've spent more money than we've taken in. But for every dollar that's spent in the corridor, that's a dollar that stays local," he said.

"What we've come to understand in building this community and working with these merchants is if we can't maintain a vital economy locally and if some of these places close - maybe this is a little bit extreme but - you're going to have ghost towns," Banks added.

Kristin Sullivan, executive director of Retreat Farm in Brattleboro, said of Vermont 30 Collective that there is "a significant opportunity to convert some of the traffic that's going by into visitorship."

Despite welcoming more than 100,000 people on annually, "I know that there are many more cars that go by every day that are not stopping," she said.

"I think there's strength in collaboration and it's an opportunity for us to all work together to lift each other up: the rising tide lifts all boats sort of a thing, right?" Sullivan said.

"The collective is creating a common narrative and a common language to be able to communicate to anybody - not only strangers, but also to the people that live in the area to say, 'Hey, this is what's here, these are the opportunities that you have within this corridor,'" said Peter Welch, director of business operations with Newfane-based architecture and interior design firm (and collective member) Cotton Design.

"For the past 50 years, I've been going up and down the West River" by car, foot, bike, or canoe, Welch said. "Route 30 follows that path, and that's what makes it a joy" to travel.

Seeing Vermont 30 Collective step toward increased prosperity, he stressed the thrust is not competitive, but cooperative. He sees a need to create "magnetism so folks [can] experience the Vermont lifestyle and perhaps even be attracted to live here.

"It's all about people making advancements and making lives work," he said.

Keane Aures, a construction lawyer, purchased the Maple Valley Ski Area on Route 30 in 2018, "to get that up and running as a brewery, distillery, and outdoor recreation space for everyone."

Originally hoped to be open in April 2020, the project has been repeatedly delayed, but Aures hopes for a soft opening this spring.

Meanwhile, Aures, as North Chair Brewery, has purchased the former Whetstone Brewing Co. production facility in Brattleboro and started brewing early last year.

Maple Valley's visible spot on Route 30, he explained, is "how we got tied in with the [collective]. It's about community involvement, community interaction, and just being a part of a group of businesses trying to help each other: I think that's a pretty viable business strategy."

Emma Spett of River and Rye in Jamaica, who's been coming to the area since she was young, relocated here recently from Burlington with her fiancé to assist Shana Rocheleau and Eugene Alletto in operating an inn and restaurant in Jamaica, the former Asta's, currently under renovation.

"I'm doing a lot of the back-end stuff around marketing and social media and event planning, but my fiancé will be running the restaurant once it opens this spring." The intention is to cater not solely to tourists, but to create a "place where locals can feel welcome to gather."

Vermont 30 Collective, she said, is a network that yields "a lot of connections and networking opportunities. [...] We see the flags everywhere, and it's just nice to know that we'll have another supportive network to plug into

Glass artist Randi Solin of Fire Arts Gallery is happy to see the collective forming but noted that it's not a new notion: she and co-Fire Arts proprietor, ceramicist Natalie Blake, worked with the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) several years ago to establish the Route 30 Corridor from the former Grafton Cheese Company plant to Stratton.

This News item by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.