College Continues Citizen Medal Tradition

Author: Benjamin Salkowe

Addressing families at the second Fall Family Weekend, President John McCardell noted that Middlebury College shares a special relationship with the local community, having been "founded by and named after the town."

The following day, he made actions of his words when he presented seven Middlebury community members with Middlebury College Bicentennial Citizens' Awards.

"These awards recognize the close and historic relationship of the College and town of Middlebury," McCardell remarked at a reception Sunday night before the ceremony's dinner.

The 2003 Medals were awarded to Dr. Diana Barnard, Patricia Boera, Betty Jo Calhoun, Helen G. Haerle, Henry B. Prickitt, Lawrence E. Volkert and Gregory Wry.

In a press release Monday, Secretary of the College Eric Davis explained the criteria. "The medals [are] presented to residents of Addison County who have helped strengthen the community and whose service has been sustained and distinguished. Oftentimes, their efforts have gone unrecognized for many years," he wrote.

Although the College's actual bicentennial was in 2000, the award ceremony an annual affair to demonstrate "that the town and the College share both a history and a future," Davis said.

Nominations for the medals were taken from members of the College community, with the final selections being made by McCardell and others in the administration.

Barnard provides medical services to underserved patients through Middlebury Family Health and also Community Health Services of Addison County Open Door Clinic. She is a member of the Porter Hospital Ethics, Palliative Care Committees and the Middlebury-based nonprofit Virtual Foundation.

Boera has been the associate director of career planning at Champlain College for 13 years, the Director of Middlebury's Festival-on-the-Green for 25 years and also a volunteer of the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History. She has also volunteered for the Middlebury Community Players and the Middlebury Business Association.

Calhoun has served the Frog Hollow Vermont State Craft Center both on the board of directors and as the organization's acting director. She was the auditor of the town of Cornwall and a member of the town's planning commission for nine years. She acted as treasurer of the capital campaign of the Addison County Humane Society for two years. She was also a member of the Middlebury Volunteer Ambulance Association for nine years and the Porter Medical Center Auxiliary for six years.

Haerle worked at Lazarus Department Store from 1974 to 1984 and owned and operated the store from 1984 to 1996. She was a founding board member of Addison County Home Health Care, an active member of the Middlebury Business Association from 1984 to 1996, served on the board of directors of Middlebury Union High School from 1970 to 1977 and on the Middlebury Planning Commission since 1996.

Middlebury College Henry Norman Hundson Professor Emeritus of English Prickitt, is on the board of the Addison County Community Action Group, the United Way of Addison County and Hospice Volunteer Services, where he currently holds the position of board president, as well. An honorary trustee of the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History, Prickett is also one of the founders of the Middlebury Community Players.

Volkert works at Shaw's Supermarket in Middlebury. Volkert was the chairman of the town's Memorial Day Parade for 27 years and is currently the treasurer of the Middlebury Volunteer Fire Department, an organization he has served for 19 years. He also serves as treasurer and on the board of directors of the Middlebury Community Players.

Wry, owner of Greg's Meat Market for 22 years, has been a leading volunteer and member of the Middlebury Lions Club for 21 years and of the Middlebury Business Association for four years.

Beyond recognizing those "whose service was in many ways unsung," McCardell says the awards recognize the College's special relationship with the town, a relationship that plays a role in the liberal arts education. "Students who come here are a part of the campus community, to be sure, but are also members of the larger community that is the town of Middlebury," he said.

It is this perspective that sets Middlebury apart from so many of its peer institutions. In the popular Princeton Review's Best 351 College Rankings, Connecticut College, Bates College and the University of Pennsylvania are all highlighted for their "strained town-gown relations."

Just before Middlebury celebrated its bicentennial founding by the town in 2000, community and college relationships in Williamstown were so tried that the Williams Record reported that, "relations between Williams College and the community are so strained that the only way the community can make its voice heard is to threaten to institutionalize an antagonistic stance towards the College."

While McCardell would not call the friendly "town-gown" relations of Middlebury unique, he noted, "There are many ties of friendship that bind those who work and study at the College with those who live in town but have no formal College connection."

Aside from opportunities for employment and work-study opportunities for students, as well as good dining and entertainment, there is no disputing that the interaction of town members on campus contributes to the Middlebury experience. McCardell notes, "Perhaps the very best place, of many, to witness that reality, is at a home hockey game in Kenyon Arena."