Teachers: 

 

#1: I’m from Chicago, so I’ve been here fourteen years and in those fourteen years I’ve seen a bit of deterioration, just in fourteen years in Rutland. And I think the problem with Rutland is that not enough people focus on, you know… there’s a real proudness to Rutland that not enough people really focus on. They focus most toward the negative that was brought out in the heroin article and so forth…

 

#2: My thesis about the heroin thing is that most people don’t believe that Vermont has these kinds of problems. It’s a very outdated and unrealistic view of what Vermont is really like, and so this stuff becomes a headline because everyone thinks what? My friend calls it faux-mont because people have this view of us going to our farmers markets, milking our cows, and listening to Phish all day.

 

Student: 

 

I've worked for six years for the rec department at a kids summer camp, so I see a lot of stuff that happens in the summer time. We do Friday Night Live, where they close down the downtown and there's a huge event. And a lot of people kind of bash that kind of thing, but I think it's good because I set up a stand there to encourage kids to come to the camp and I just see a lot of intermingling of the classes in Rutland. You see people really come alive. 

 

There's also this thing that they do at White's Pool in the summer, which is Rutland's local pool. They have this family night and it's just activities that are free that people can come out and do. I think in the summer time people have free time and it's warm and they have hours in the day after work. It's when I see the community coming together.