The last week in August, Montpelier will come alive with a community-wide celebration of sustainable living, practical homesteading skills, and visions of a more resilient local  community.  The Village Building Convergence is modeled after a similar event that has energized Portland, Oregon for at least six years running, and will have its Vermont premiere during the week of August 22-30.

With events throughout Montpelier and surrounding areas, but especially at the Capitol City Grange on Rt. 12, the Kellogg-Hubbard Library, and the new Lamb Abbey performance space near the Pioneer St. bridge, the Convergence will give the entire community an opportunity to share ideas with some of our area’s most knowledgeable earth-centered practitioners.

“This past year has seen a nationwide resurgence of interest in sustainable living,” said Ben Graham, a Plainfield-based architect, natural builder, and one of the initiators of the Village Building Convergence. “With dramatic changes underway in our economic and energy systems, it seems that our collective sense of dissatisfaction with past practices is finally bubbling over into action.”

The Village Building Convergence is an extension of the “Transition Town” effort that began in Montpelier this past winter, which has attracted hundreds of participants to its workshops, trainings and meetings. The Transition Montpelier effort has inspired several other Vermont towns to begin initiatives as well. Transition Vermont, along with Envision Montpelier, the Onion River Exchange and other long-standing supporters of sustainable community, aims to create a national center for sustainable community here in the smallest capital city in the US.

“In Montpelier, the VBC is developing its own identity and will naturally evolve over the years as needs change,” says Graham. “We hope that over time, neighborhoods will propose community building projects that are public in nature and support our community connections. It’s about realizing the strength and beauty of our power when we work and play together.”

The Village Building Convergence begins on Saturday, August 22 with an opening ceremony at the Lamb Abbey, featuring Carolyn Baker, author of five books, including “Sacred Demise: Walking The Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization’s Collapse,” as well as a community drum circle.  Workshops throughout the week will focus on topics from terraced gardens,  medicinal plants, and edible landscapes, to alternative energy and community planning. Evening events will include an elder stories circle and a discussion of bicycle-powered transportation. This will be followed by a bicycle tour of Montpelier gardens on Saturday, August 29^th . The closing event on Sunday afternoon, August 30 will feature a talk by Jim Merkel, the nationally renowned author of Radical Simplicity, followed by a panel on how change happens, and a rousing performance to close the week by the Burlington-based Brazilian samba group Sambatucada.

Most of the events are free and open to everyone, and flyers and programs will be posted throughout the area containing detailed schedules, locations and other information.  A full schedule is also available on the web at www.villageconvergencevt.org.